Crunchyroll is like Netflix, but dedicated to anime. They used to compete with Funimation, a rival anime streaming service owned by Sony, but then Sony bought Crunchyroll also and merged the two under the Crunchyroll name. Together, they now own 90%+ of the Western anime streaming market. Predictably, Crunchyroll’s prices have ticked steadily upward since.
Not only does this hurt consumers, it also harms animators and voice actors. Because there’s no competition, Crunchyroll can lowball animation studios, which is one reason why Japanese animators are so overworked and underpaid. Similarly, Crunchyroll despises all unions, and since they’re the only game in town, most voice actors are forced to go unionless and accept shittier pay. This keeps unions in the animation industry perpetually weak.
The only things stopping Crunchyroll from becoming a full monopoly is the well-developed pirating industry around anime. Netflix, Disney Plus, and HIDIVE are technically competitors also, but each have glaring issues. Netflix is even more shit, Disney Plus buries anime in their catalog so you can’t find them, and HIDIVE is too small to be worth paying for.
Fnally, my anime knowledge is coming in handy.
Crunchyroll is like Netflix, but dedicated to anime. They used to compete with Funimation, a rival anime streaming service owned by Sony, but then Sony bought Crunchyroll also and merged the two under the Crunchyroll name. Together, they now own 90%+ of the Western anime streaming market. Predictably, Crunchyroll’s prices have ticked steadily upward since.
Not only does this hurt consumers, it also harms animators and voice actors. Because there’s no competition, Crunchyroll can lowball animation studios, which is one reason why Japanese animators are so overworked and underpaid. Similarly, Crunchyroll despises all unions, and since they’re the only game in town, most voice actors are forced to go unionless and accept shittier pay. This keeps unions in the animation industry perpetually weak.
The only things stopping Crunchyroll from becoming a full monopoly is the well-developed pirating industry around anime. Netflix, Disney Plus, and HIDIVE are technically competitors also, but each have glaring issues. Netflix is even more shit, Disney Plus buries anime in their catalog so you can’t find them, and HIDIVE is too small to be worth paying for.