Crunchyroll, one of the largest anime streaming services around, seems to be expanding its empire with the acquisition of Right Stuf, one of the largest online anime-focused retailers.
Crunchyroll recently announced on its official news page that it has closed a deal to acquire Right Stuf, an online retailer known for selling anime and manga as well as related paraphernalia (figures, apparel, licensed games, etc). Right Stuf also sells a handful of anime/manga-adjacent items like American graphic novels. Crunchyroll considers the acquisition an important step in "expanding Crunchyroll’s eCommerce offerings." The company does currently have its own online store, but it hasn't been a major focus compared to the streaming service, and Right Stuf is a considerably larger retailer.
Audience response to Crunchyroll's announcement has been largely negative. The comments on Crunchyroll's post are full of concerned fans worrying that the acquisition may spell disaster for Right Stuf. Some have pointed out that Right Stuf currently stocks anime distributed by Sentai Filmworks, a company which currently operates Hidive, an anime streaming service which directly competes with Crunchyroll. While there is no indication at the time of writing that Right Stuf's Sentai Filmworks products will be removed, fans remain concerned about the state of the library.
Right Stuf's acquisition is the latest in a series of moves made by Crunchyroll's parent company Sony in an effort to establish the brand as a kind of "one-stop shop" for anime. Recently, the entire library of anime streaming site Funimation (also owned by Sony) began appearing on Crunchyroll. The entire library is expected to make its way to Crunchyroll eventually, but at the time of writing, Funimation is still home to several major pieces of content, including One Piece's English dub, which have yet to make the movie to Crunchyroll.
At the moment, it's not clear what Crunchyroll's acquisition of Right Stuf actually entails. Whether the site remains untouched or undergoes massive changes remains to be seen.
Crunchyroll's entire streaming library, including many titles previously available exclusively on Funimation, can be accessed with one of the service's three paid subscription tiers. A select number of titles are also available to stream for free with advertisements, although the company has been steadily scaling back its free anime offerings since the Funimation merger. Anime, manga and merchandise sold by Right Stuf can be purchased on the Right Stuf website, which doesn't seem to have seen any significant changes just yet.
Source: Crunchyroll