Crunchyroll Is Making Anime for Thee, Not for Me

[00:03] More than one in six new TV anime in 2025 had Crunchyroll involved in some part of its production. This is something that is not really surprising if you think about it. Once upon a time, a company like Crunchyroll and all of

[00:15] the companies that once existed in and around it used to just be distributors. money and be like, "Hey, I would like to take your anime and provide it to a take your anime and provide it to a North American audience." and that was

[00:29] good most of the time. But in an era where they've bought out most of their competition but still have places like, you know, Netflix barring down their door, it is not inconceivable [laughter] to imagine why they have decided to get

[00:43] themselves onto production committees for anime so that after an anime is rights to be able to be like, "Hey, this is our show. We gave in money to help produce it. Therefore, we get streaming rights. Okay, thank you." Not surprising

[00:57] that they did that at all. It makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons. There is a little bit of risk upfront for them because they are providing money to help long list of producers within the production committee, they're still

[01:10] made yet and may not be good. But and it probably pays off more than it doesn't for them. And because of that, while I'm not saying that shows without the help of Crunchyroll or an American

[01:23] company, wouldn't get made, it is still more money that does help make more industry side of things, you'll know that a lot of the major anime producers, they're all booked up for like the next 5 years. At least someone on this

[01:39] depending on where in the industry you are, knows every anime or at least every major anime that is going to be produced and released in the next 5 years. This I'm not going to be able to bribe any of them, but they exist. And I feel that

[01:53] what Crunchyroll decides is worth co-producing, providing money for, in some ways shapes the landscape of anime as far as, you know, what actually gets to financially help it, but then also to the part of what they get and what they

[02:11] then release and [music] for lack of a better word popularize in the North American sphere of anime watchers. So, this came about because this season uh there is a Crunchyroll is anime uh that is getting not an

[02:25] insignificant amount of promotion. It is uh my status as an assassin obviously uh my status as an assassin obviously exceeds the heroes. The show itself is okay. I don't have much of a problem with the show itself. It is a fairly bog

[02:39] standard isekai where you have a class of people who get summoned to a fantasy world and you know our main character just happens to be super over-the-top kingdom that has some nefarious purpose for bringing all the heroes here. They

[02:52] have them all put their hand on a freaking orb that tells them their stats But our main character is just super apparently is a weird thing here. You can clearly find all of the tropes that

[03:05] thrown on at one point in time. In fact, it's a little weird to me the amount of initial episodes of this show has with like uh Rising of a Shield Hero. There's a lot of comparisons that could be made. I'm not going to make them. But then

[03:19] when you consider that Crunchyroll was a big proponent of Rising of a Shield Hero also helped co-produce and back this one is not surprising. Now, when I say probably be clear. This is not in the same level as like Crunchyroll original

[03:33] this is a Netflix original." Those titles don't mean very much. When Crunch they are on the production committee. But the production committees are large, of different interests. And Crunchyrolls normally is just, you know, their

[03:48] wheelhouse. They want the uh North American distribution rights. They might want home video rights. They might want uh merchant things as it relates to Crunchyroll is interested in when they get on the production committee. They

[04:01] don't have creative control or they usually don't. There is probably some the production committee and they help decide more things. That is entirely especially for the ones that they titled Crunchyroll originals. Except maybe not

[04:15] nothing. So, don't get me wrong in thinking when I say that Crunchyroll helped to co-produce this assassin series that they actually creatively made it happen. They didn't. It probably would have existed without their

[04:27] involvement. They just happened to decide, hey, we want to be the ones to going to put ourselves on the production committee. were going to give the producers of the series a little bit more cash flow with the expectation that

[04:40] on our service in North America which it did and it is also getting not insignificantly marketed to the North American anime audience and they're American anime audience and they're doing this a lot with uh a lot of issai

[04:54] surprise they are creating a sort of feedback loop right if you look at a list of what crunchy roll has like co-produced in 2025 not an insignificant ificant amount of it kind of makes me feel like Crunchyroll is just like hey

[05:07] Solo Leveling made us a crap ton of money was super popular and yeah we don't know what's going to happen with another season of Solo Leveling. Maybe it might get made, maybe it won't. We would love it if it did because money.

