Crunchyroll is an
Even though companies like
Crunchyroll also managed to get big deals with
Let’s talk about HOW this all came to be before the year 2022 and beyond.
The history of Crunchyroll :
1. Starting out as anime pirates in 2006
Believe it or not, but
Let alone a company that was worked on for years through hard work or whatever (FUBU, etc).
None of that could be further from the truth with the exception of over $10K put into it from the founders.
Some of you will be surprised to know
- KissAnime.
- 9Anime.
- GoGoAnime.
- Bilibili.
Or any other
The story began in 2005 with 4 university engineers in California.
2006 is when the site went live and was the time everyone (a limited amount of people I should say) knew about
Being a user generated pirate site, they allowed fans to upload:
- Anime videos.
- Anime shows.
- Anime movies.
- Anime OVA’S.
And essentially
In this way, it was similar to how YouTube started since that site (even though it’s still kinda true) was rife with copyright infringement. And many copyright holders complained.
This is the same scenario with
Anime news network complained a lot about Crunchyroll
Many people in the industry pointed fingers at
In an interview with one of the owners behind
Many of the questions were about
- Ethics.
- Morals.
- How they made money.
- How they started.
- What the site costs to run.
And things of that nature in connection to their position as pirates.
QUOTE:
“Did you ever feel a cognitive disconnect making money – regardless of what that money was used for – by providing illegal streams of the artists’ work, without a dime of it going back to the artists themselves? You weren’t subtitling them yourselves, either, just using external fansubs, and making money by
streaming them. Did that ever bother you? Did you ever stop and think “what are we doing?”
Vu Nguyen responded:
“I wouldn’t say that, but a lot of people don’t realize how much work and money it takes to keep a website running. All of the donations went into operating expenses. We put in countless hours every week after work and school to make it a good site. We weren’t trying to make a profit, but just keep the site running. We believe the same thing fansubbers do, that by growing the popularity of
anime , we are growing the fanbase and the industry. I can’t comment directly on it, but I can say how theanime and fansub community even began.”
The interview continued like this for 3 pages, with ANN grilling
This would be the last time ANN did this considering what happens later with
Tokyo TV is also a company who wasn’t fond of
2. $4.05M investment that changed the direction of Crunchyroll
Money is business and business is money. It’s what makes a business operational and worth pursuing.
Before 2008 the owners who worked on CR also did part time to support the business, but once 2008 came along that was all in the past forever.
A company called Venrock invested over $4M into
Before this “change” companies like
It was around 2009-2010 when this would change in a real way, and the move to legal distribution began just as
3. 2010 onwards

Crunchyroll-Hime, the mascot behind
Since then
They’ve created exclusive content around this mascot, and have even had Hime cameo in

They even do and have built stories around Hime, which no doubt has built up their brand because Hime is famous in the
Its made
2013 is the year
It’s also the same year
This eventually lead to having at least 1000+ titles (USA) on their platform. And the development of games like Princess Connect ReDive.
6-7 years later (2020-2021) is when Sony stepped in and bought Crunchyroll from AT&T for over $1 billion dollars. The rest is history.
4. Crunchyroll and Funimation becoming ONE
Crunchyroll now has all of
That means subscriptions from
Many are calling this a good thing now that
Whether that’s true or not is to be seen. But any stupid, self centered mistakes will lead to more piracy. The ball is really on Sony and
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Recommended:
How I Became A Crunchyroll Judge For The 2021 Anime Awards
How To Start A Legal Anime Streaming Business In Today’s Climate