It’s time for more Crunchyroll news! Even though most of their latest unveiling is a culmination of their previous announcements, it still brings some new information.
As most fans know, Crunchyroll got its start as a video site that included illegal content. The platform became a legit distributor, and it has become so popular and profitable that Crunchyroll has been a part of the production committee for over 60 anime series like The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Junji Ito: Collections, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Somali and the Forest Spirit.
But despite being a co-producer since about 2015 and launching other projects like Crunchyroll Expo, a 2018 announcement that they were moving into original content was met with much controversy. Some Crunchyroll users were angry that the now-AT&T-owned platform was spending money on non-Japanese content and/or not addressing Crunchyroll’s technological issues. The fact that the first title in this initiative, High Guardian Spice, was heavily touting a female-led staff was also a point of contention for many. The series was slated for 2019, but little was heard after the initial reveal. While the series’ creator made occasional comments about working on High Guardian Spice, some people speculated it had been cancelled or shelved.
Meanwhile, despite the drama involving Ellation Studios, Crunchyroll continued as usual, licensing new series and teaming up with other companies for more content. One of these new partnerships is with WEBTOON (Line Webtoon), an online comics portal that originated in South Korea. Some of WEBTOON’s series had animated content already, and these new Crunchyroll-backed productions could be anything from short content to full series.
Well, now we are getting a better idea of what Crunchyroll’s next phase is going to look like: Crunchyroll has announced their Crunchyroll Originals line.
The starting lineup includes eight titles. One is the aforementioned High Guardian Spice, and the new series summary seems to confirm that Ellation Studios has been renamed Crunchyroll Studios. Crunchyroll Studios is also behind three more titles: FreakAngels, Meiji Gekken: Sword & Gun, and Onyx Equinox. Three Originals are based on WEBTOON publications: The God of High School, Noblesse, and Tower of God. These three are animated by Japanese anime studios — Yuri!! On Ice‘s MAPPA, Haikyu!!‘s Production I.G., and Orange‘s Telecom Animation Production respectively. The eighth title is In/Spectre, a currently-airing anime series produced by Brain’s Base (Durarara!!) which is based on a novel and has a manga adaptation.
Crunchyroll’s website now has a dedicated page for their Originals with a visual and a blurb for each. They have also set up or provided links to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages for each series.
Tower of God is scheduled for this spring, and Onyx Equinox is set for the summer. The rest (minus In/Spectre, which is a part of the current anime season) are “coming soon”.
Speaking of In/Spectre, Crunchyroll is listed as a co-producer. So it is likely that all Crunchyroll-backed anime series will now receive the Crunchyroll Originals branding.
They might push their backed titles a little more now, and perhaps the “Originals” branding is also meant to make viewers watching on unofficial sites aware that this series should only be available on Crunchyroll.
It is also probably a brilliant marketing strategy. High Guardian Spice — rightly or wrongly — caused a lot of anger at Crunchyroll and its parent companies. On the other hand, the adaptations of WEBTOON titles seems to be exciting a lot of fans, especially since they are not being animated by an American (or Western) studio. But by also adding In/Spectre to the Crunchyroll Originals list, it makes the Originals not something “extra” or a pet project; it becomes part of Crunchyroll’s overall strategy. Crunchyroll probably wants to be like Netflix, who also started out as hosting other companies’ works but now makes many successful productions (both adaptations and brand-new creations) of their own.
However, technically, the Crunchyroll Originals line originates in 2015 with a comic drawn by a Japanese artist.
The reveal said:
“HYPERSONIC music club marks the first project from the new Crunchyroll Originals line, which will feature exclusive one-a-kind collaborations with Japanese creators in a variety of formats and media. Please look for announcements regarding more Crunchyroll Originals soon!”
The Originals nametag hasn’t been used much since 2015, and, as we now know, the current Originals line is not limited to working with Japanese creators. I guess they decided to reuse or revive the name, since this press release calls the eight shows “the inaugural slate of Crunchyroll Originals”.
These eight series so far do have a mix. While all but one are fantasy shows, they involve different types of fantasy: historical, modern, and alternate worlds. Onyx Equinox is a rare series showing Mesoamerican culture. In/Spectre bills itself as a romance while The God of High School is called an “action-packed” adventure. Notably, none of the eight are billed as an isekai, so perhaps this is another sign that the isekai boom is slowing. Or maybe Crunchyroll just wants some non-isekai fantasy to help balance the “spirited away” fantasies.
Regardless, I expect the Crunchyroll Originals line to grow rapidly. All streaming platforms want to have enough exclusives to nab subscribers, and with Funimation, Amazon, Netflix, and perhaps others bidding on anime, putting up money upfront in exchange to promote them heavily as an Original may be good business sense. The addition of webtoon adaptations may also be a way to head off Crunchyroll’s rivals in these competitive times. If Crunchyroll can get their members used to the idea of watching adaptations like Tower of God, that gives them a fresh, burgeoning market to pursue. The other streaming platforms will either have to form their own deals with other webcomic services or get WEBTOON series that have already been passed over.
That being said, a few of these Originals may have a tough — or at least tougher — time finding an audience. The eight announced series fall into three categories: classic Japanese production, webcomic adaptation, and Western creations. Some anime watchers may be fans of studios like Brain’s Base or Production I.G. and will check out any series they release. Even disregarding the previous controversy involving High Guardian Spice, Crunchyroll Studios is not going to have that kind of dedication. While there will be debates on whether series like Noblesse are truly anime or not, when there’s no Japanese studio involved, the arguments are going to be even fiercer. In addition, most of the Crunchyroll Studios titles are brand new creations; only FreakAngels is based on graphic novels. So the other three won’t have any cross-promotion with a comic or an already-established fanbase. Not to mention the hatred High Guardian Spice has already received that may make it hard for it to recover.
But in the future, maybe all three types of Originals will be represented equally. Perhaps Crunchyroll will go back to focusing on providing funds for Japanese-made productions. Maybe WEBTOON adaptations will be just as common as adapting manga or light novels. We’ll just have to see!