[05:20] But like from 2025, some of the things that I'm fairly certain that they beginning after the end, water magician, rising of a shield hero, season 4, given the worthless appraiser class, yada yada yada, reincarnated as a seventh prince,

[05:34] became one of the four heavenly kings, left my A rank party and went to the an isekai, but it still follows the fantasy formula. Same with Clavitz. Not an isekai, but follows a lot of the same fantasy formulas, though a lot darker

[05:47] test today. The bogus skill fruit master thingy was here. Noble on the brink of magic. Like there's a lot of shows here that are in the same sort of style, right? There's a type almost. And that

[06:01] matters because whether you like it or not, whether you are a Crunchroll subscriber or not, whether you use their service or absolutely hate them for a service or absolutely hate them for a lot of reasons, what they decide to get

[06:14] and what they decide to release and then what they decide to promote ends up becoming either like a massive boost into the popularity and knowledge of a particular show or a death nail if they decide to completely ignore it. with a

[06:30] something gets picked up elsewhere. Like when Dondon exists and other places, to give it any promotion at all and it's still going to do really well, probably to the annoyance of some marketing manager at Crunchyroll. And with that,

[06:43] they have this ability to sort of like steer the content of what we end up watching on a seasonal basis towards, you know, particular tropes, particular fantasy has been really big the last number of years. I wonder why that could

[06:58] be. You could give a multitude of different reasons as to why it is very because everybody hates our existing I was hit by a truck and taken to some fantasy world where I could cast magic

[07:11] and have hot women follow me around for no explicable reason? Wouldn't that be great? They are fantasies to cater to the modern audience of today apparently. because they get watched very well, even if they're not talked about a lot, I

[07:27] mean, that's another thing is that looking at some places that tally view services, just because something is not talked about very well or is talked about a lot in a negative light doesn't mean that uh it's not being watched.

[07:39] Beginning After the End was a series that came out earlier this year and uh people hate it. Understandably so. I believe the common conception about the series, the anime series specifically, is that it is a very very poorly

[07:51] animated uh series that is not indicative of its source material, which apparently is a lot a lot better. It would be surprising, I think, to a lot of people to hear that it was probably one of the most watched anime of the

[08:04] early part of 2025. Now, a lot of that could just be hate watching, but also it had very high view numbers. So, like if the basis of a say, "Well, what are people going to actually watch?" Then shows like

[08:19] Beginning After the End make a lot of sense. Oddly, places like Crunchyroll like to have things that make sense. They like safe bets. That's why Fantasy and is such a safe bet right now. That's why sequels are such a safe bet. Like, I

[08:32] don't talk about sequels on my channel all that much. I try to avoid it when I can. I get a lot of hate for doing my seasonal videos every three months and uh ignore sequels, prequels, and spin-offs entirely for the most part. I

[08:45] most part, it's because like everyone's going to talk about the sequels. year. Did I really need to be talking about Dondon? No, I needed to be talking about Milky Subway. So, I did. Things like Dondon like Fire Force got a third

[08:59] season. Obviously, all of these things are very popular and everybody else is going to talk about them. So, normally I don't I like giving uh a little bit more credence and a little bit more spotlight as much of it as I can on shows that

[09:14] [laughter] I say that and of course someone's going fancy stuff that you talk?" Yes. Yes. Yes. I know it's original in that it's not part of an overall big IPR franchise. Yes, they exist within genres

[09:27] that have been oversaturated, but that's beside the point. Doing that allows me to find the milky subways that I enjoy. Doing that allows me to go and watch that's part of an overarching IP. And one of the reasons I didn't cover it in

[09:39] sequels, prequels, or spin-offs. And I kind of included Cinderella Gray as a spin-off cuz it's within the whole franchise. And I already covered that aired back in 2017. And I had problems with that then, and I came back to it

