Crunchyroll pulls anime, manga and Blu-rays: Funimation merger fallout

In July and August 2026, Crunchyroll, Sony’s anime streaming service, trimmed both its U.S. streaming library and the Crunchyroll Store catalog. On the streaming side, titles including Black Lagoon, Blood Blockade Battlefront, Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions, Orange, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, and Barakamon disappeared. Then the Store took another hit: manga, light novels, manhwa, danmei, and most anime Blu-rays were pulled unless they were published by Crunchyroll, Funimation, or Aniplex.

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The July 2026 streaming removals most likely came down to older Funimation-era licenses expiring after Sony folded Funimation into Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll didn’t give much of a public explanation, though, and fans got very little warning before those titles were removed in July 2026.

On August 18, 2026, Crunchyroll also stripped manga, light novels , manhwa, danmei, and most anime Blu-rays from the Crunchyroll Store unless the publisher was Crunchyroll, Funimation, or Aniplex. That move appears tied to the Store paywall for higher-paying subscribers, and also to older fallout from the merger. Part of that fallout goes back to Funimation digital purchases not carrying over when the consolidation closed on April 2, 2024, along with Crunchyroll’s plan to shut down its free ad-supported tier on December 31, 2025.

For people who depend on older catalog titles, print releases, or purchased libraries, these changes land a lot harder. Fans were criticizing them all over social media and forums. At the same time, Crunchyroll said its paid subscriber count climbed from 5 million in 2021 to more than 15 million by August 2024, then to 21 million by May 2026. So the service is still the dominant player, even if it hasn’t looked especially steady.

Crunchyroll’s U.S. streaming service and Store are still up and running, but those removed titles and product lines aren’t available there anymore.