Funimation

• 1. Introduction

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  Funimation started not in a boardroom but in a conversation between two relatives. In the early 1990s, a Japanese-born businessman named Gen Fukunaga received a phone call from his uncle, Nagafumi Hori, who was a producer at Toei Company. The pitch was simple and audacious: if Fukunaga could build a production company and raise the money, Toei Animation would license the Dragon Ball franchise to the United States. What followed was a three-decade story of anime fandom, corporate acquisitions, streaming wars, and eventually, a planned shutdown in April 2024. How did a feed mill in Decatur, Texas, help launch one of the most recognizable names in American anime? And how did a service that once had over five million subscribers end up folded into a rival it had once partnered with and later competed against?

• 2. Texas Roots

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  Fukunaga needed money, and he found it in an unlikely place. His co-worker Daniel Cocanougher came from a family that owned a feed mill in Decatur, Texas. Fukunaga convinced the Cocanougher family to sell that business and put the proceeds into his new company. On the 9th of May 1994, FUNimation Productions was formally founded.

  The early years were not smooth. Funimation initially worked with outside partners including BLT Productions, Ocean Studios, Pioneer, and Saban Entertainment to bring Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z to American screens. Two separate attempts to place the Dragon Ball franchise in first-run syndication failed. The franchise finally found its audience when Cartoon Network began airing Dragon Ball Z as part of its Toonami programming block in 1998. The show quickly became the highest-rated program on that block and drew a large following. That success gave Funimation the credibility and resources to pursue other licensed titles.

• 3. Building the Catalog

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  In 2009, Funimation signed a deal with Toei Animation to stream several anime titles directly through the Funimation website. On the 14th of October 2011, Funimation announced a partnership with Niconico, the English-language version of Nico Nico Douga. The two companies formed a brand called Funico, and from that point, virtually every title simulcast by Niconico was acquired by Funimation for streaming and home video.

  The company also built a theatrical presence. In 2014, Funimation released Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods in American theaters in partnership with Screenvision. Its success led Funimation to launch its own theatrical division in December 2014. In June 2015, Funimation and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced a multi-year deal that allowed Universal to manage the distribution and sales of Funimation's catalog, with Universal beginning that role in October of that same year.

  Funimation's Funimation Channel launched on the 29th of September 2005 alongside OlympuSAT, making it the second 24-hour anime digital cable network in North America. The first had been A.D. Vision's Anime Network. OlympuSAT served as the channel's exclusive distributor until their deal ended on the 31st of December 2015. The channel's HD feed had launched on the 27th of September 2010, and by the end of 2015 it was replaced by a network called Toku.

• 4. The SimulDub Revolution

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  In January 2014, English-dubbed episodes of Space Dandy aired on Adult Swim's Toonami block a day before the show's broadcast in Japan. It was one of the rare occasions in which an American audience saw an anime series before Japanese viewers.

  Funimation formalized this approach in October 2014 with a program called SimulDub. Under SimulDub, English-dubbed episodes of simulcast titles would premiere within weeks of their subtitled airing. The program began with Psycho-Pass 2 and Laughing Under the Clouds, with episodes released roughly three weeks to one month after their original Japanese broadcast.

  The COVID-19 pandemic forced a pause. On the 18th of March 2020, Funimation announced that SimulDub production would be delayed. Subtitled simulcasts continued on schedule, and on the 10th of April 2020, Funimation announced that a recorded episode of My Hero Academia would be released on April 12. After the corporate name change to Crunchyroll, LLC in 2022, SimulDubs continued with series including Spy x Family, the second season of Classroom of the Elite, and Tomo-chan Is a Girl.

• 5. Sony's Purchase

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  By 2017, Funimation had attracted the attention of major entertainment companies. Both Universal Studios and Sony Pictures Television reportedly weighed a purchase, but Universal stepped back from bidding. On the 31st of July 2017, Sony Pictures Television announced it would buy a controlling 95% stake in Funimation for $143 million. The United States Department of Justice approved the deal on the 22nd of August 2017, and it closed on the 27th of October 2017.

  Sony's stated rationale was to give Funimation synergies with its Animax and Kids Station divisions and, in their words, "direct access to the creative pipeline." The acquisition almost immediately complicated Funimation's existing streaming relationship. Funimation had formed a partnership with Crunchyroll in September 2016, allowing each service to carry select titles from the other. After AT&T fully acquired Otter Media, the owner of Crunchyroll, in August 2018, that partnership broke down. On the 18th of October 2018, Funimation and Crunchyroll announced the partnership would end on the 9th of November 2018. A separate dispute about international expansion was later reported as a contributing factor. By December 2018, Funimation had inked an exclusive multi-year first-look SVOD deal with Hulu.

• 6. The Crunchyroll Merger

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  On the 9th of December 2020, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced it would acquire Crunchyroll from AT&T's WarnerMedia for a total paid in cash, placing the company under Funimation once the deal closed. The acquisition was completed on the 9th of August 2021. Sony stated it would create a unified anime subscription by combining its anime businesses as quickly as possible.

  The consolidation unfolded across multiple regions. AnimeLab began rebranding and transitioning to Funimation in Australia and New Zealand from the 17th of June 2021. Manga Entertainment in the UK had already officially rebranded as Funimation UK starting on the 19th of April 2021. Meanwhile, on the 1st of March 2022, it was announced that the Funimation, Wakanim, and VRV SVOD services would all be folded into Crunchyroll. Funimation Global Group was itself rebranded as Crunchyroll, LLC in March 2022.

  Despite the corporate changes, the Funimation streaming service continued to operate and even simulcast newer titles acquired by Crunchyroll, LLC after the merger. That arrangement lasted until the 7th of February 2024, when it was announced the Funimation app and website would shut down on the 2nd of April 2024. Subscribers could migrate their account data to Crunchyroll, but legacy Funimation subscribers would face a price increase and lose access to their digital library. Following complaints, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini stated the company would work with customers to provide what he called "appropriate value" for their digital copies.

• 7. A Global Footprint

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  Before its closure, the Funimation streaming service was available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. In select parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, it was available through Wakanim. The app ran on a wide range of platforms: Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Android TV, Chromecast, Samsung and LG smart TVs, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and iOS and Android smartphones.

  Funimation had expanded steadily toward these markets over several years. It launched in the UK and Ireland in April 2016, announced a Latin American expansion at FunimationCon on the 3rd of July 2020, and launched early in Latin America on the 18th of November 2020. Colombia, Chile, and Peru came online on the 16th of June 2021. Via Crunchyroll, Funimation's combined subscriber base reached over five million paying subscribers and more than 120 million registered users worldwide, with a combined catalog of over 1,200 anime titles, 200 dorama, and 80 manga available at the time of the shutdown.