[09:52] all that to say, I think one of the much backing into Beginning After the End is because it belonged to a genre that was very popular. It was originally written by an American author, or at

[10:05] much about them. And it hit a lot of the check boxes of things that would do well. It just so happened that the production did not meet up with the expectations of the fan base. Uh hm. But you can see why they backed it though,

[10:20] think they needed. And then it actually performed probably to their expectations. I don't actually know what those were, but considering again that it was one of the most streamed anime in the top part of this year. It probably

[10:33] was a success from that metric. And then, you know, there's probably going "Okay, well, a season 2 could work then, you know, if maybe it was fixed up a bit in the production end or not. Maybe its jank will be a selling point in the

[10:46] future for another season. Kudos." But when I come in and I say, "Hey, Crunchyroll likes making shows for thee, not for me." [laughter] Um, largely that's because uh while I have begrudgingly come to accept the

[10:59] isekai genre, I'm not necessarily a hater of the genre as a whole because, you know, it's just what is out there right now. I like more or less all anime with some genre exceptions. And isai is one that I have begrudgingly

[11:14] sort of come to terms with and I like certain things about it and I dislike other things about it. And so I can look at everything kind of on its own merits from that perspective. But like historically, if you look at some of the

[11:26] things from the last handful of years that [music] I have absolutely adored, some of them may have fantastical elements. Free rein is probably one of the closest things to like a hugely successful straight fantasy that we've

[11:39] had in a bit that does not really have any of the more traditional isekai element tropes to it. But then you have things like Orb. You have things like Milky Subway and Uamus from this year. You go back further over the last decade

[11:51] and like I loved shows like Made in Abyss. I loved shows like Laid-Back Camp or A Place Further than the Universe. I loved Violet Everg Gardenarden and Bochi the Rock. And sometimes Crunchyrolls will pick up shows like these, but not

[12:04] always. And then even when they do, they probably don't market it very well makes its own audience on its own and after the fact. I know Odd Taxi was a good example of that. Otaxi was an anime

[12:16] that was put on Crunchyroll for a not insignificant amount of time. And it wasn't until some YouTubers, namely like my good friend Jeff Thu, made a video on then it started to be getting a little more eyes on it. Then it started to get

[12:29] bit more watched. And then Crunchyroll decided to give it a little some space like. But it is not something that Crunchyroll did themselves. They had it they had the license for it. they had it on their service, but they put their

[12:44] that particular season for one reason or another. And it does kind of create this like feedback loop like you got uh you got people that end up binging these shows and then the platforms prioritize those shows and then the production

[12:57] like, hey, wouldn't that be great? Let's go produce more of that and then they those studios end up specializing in those shows more and then they just end up making more isekai that then gets binged by. It's it's a big old cycle and

[13:10] the content is there. We're getting a lot more Monoa adaptations. We're getting web tune adaptations. Like there is not an insignificant amount of isekai and content just waiting to be adapted. I would like to argue that there's

[13:24] probably an infinite amount out there to the point where we will not run out of isekai and like that type of anime to be adapted into new things. We will knows this. And so when they go over to Japan and it's just like, "Hey, what

[13:40] should we provide money for and get on the production committee for?" Oh, let's bandwagon with more things that somehow look a little bit like solo leveling. This assassin series like just I don't know if it's because uh there's a very

[13:53] know if it's because uh there's a very big like dark purpley aspect to it. So But I'm not going to lie, the first time I saw the promotional material for it, I Teimu solo leveling. And then you actually watch it and you're like, "No,

[14:05] actually it's uh No, actually it's like Teimu Shield No, actually it's like Teimu Shield Hero, which is already H. And it's not co-producing. As far as I can tell, Crunchyroll is also a co-producer on May

[14:18] I ask for one final thing, which is a hilarious anime from this season that mean, as much as I don't like the fantasy and isekai tropes, the I left my A rank party uh was a bit of a guilty pleasure for me earlier this year. Not

