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Crunchyroll Store Removes Physical Manga, Light Novels – News

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Image courtesy of Crunchyroll

The Crunchyroll Store has updated on Tuesday, and it no longer lists physical manga or light novels for sale. Other physical books for Korean manhwa and Chinese danmei titles are also no longer listed for sale. ANN reached out to Crunchyroll for clarification, but Crunchyroll declined to respond.

Crunchyroll announced in July that it would change its Crunchyroll Store in August to be exclusive to the company’s Mega and Ultimate Fan subscription tiers. The updated store features “curated drops and Crunchyroll‑exclusive merch” as well as select collectibles, Blu-ray Discs, and apparel.

Prior to the update, select items on the Crunchyroll Store were designated as “final sale.” In addition, returns or refunds for those final sale items would only be accepted if the product is damaged or defective. This restriction applied only to final sale items, and not to all items on the Crunchyroll Store. Open orders will continue to process and ship, including those released after the store transitions. The company stopped accepting Crunchyroll Store gift cards until August 14. In addition, existing benefits for store discounts with Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan memberships ended on the same day.

Crunchyroll acquired Right Stuf in August 2022 to expand its eCommerce service. Right Stuf phased out its store and migrated its products to the Crunchyroll Store in October 2023. Until the update, customers could still find the products that were previously listed on Right Stuf.

Crunchyroll increased the prices for all of its subscription tiers in the U.S. last February. The company increased the Fan Tier price from US$7.99 to US$9.99, the Mega Fan Tier price from US$11.99 to US$13.99 per month and the Ultimate Fan Tier from US$15.99 to US$17.99 per month.

The Fan Tier has no advertisements, and new simulcast episodes are available to users as they premiere. The Mega Fan Tier includes all features from the Fan Tier. In addition, this tier enables offline viewing and access to four streams at once. Members also get a 10% discount off select products and free shipping for orders over US$50 on the Crunchyroll Store. The Ultimate Fan Tier includes everything from the Fan Tier. It also features offline viewing and access to six streams at once. Members can get a 15% discount off select products and free shipping on the Crunchyroll Store. In addition, members receive an annual Ultimate Fan member swag bag and access to exclusive member-only merchandise.

The Crunchyroll Manga app launched on browser, iOS, and Android devices in the United States and Canada in October 2025. The ad-free app is separate from the main Crunchyroll streaming service. This is not the first time that Crunchyroll has offered manga, with the company launching the first Crunchyroll Manga service in October 2013.

Crunchyroll laid off a number of employees in March, after a restructuring and redistribution of roles based on location. The company’s restructuring was also due to a shift in its e-commerce strategy, and not due to cost-cutting measures.

Crunchyroll halted free ad-supported streaming on its service last December.

Crunchyroll is an independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex‘s Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) parent are both in turn subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group.

Sony‘s Funimation Global Group completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T on August 9, 2021, after the company first announced the acquisition in December 2020. The purchase price was US$1.175 billion, and the proceeds were paid in cash at closing. Funimation‘s home video releases are now listed under Crunchyroll.

Source: Crunchyroll Store via MangaAlerts

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Manga Mavericks Books Appoints Erica Friedman as Managing Editor – News

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Friedman has written yuri content for numerous publications



Manga Mavericks Books Erica Friedman
Image courtesy of Manga Mavericks Books

Manga Mavericks Books, the new publishing division of the Manga Mavericks website and podcast, announced on Monday that it has appointed Erica Friedman as its new Managing Editor.

The company states that Friedman will help for its upcoming year, during which it plans to release over 40 alternative, shojo, josei, LGBTQ+, and classic manga.

In addition to writing for ANN, Friedman has published articles and reports about yuri for Eureka, Animerica, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Forbes, Slate, Huffington Post, Hooded Utilitarian, Anime Heraldm and The Mary Sue. She wrote By Your Side: The First 100 years of Yuri Anime and Manga and contributed to DK’s Manga A Visual History. She has also lectured at events, film festivals, and universities, incluiding the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, MIT, University of Illinois, Harvard University, Kanagawa University, and Keio University. She holds a Masters Degree in Library Science and a B.A. in Comparative Literature. She has covered yuri on her blog Okazu since 2002. Friedman has served as the Founder and President of Yuricon and ALC Publishing.

