Crunchyroll Is Quietly Delisting Funimation Anime From Streaming

Crunchyroll has begun removing Funimation-branded anime titles from its U.S. streaming library, and the ripple effect is immediate: physical copies are vanishing from shelves and prices are climbing.

Gone are Black Lagoon, Blood Blockade Battlefront, Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions, Orange, As the Gods Will, and Rokka: Brave of the Six Flowers—all delisted without fanfare. The removals have triggered a predictable market response. Fans hunting for these titles are now competing for scarce physical editions, driving up demand and cost in a way that suggests Crunchyroll's consolidation strategy has real teeth.

The timing matters. Crunchyroll announced separately that its store will become exclusive to Mega and Ultimate Fan subscribers starting in August 2026. That's a significant gatekeeping move: the streaming platform is not just removing content, it's narrowing who gets to buy it. For casual viewers or those on lower-tier subscriptions, the window to own these titles legally is closing.

What's striking is the silence. These aren't announcements; they're quiet delistings. Crunchyroll acquired Funimation in 2021, and this appears to be a systematic consolidation of the catalog—a reminder that streaming libraries are not permanent collections but managed inventories, subject to licensing agreements, corporate strategy, and the occasional strategic erasure.

The practical upshot: if you want Black Lagoon or Blood Blockade Battlefront and you don't have a Mega or Ultimate subscription by August 2026, you're buying physical media or going without. The scarcity is real, and it's working exactly as these moves tend to. Collectors and completionists are already hunting. The rest of us are watching a catalog quietly shrink.

Source: Comic Book Resources