Fatal miscalculations inCrunchyroll’s licensing war have emerged after recent revelations of the streaming platform’s treatment ofDandadan. The series likely needs no introduction, skyrocketing to becoming one of 2024’s top anime. For the uninitiated,Dandadanis a series centered around Momo Ayase, granddaughter of a spirit medium and non-believer in aliens, paired up with Okarun, a non-believer in ghosts. After both run into the entities in which they didn’t believe, they pair up—Okarun now the vessel of a ghost’s power and Ayase the possessor of newfound psychic abilities—in a grand adventure full of laughs and romance.
Host to a simple-enough premise,Dandadanhas an obvious charm that has made anime fans all over fall in love with it.Dandadan, which is licensed for streaming on multiple platforms, also serves as a critical front inan ongoing licensing war between streaming platforms. Underneath the unimposing anime is a fickle story of mismanagement and deception of which fans are only recently becoming aware. The full scoop onCrunchyroll’s mismanagement is available via Bloomberg’s recent report, but here are the juiciest details—which hint at an uneasy future for the streaming giant.
Dandadan Has A Strange Position In The Anime World
Unorthodox Licensing Choices Turn The Year’s Most Popular Anime Into A Battleground
In 2024, it’s typical for anime to have one main streaming partner playing a significant supporting role in its production, marketing, and management. Others might play a role or claim basic streaming rights, but for the most part, major franchises are expected to delegate responsibility to one critical business partner. In this respect,Dandadanis an exception: physical releases are distributed by GKIDS in North America (Muse Communication in Southeast Asia), while the series is available for streaming on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu.
Dandadanis produced by Science Saru, a subsidiary of Toho International as of May 2024. Toho is a massive conglomerate, best known for being the pioneer behind theGodzillafranchise, and they also acquired GKIDS in October 2024. Science Saru is steadily gaining notoriety in the anime world thanks to their work onPing Pong: The Animation,Space Dandy, and the acclaimedScott Pilgrimanime.
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A massive company like Toho has a vested interest in working with distributors that will get their works out to general audiences. For such streaming services as Crunchyroll and Netflix, they depend heavily on the ability of those brands to market their own works. Netflix’s tireless work in marketingDandadanis a notable example of this: on it,Dandadandebuted as the second most-watched non-English release. According to the same Bloomberg report, though,Crunchyroll had very specific reasons for not givingDandadansimilar treatment—and it isn’t looking good.
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Crunchyroll’s Upper Management Played A Part In Its Failure To Promote 2024’s Biggest Anime
It’s war, then: as anime gains in popularity, more streaming competitors—backed by big money—want a piece of the pie. Crunchyroll’s position has proved incredibly arduous afterCrunchyroll’s $1.2 billion dollar acquisition by Sony in 2021. Despite being on the surface the premium global destination for anime streaming globally, the platform is not without its share of troubles.
Crunchyroll’s merger with Funimation was messy. One outcome of that merger is that Markus Gerdemann, originally brought into Funimation due to his fortunes while marketing at Netflix despite his lack of familiarity with anime, is now the senior vice president of creative marketing at Crunchyroll. To get a big picture of this change, Bloomberg’s report provides an interesting “by the numbers” look into Gerdemann’s impact:
Although Sony would investigate and clear Gerdemann of the accusations above, it doesn’t bode well that Gerdemann “brought in a cadre of former advertising agency colleagues whom Crunchyroll employees came to refer to as the ‘boys’ club,'”, per Bloomberg’s report. Gerdemann’s position, despite apparent employee sentiment to the contrary, might have been protected by his seniority and by corporate practices.
At any rate, it’s war, then, and due to “ongoing acquisition discussions,” wrote Gerdemann in an email to Crunchyroll staff reported by Bloomberg,Crunchyroll “decided not to lean into the promotion ofDandadan.“At this point, it’s only speculative to say precisely what those acquisition hiccups were, but it’s likely linked to the fact that Crunchyroll was unable to procure an exclusive license for simulcasting the anime. It could, however, also gesture toward ongoing tension between Toho and Crunchyroll.
Ordinarily, Crunchyroll manages the Crunchyroll Store, occasionally accused of rolling out unauthorized merchandise; Toho, meanwhile, recently opened the iiZO store, a direct challenge to Crunchyroll’s merchandising territory. Also, after Crunchyroll held the rights to distributeMy Hero Academia’s first two films, Toho secured them for the latest film,My Hero Academia: You’re Next. This conflict isn’t within the realm of speculation, apparently—Bloomberg reports that Gerdemann “has angered both Toei and Toho”, according to current and former employees, citing a Crunchyroll concert where Crunchyroll didn’t meet Toei representatives’ expectations in the representation ofOne Piece.
HinderingDandadan’s promotion seems to be the latest in a series of calculated moves intended to exert and express Crunchyroll’s dominance over a market that grows ever more competitive, while largely Japanese entities like Toho attempt to expand their operations into other territories. The value of Gerdemann’s tactics then becomes the subject of discussion. Gerdemann’s move, if motivated by spite and inexperience, as the employees interviewed seem to suggest, is indicative of an overall downward trajectory for Crunchyroll, whose strategy since its acquisition has been described as “confused” by former and current employees.
Dandadan’s Alleged Debacle Highlights Crunchyroll’s Recent Issues
The Streaming Platform Has Made A Chain Of Questionable Decisions
On the merchandising front, Crunchyroll has upset numerous companies; meanwhile, growing discontent with corporate management has changed the company culture at the streaming platform’s headquarters. Following three rounds of layoffs, Crunchyroll’s hiring targets are as murky and mysteriously opaque as its consumer growth targets. The company has had to push back its growth goals for the anime streaming market to end-of-year 2025 as it reports that 8.5% of customers drop the service (their goal, for the record, is 5%).
With the growing presence of competitors—Bloomberg cites a Polygon survey where 76% of Gen Z anime fans reported watching anime on Netflix compared to only 58% on Crunchyroll—decisions like Gerdemann’s hasty discarding ofDandadan, an anime that would become one of 2024’s greatest, speaks to a huge web of circumstances seeming to aimlessly motivate the anime-focused platform.
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It’s also worth mentioning that disgruntled employees do not bode well for a company’s future, and those who spoke with Bloomberg are not isolated cases.Popular voice actor David Wald recently quit Crunchyrollafter finding out that the mail fans addressed to him was regularly intercepted, open, and redistributed among Crunchyroll’s employees, a practice that apparently went on for five years. Overall, these news are surely hurting Crunchyroll’s standings, which may lead to further loss of users.
Although it’s easy to toss blame around and say that major corporate competitors aimed at general audiences are the reason for Crunchyroll’s underwhelming grasp on the market, its repeated disenfranchisement of industry giants and its questionable decision-making are more indicative. Gerdemann is only one figure in a corporate subsidiary whose culture has changed dramatically and whose marketing tactics clearly aren’t reaching today’s audiences, as proved byCrunchyroll’s sabotage ofDandadan.
Dandadan
Cast
Two high school students, embroiled in a wager to prove the existence of ghosts or aliens, encounter daunting paranormal threats, acquire superpowers, and possibly discover love. The series blends supernatural elements with personal dynamics as the protagonists navigate their newfound abilities and unexpected challenges.
