Aniplex

In a recent interview with The Verge about the future of what is now the dominant anime streaming platform in the west, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini suggested that one way to combat anime piracy should be an embrace of AI models to speed up the subtitling process. But AI won’t do anything of the sort—and a fraught aspect of the process of bringing anime to global audiences will only get messier with it.Prepping the Sandworm Scenes in Dune: Part Two “A.I. is definitely something we think about at a lot of different…

Screenshot: Sunrise/CrunchyrollIn an increasingly perilous streaming and digital media landscape—where content is as quick to vanish into the ether as it is spread out across myriad services—Crunchyroll’s recent announcement it was entirely subsuming Funimation three years after it merged with its largest anime streaming rival by raising prices and wiping out digital libraries from invested users still stung. But after weeks of backlash, Crunchyroll says it’s trying to work on making amends.Lamar Johnson Loves Beyblades…

Image: Studio PierrotThe Naruto movie isn’t just real, it’s also got an acclaimed director at the helm. Moon Knight's Villain May Hold an Artifact With Wider MCU ConnectionsPer the Hollywood Reporter, Marvel director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) will direct and write an adaptation of Masashi Kishimoto’s beloved shonen. As with Borderlands, Lionsgate has been trying to get a movie for this off the ground since 2015, and it was confirmed to be back in the works last November following…

Image: Funimation/Studio BonesCome April 2, Funimation is going the way of the dodo. Earlier in the week, Sony revealed it’ll be sunsetting Funimation’s app and website in order to unify both it and Crunchyroll...something the company first revealed all the way back in 2022.Lamar Johnson Loves Beyblades and PokemonWhen Funimation was folded into Crunchyroll back in 2021, subscribers could have both services, and Crunchyroll would often rotate Funimation works in and out of its catalog. Those days will soon be over,…

Sony just raised the price of anime and left American otakus with few other options. The company’s anime streamer, Funimation, is officially shutting down on April 2, according to a press release on Wednesday. Crunchyroll, Sony’s other anime service it acquired in 2021, sent an email to subscribers that prices will soon be raised from $55 a year to $100 a year.“You don’t have to leave your Funimation Watch History and Funimation Queue behind, you can migrate them to Crunchyroll,” said Sony in an email to Funimation…

Image: A-1 Pictures/CrunchyrollIn 2016, South Korean writer Chugong released the video game-like web novel Solo Leveling, which has grown in popularity over the years. An anime adaptation of the series is now in the works, during its Jump Festa panel, Crunchyroll and Aniplex revealed the show will be dropping on January 6, 2024.Zillow Says You’ll Buy Your Next House With… AI? | AI UnlockedThe series takes place a decade after a mysterious gate appeared that connects the human world to an alternate dimension. Gates lead to…

The success of One Piece’s live-action Netflix series means western studios are going to be looking at other popular shonen anime to bring to life. My Hero Academia is already on the docket over at Netflix, and we got one for Saint Seiya (or Knights of the Zodiac earlier this year. Next up might be none other than, drumroll please...Naruto. Netflix Passwords, ChatGPT Can’t Detect AI, and No More CoTweets | Editor PicksEarlier in the week, Variety published a list of screenwriters to be on the lookout for. One of the…

Google executives defended its internal campaign “Project Hug,” which enticed 20 developers to not create app stores competitive with Google Play according to Epic Games, in an ongoing trial Thursday.No Google AI Search, I Don’t Need to Learn About the “Benefits of Slavery” Purnima Kochikar, Google’s vice president of play, took the stand Thursday to defend why Project Hug wasn’t a bribe in the trial of Epic Games v. Google where the search giant is being sued for anti-competitive practices on its app store. Kochikar says…

Image: CrunchyrollAlong with being one of the biggest platforms to watch anime, Crunchyroll is also a hub to read manga on your phone or computer. While not as big as say, Shonen Jump, it’s managed to stick around for a little over a decade...which makes it tragic irony to reveal that the service is going to be delisted a full month from now. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Has Infectious Good EnergyEarlier in the week, the streamer revealed it would be shutting down and delisting the Crunchyroll Manga app on December 11, and notified…

Image: CrunchyrollThis weekend at Anime Expo, One Piece fans learned that the Japanese version of the upcoming live-action Netflix series will be dubbed by the anime’s original Japanese voice actors. Today, there’s even more One Piece dub news: the English dub of the anime will soon be arriving on Crunchyroll.Lamar Johnson Loves Beyblades and PokemonAnd by “soon,” we mean July 5; according to Crunchyroll, which debuted the 1,000th English-dubbed episode of One Piece at Anime Expo—yes, that is three zeroes—you’ll be able…