[14:32] essentially a red mage and I'm a sucker for red mage characters. But like I it wasn't like the greatest thing that I've ever watched, but it doesn't need if it's not already, as like the junk food of the anime genre. We all know

[14:47] it's not great with a handful of exceptions, but we all watch it anyway. Even if people like me and you know other people on social media and within the sphere we talk down about it or we talk negatively about it from time to

[15:02] time, it is still getting watched. So while I would love to have my next more like sci-fi based like Milky Subway, it's probably going to be things have been already lined up for the next 5 years, then the next 5 years

[15:17] is already being determined by the trends of today, which itself was being Like if we're already looking 5 years ahead into the future if anime years out, how many of the anime that were coming out today were in production

[15:31] pipeline in some way, shape, or form back in 2020? Who knows? Not an bet. Something to think about. Now, maybe it wasn't always like that. There was probably some point where things were a little bit more reactive. But the

[15:44] thing that I worry about most is kind of a staleness. Like if we are seriously decided what the next 5 years of adaptations are going to be then if you have a big popular anime that comes out today we might not see an adaptation of

[15:59] it for another 5 years. All of the trends and all of the popular things of trends and all of the popular things of 2025 we are going to be seeing somewhat recycled and reused all the way up to 2030. And that does not give a very big

[16:12] opening or window for new things, for new trends, for [music] new trends, for [music] something else, right? And when things like solo leveling get super popular, I don't hate solo leveling for what it is.

[16:25] It's a enjoyable series. I liked watching it. I dislike solo leveling more for what it represents for the industry as a whole because it did really well. it was super successful and now you're going to have a lot of people

[16:40] that make decisions looking at that and be like, "We want to do that again." And then especially if they don't know what made it successful in the first place, they could start doubling down on all the wrong things. And if that is the

[16:54] mentality of one of the largest anime distributors for English-speaking audiences, if they start catering towards that, if they start co-producing shows that more likely fit that mold, whatever they attribute that mold to be,

[17:09] whatever they attribute that mold to be, then we'll just see more of that. And that is okay, I guess, cuz again, there are parts of Solo Leveling I like. There is even parts of the Assassin show that I sort of like, but not enough to

[17:23] finish that one. But there's nothing like truly amazing about those shows to me. [music] Like Solo Leveling had animation aspects. There are parts that just popped off. Sure, there's a reason why it did as well as it did. But I

[17:37] could name at least half a dozen, if not a full dozen shows that I enjoyed watching a lot more in the past year than that. Heck, even from years beyond rewatch Eminence in the Shadow than I would a season of Solo Leveling, which

[17:52] is weird for me to say. But this is where we're at. [music] This is what's happening. This is the uh evolution, as it were, [music] of what anime is to be for the next handful of years and beyond. Is it the evolution we

[18:07] years and beyond. Is it the evolution we need or the evolution we deserve? I would posit that it is more of a narrowing of what anime could be. narrowing of what anime could be. Animation can literally do anything.

[18:21] And so to make it do the same thing over and over again constantly. and over again constantly. Just seems like such a waste.

[18:33] So thank you for watching and enjoying the video. Hit the like button if you enjoyed. Subscribe if you haven't. And also a thank you to all of the viewers also a thank you to all of the viewers over on Patreon who [music] help me

[18:45] help me sit here [laughter] and get even more and more uh nihilistic is a good way of describing it right now over this this style of entertainment that I enjoy talking about and have been talking about for a very long time. Of course,

[19:00] special thanks to patrons [music] like Omar Showman and Ross Emerson, Hector Omar Showman and Ross Emerson, Hector Monttoor, Aiden Sriamako, and Rifen Bone Aart. For all of the normal reasons, you guys are absolutely amazing. Thank you

[19:14] so much. And now I need to find [music] something to make myself feel a little something to make myself feel a little better. So, in mystead, please go and watch [music] more anime and stay frosty.