As Crunchyroll announced today, after a good two years of cooperation with Funimation, they will go their separate ways again. The partnership between the two largest anime licensees in the US will end on November 9, 2018 at the request of Funimation, which was acquired by Sony Pictures a few months ago.
As part of the 2016 partnership, the companies had sublicensed selected anime series to each other. For example, many Funimation shows at Crunchyroll were also shown in a sub-version, while Funimation released synchronized versions of Crunchyroll shows. In addition, Funimation took over the disc distribution for Crunchyroll in many series.
With the end of the partnership, the two companies’ catalogues will lose several series. However, Crunchyroll has already confirmed that the current simulcasts and series that debuted during the partnership period will not be affected.
While the license network mainly concerns the USA, some series could soon no longer be seen at Crunchyroll in Germany. The supplier will soon provide a list of the titles that will fall victim to the dissolved partnership. We will keep you up to date if there are any series to be removed from the program in Germany as well.