Crunchyroll has faced backlash after voice actor David Wald revealed the company has been illegally opening and distributing his fan mail for the past five years, violating U.S. federal law regarding obstruction of correspondence. This revelation sparked widespread outrage, highlighting Crunchyroll’s questionable practices, including its monopoly over anime distribution in the West following its acquisition by Sony. Critics argue that Crunchyroll has become complacent, exemplified by the failure of its original content and a significant price increase for subscriptions. Furthermore, Wald’s situation underscores broader issues within the company, such as alleged discrimination against voice actors and a toxic work environment. Crunchyroll’s response has been inadequate, stating they are investigating the matter but failing to acknowledge their responsibility. This incident adds to the growing list of grievances against Crunchyroll, raising concerns about the treatment of voice actors and the future of anime distribution.
following its acquisition from Sony
Has anything good EVER come from big company acquisitions AT ALL?
Geocities -> acquired by Yahoo -> crap -> death
Youtube -> acquired by Google -> ad crap
Blogger -> acquired by Google -> crap
Macromedia -> acquired by Adobe -> Monopoly crap
Washington Post -> acquired by Bezos -> political crap
MySQL -> Acquired by Oracle -> copyright crap
Github -> acquired by Microsoft -> crap
Reddit -> acquired by Conde Nast -> political crap
Twitter -> acquired by Musk -> utter crap
Every single time I see a cool startup get bought by a big player, all I can see is the service going to shit.
Crunchyroll’s (then Funimation) acquisition of Animelab is what led me to stop paying to stream anime.
Lower quality videos. Harder to navigate. Distracting watermarks on the side of the screen. Blocking VPNs. Ads even though you already pay them.
I hate that there is so little effort put into preventing monopolies from buying out the competition
