"Time is a cruel mistress."
While loading the Funimation app and settling in to watch the newest shonen title being streamed from Japan, anime fans are unlikely to every here Funimation's trademark whisper, "You should be watching."
All of the URLs to Funimation's website now lead to Crunchyroll, confirming the site's earlier announcement that they would be closing their doors for good on April 2.
A statement was originally published this year on Funimation's website (which also now points to Crunchyroll). It says:
As part of Crunchyroll’s unification of fan services announced in March 2022, the Funimation app and website were closed on April 2, 2024.
Rest assured, this transition will not impact your access to the vast library of anime available on Crunchyroll. We remain committed to delivering the best anime streaming experience and will continue to expand our offerings to cater to your diverse interests!
Sony previously acquired Funimation in 2017 for $143 million and then subsequently acquired Crunchyroll in 2021 for $1.175 billion. The two sites remained separate for a number of years but the writing was on the wall.
Even though Sony purchased Funimation first, it chose to close it down since Crunchyroll was the larger of the two.
And now, the market for anime watching in North America has shrunk considerably, Outside of Crunchyroll there's really only HiDive as a direct competitor, with RetroCrush providing a home for old-school anime titles.
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