Looks like this is either good news or bad news depending if you like some merger news. Recently announced today, the anime streaming service platform Crunchyroll has purchased the anime shopping site, Right Stuf. Now that Sony owns Crunchyroll and they recently merged with Funimation, they now have anime’s biggest shopping sites.
Here is what Shawne Kleckner, CEO of Right Stuf had to say about this merging news:
“For 35 years, Right Stuf’s mission has been to connect anime fans with the products they love. Joining forces with Crunchyroll allows us to accelerate and scale this effort more than ever before. There has never been a more exciting time to be an anime fan than today!”
While this maybe good news for some since this means that Sony wants to expand anime to a wide audience, this news may also be bad for some. With Sony taking over, it’s also been revealed that Sony will be removing erotica items from Rightstuf. You will no longer buy any erotic manga, anime or figures with this merge news. However, according to the FAQ on Removed Items, there might be a way to still buy these items. In one of the questions asked, if you recently placed an order for an 18+ item, your item will be transferred to a separate website called EroAnimeStore.com. According to the site, the president of the site stated that despite the new changes with the Crunchyroll and Right Stuf acquisition taking place, they want to make sure fans can still buy their erotic products. The site is still in construction, but this is the place where you will do business from now on if you want your erotic goods.
What do you guys think of this news?
source:
ComicBook.com – Crunchyroll acquires Right Stuf
Matt-in-the-Hat 
I vote for bad news. They can cover this with generic corporate speak all they like, but Sony getting a near-monopoly on anime distribution rights here is a terrible thing. My hope is that they at least understand that if they screw around with their library too much, trying to remove material they don’t like or to restrict access or to raise subscription fees etc. that fans can easily go back to the mid-2000s methods of getting anime. Those methods never went away anyway, and now I’m very happy about that.
That’s what I been hearing from people I seen online. People are getting worried thinking if Sony gets full access to anime, they could market these titles and make us pay more. People hate censorship and certain translations in manga and anime. Let’s hope Sony doesn’t get too power hungry.
I agree, having a monopoly develop in any consumer product is bad. When one company controls everything in a sector, be it produce, cars, or anime than it leaves very little room for innovation, invention, or creativity. And even if people don’t like what the company is doing, they either have to put up with it or be locked out of that product. And lack of variety of where you can get anime often translates to lack of variety of what anime you can get. Sorry, I’m trying not to be grumpy about this, but it’s really hard to see the bright side!
Yeah I don’t want to lean on the negatives, but I can’t help but not ignore both sides. I do hear from people that yeah despite having more control in anime, Sony can decide what to do with the products. It’s only a matter of time before Sony goes after Discotek or Sentai Filmworks. I know Sentai left Crunchyroll and AMC bought them.
I did not see this one coming for sure. They’re really buying everything lately it seems
Yeah they’re expanding the anime industry. They bought two licensed anime streaming companies and now a shopping site.