The Manga Mavericks website and podcast established the Manga Mavericks Books publishing division in April 2025 to license, localize, and distribute works worldwide from indie creators in Japan.

Manga Mavericks Books entered a distribution deal with Pathway Book Service and with Gazelle Book Services Ltd for Europe last February. Pathway is handling comprehensive book fulfillment, warehousing, and retail distribution for Manga Mavericks Books.

Disclosure: Erica Friedman writes for Anime News Network.

Source: Press release


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Special Effects Artist, The Guyver Director Screaming Mad George Dies at 69 – News

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George also worked on Predator, Nightmare on Elm Street 3/4, Big Trouble in Little China films



screamingmadgeorge
Image via Screaming Mad George’s official website

The official X/Twitter account for the manager of special effects artist and musician Screaming Mad George (Jōji Tani) announced on Monday that Screaming Mad George died on February 10 earlier this year. He was 69. He is survived by his wife Miki and daughter Alice.

Screaming Mad George started out as a punk rock musician with the band The Mad, where he worked on making gory music videos and stage acts. He eventually moved to New York to study visual arts. He is known for his work on special effects on numerous iconic films, such as Predator, Big Trouble in Little China, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, and Nightmare on Elm Street 4. He began collaborating with director Brian Yuzna on his film Society in 1989, which would lead to numerous other collaborations, including Silent Night, Deadly Night 4, Bride of Re-Animator, The Dentist 2, and Faust: Love of the Damned.

Within otaku circles, he is perhaps best known for his directorial debut work as director of The Guyver, the 1991 live-action adaptation of Yoshiki Takaya‘s Bio-Booster Armor Guyver manga. His collaborator Brian Yuzna produced the film. George also did special effects for Tokyo: The Last War, the second live-action film based on Hiroshi Aramata‘s Teito Monogatari novel. He also designed the Cherubim monster in the second episode of the Spirit Warrior original video anime (OVA). He is also credited as co-translator alongside Yoko Umezawa for Blast Books‘ 1993 release of Hideshi Hino‘s Panorama of Hell book.

Source: Screaming Mad George info/manager’s X/Twitter account


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cocoon Wartime Anime Streams English-Dubbed Trailer – News

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GKIDS began streaming on Tuesday an English-dubbed trailer for cocoon – One Summer of Girlhood (cocoon Aru Natsu no Shōjo-tachi Yori), the anime of Machiko Kyō‘s Cocoon manga.


cocoon - One Summer of Girlhood
Image courtesy of GKIDS

GKIDS will begin screening the anime in theaters in North America on September 4 in Japanese with English subtitles and with an English dub. GKIDS will also release the anime on home video.

This year’s JAPAN CUTS event screened the anime’s North American premiere on July 10. The 30th annual Fantasia International Film Festival is screening the Canadian premiere.

The anime debuted on BS-NHK in March 2025, before airing on NHK General that August.

The anime stars Hikari Mitsushima as Mayu and Marika Itō as San.

Yukimitsu Ina (animation director for Tatami Time Machine Blues) directed the anime, and kensuke ushio (A Silent Voice, Chainsaw Man, DAN DA DAN) composed the music. Hitomi Tateno, a veteran Studio Ghibli animator, was the animation producer, with the studio Sasayuri producing the anime.

The manga is set in a tropical southern island, and centers on San and her best friend Mayu, who go to the island’s top all-girls school. War soon comes to their country, and the students of the school soon become embroiled in the war effort, and soon enough, the rear-line care of the wounded. One by one, San and Mayu lose their friends in the ever-worsening war.

Kyō released the manga in 2010, 65 years after the end of World War II. The anime’s 2025 release came 80 years after the end of World War II.

Viz Media licensed the manga.

Kyō published the Mitsuami no Kami-sama manga in Shueisha‘s now-defunct Jump X (Jump Kai) magazine in 2013, and Shueisha published the manga’s first and only compiled book volume in the same year. The manga won an award in the 18th Annual Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize in March 2014. The manga inspired Production I.G‘s Pigtails 28-minute short anime film. The short made its international debut in April 2016 at the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, where it won the Platinum Remi Award in the Classic Cel Animation Category. Pigtails has won multiple awards, including the Diamond Award in the Animated Film category at the 2016 California Film Awards.

Source: Press release

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