Sony Finalizes Crunchyroll Buyout
Sony has finally bought Crunchyroll, a popular anime-streaming service by paying $1.175 bn. Sony made its intentions pretty clear about the Crunchyroll acquisition during the last year when it bid $957m.
The good thing about this acquisition is Sony has also secured Crunchyroll’s 120 million registered users including 5 million paid subscribers.
As per Sony executive Tony Vinciquerra,
Vinciquerra also added,
Our goal is to create a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible.
Sony plans to merge both streaming services i.e. Funimation and Crunchyroll into one streaming service
As we mentioned earlier, Crunchyroll has joined the Sony family that also includes another streaming service known as Funimation. Considering the popularity of Crunchyroll and Funimation, Sony is planning to include both these services in one place in the near future to cater anime streaming demands of its viewers appropriately.
Furthermore, Sony may introduce Crunchyroll subscriptions to its fans as part of a premium PlayStation Plus membership but this move is yet to be finalized.
Best VPN for Funimation/Crunchyroll
As you might know, both Funimation and Crunchyroll follow the concept of geo-restriction like other streaming services. Therefore, you cannot access their media content outside the US since Funimation and Crunchyroll hail from the US.
In this situation, you will use a VPN if you want to access their content from abroad. A VPN masks your actual IP address with another alternate IP address, which will be in this case the USA.
This way, you can spoof your online locations and access Funimation or Crunchyroll on a wide range of devices depending on your choice. To unblock Funimation or Crunchyroll from abroad with a VPN here is what you should do:
- Subscribe to a VPN service (ExpressVPN is our preferred choice)
- Download the VPN app on your devices such as Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS
- Login to your ExpressVPN account using your credentials
- Connect to your desired US server from the list of servers
- Open the official website or app of Crunchyroll/Funimation, login to your account, and start watching all your favorite anime shows and movies instantly
What anime titles are available on Crunchyroll/Funimation?
Interestingly, you can watch numerous shows and movies on Crunchyroll or Funimation as per your preferences such as
- Attack on Titan
- Death Note
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- One Piece
- The Promised Neverland
- My Hero Academia
- Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (slice of life)
- Dragon Ball
Wrapping Up
Sony has made a sensible decision by acquiring Crunchyroll to improve its existing subscriber base to the next level. From users’ perspective, it is a win-win situation as they will watch some of the best shows or movies available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation under one roof on multiple devices in near future.