Three years after acquiring Crunchyroll for more than $1 billion, Sony has decided to capitalize on its acquisition (and anger countless anime fans) by locking free users out of one of its most popular series. I’m planning. The company said that soon One Piece will require a paid subscription to watch beyond the first 206 episodes. Cue the obvious joke about locking a show about pirates behind a paywall. (Yahoo!)
Crunchyroll uses a gradual rollout to block free members on most anime produced since 1999. On December 23rd, the story arc from Water 7 to Fishman Island will be paywalled. Punk Hazard to Whole Cake Island (and six specials) will be locked to your subscription on January 20th, followed by Reverie and Wano to Egghead Island on February 17th.
Free users will be able to watch the entire series with ads (as before) until Sony’s new content lockdown comes into effect. Snippets of One Piece are also available on Hulu and Netflix (the latter also hosts the live-action version). However, Hulu only has episode 384 in its library, while Netflix has episode 238 in its library. The series currently has over 1,100 episodes.
Sony is reportedly in talks to acquire Japanese publisher KADOKAWA. In addition to games like Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, the studio also produces anime like Overlord and The Rising of the Shield Hero. If today’s news is any indication, many anime that don’t go through Sony may soon require a digital equivalent of the Straw Hat Pirates to be viewed in the West.
