Crunchyroll Announces Acquistion of RightStuf

For better, or for worse, the Crunchyroll platform continues to expand as the Sony owned subscription based on-demand platform have announced that they have acquired the US based online retailer RightStuf.

For those unaware RightStuf is an online retailer that specializes in selling anime related goods, such as Books, DVDs and Figures to people around the world with its primary consumers being in the US. In the past 10 years or so RightStuf expanded to license and produce their own Blu-Ray and DVD sets, with Gundam being the most notable release, under the Nozomi Entertainment label owned by Rightstuf. It’s also worth mentioning that Nozomi Entertainment (and in turn Rightstuf) worked with Anime Limited to bring the Gundam franchises to UK and in turn Anime Limited worked with Rightstuf to offer some titles in the United States.

The Acquistion of RightStuf by Crunchyroll means that RightStuf now owns the eCommerce platform and comes under the new Crunchyroll banner. According to Crunchyroll the purpose of this acquisition aims to serve anime fans and collectors an even wider array of merchandise for online purchase including manga, home video, figures, games, music and everything in between. While this may be true changes can already be seen, as all adult (erotica) related content is no longer being sold on Rightstuf, and this includes recent US releases of titles of interspecies reviewer and Redo of Healer.

So what exactly does this mean for the future of Rightstuf? At the moment it is hard to say, but Rightstuf has been an important retailer in helping the Japanese market expand within the United States (and in turn worldwide), but RightStuf have published an FAQ on their website which hopes to address any concerns customers may have.