It’s perhaps appropriate that the first signs of the recently confirmed megamerger between the libraries of the now Sony-operated Funimation and Crunchyroll are coming in the form of a Dragon Ball based arrival. After all, what is streaming platform consolidation if not a Fusion Dance by another name?
After the announcement earlier this month that the acquisition of Crunchyroll by Sony in 2021 would lead to its already-acquired Funimation rolling its library into the anime streamer as a singular subscription platform, Crunchyroll has now confirmed that one of the first major additions from the merger is one of the most iconic anime franchises of all time: Dragon Ball.
Beginning today, March 15, the original Toei adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s legendary shonen manga series, Dragon Ball, as well as its continuations Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, will join the already-available Dragon Ball Super on Crunchyroll. The three series were previously exclusively available on Funimation, but their arrival as part of the ongoing merger of libraries marks the first time all three series have been present on Crunchyroll in the platform’s history. Dragon Ball and GT will have both English dubs and the original Japanese audio with subtitles, while Z will only be available with its English language dub.
However, the deal doesn’t come without some caveats — the three series will only be available to Crunchyroll users in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Dragon Ball has long had a spotty international streaming availability across its myriad series and films in recent years, so alas, if you’re outside of those four territories and were hoping the power of billion-dollar acquisitions and mainstream market monopolies meant easy access to SVOD (Subscription Vegeta on Demand) going forward… for now, you’re out of luck.
Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT are available on Crunchyroll now.