While Sony, owner of Funimation, purchased Crunchyroll back in April 2021, it’s been an ongoing process as to the future of the services. Anime is still available on Funimation, but new seasons are only available on Crunchyroll. Funimation’s old home video releases are being rebranded with the Crunchyroll logo. But while the Funimation brand continues to lose its status, the service continues.
But the same can’t be said of another Sony-owned platform.
VRV started back in 2016, and it united several different streaming brands under one umbrella. Partner companies were added and subtracted over the years, but at some point or another, Boomerang, CollegeHumor, DramaFever, NickSplat, and Shudder content were available on VRV for $9.99 a month. This was a huge savings over subscribing to these video services individually, although the service has always been exclusive to the US.
After Funimation’s partnership with Crunchyroll dissolved, Funimation was replaced with HIDIVE on VRV. But Crunchyroll and Funimation would later be reunited once the latter’s now-parent company, Sony, purchased Otter Media, the AT&T-owned division that owned Crunchyroll.
However, with each passing year, the non-Crunchyroll content thinned out. Right now, Crunchyroll, Mondo Media, and VRV Select are the only channels left on VRV.
So it’s little surprise VRV is finally shutting down.
As of April 3rd, all subscriptions are migrating to Crunchyroll, and VRV will end service on May 3rd. Any VRV credits will instead go to Crunchyroll Premium memberships. Customers can use their VRV login if they don’t have a Crunchyroll account yet to migrate their watch history and such. Otherwise, if the accounts are already connected, their data should be made available. VRV gift cards can still be redeemed, but customers will need to reach out to support if a card hasn’t been redeemed after May 3rd.
Watch histories and queues being synced is going to come with a sigh of relief from subscribers, as it would be annoying to remember every episode of a series you left off on or what you planned on watching next. Sure, it’s not the biggest problem in the world, but that doesn’t make it less irritating. Anyone who has still been subscribing to VRV are almost certainly anime fans anyway, so it’s not a drastic change or huge loss in content.
As for what will happen with the VRV exclusives, who knows. Shout! Factory stuff like Ultraman Leo are available elsewhere (Pluto TV, Tubi, Prime Video), so there are easy and/or common ways to rewatch or finally watch those titles before May 3rd. Whether content like HarmonQuest, which VRV rescued from Seeso, will be accessible in the future is a valid question. All the FAQ states is that these videos will not be available after VRV ends. So if there’s something under the Mondo or VRV Select categories you’ve been putting off, you probably want to prioritize them during VRV’s final month.
Otherwise, though, while I personally never subscribed to VRV, I do wish I had subscribed back in its glory days. It had a lot of stuff I was interested in, but I never felt like I needed to subscribe between my satellite service, free Crunchyroll streaming, etc. VRV had a great idea with how it united several different geek/fandom-oriented platforms for one low price, but with streaming costs rising and stiffer competition, this ending was inevitable even if Sony hadn’t acquired it. It was less “Crunchyroll + more” and more like “Crunchyroll + extras”, but at a higher price with a strict region limitation.
It perhaps would have been nice if Sony had given subscribers more than a month’s notice of the shutdown and let people whose subscriptions renewed early in the month to decide whether to patronize the service for its final month and some extra time for busy individuals to ensure their Crunchyroll account is working as it should, but at least it sounds like customer service will be able to help with VRV-related questions after May 3rd.
Now, though, I guess we start the countdown clock for Funimation. Like VRV, it’s a shadow of its former self since there are no new simulcasts being added, but that service and brand is going to require a lot more work to wind down since it wasn’t meant to integrate with Crunchyroll from the start like VRV was. But if the VRV shut down goes smoothly, hopefully that indicates any eventual Funimation sunsetting will be just as smooth.