Crunchyroll confirmed with ANN on Friday that its web and mobile application for its ‘Crunchyroll Manga’ digital manga distribution service will no longer be available after December 11.
Crunchyroll stated to ANN regarding the removal:
As a part of Crunchyroll‘s ongoing commitment to providing fans with the best experiences around their favorite series, we will be sunsetting the Crunchyroll manga application on December 11 across web and mobile. However, fans looking to discover new manga adventures can head over to the Crunchyroll Store, which now offers more than 17,000 manga across genres.
Fans can also enjoy other benefits of a Crunchyroll Mega Fan or Ultimate Fan membership, including Crunchyroll Game Vault, which includes a growing catalog of free-to-play titles across iOS and Android.
The company had sent out an email to users previously stating “Beginning November 7, 2023, digital manga will no longer be available on Crunchyroll,” but the service is still currently available as of press time.
Crunchyroll launched its Crunchyroll Game Vault mobile games service on Tuesday. Right Stuf phased out its store and migrated its products to the Crunchyroll Store on October 10.
The company launched the Crunchyroll Manga service in October 2013. The service was simultaneously publishing titles from Kodansha USA Publishing in over 170 countries. Crunchyroll removed 14 simulpub titles in February 2018 and removed 10 catalog titles in March 2018. Kodansha USA Publishing then removed a number of its manga titles from Crunchyroll on January 31. Kodansha had issued a statement to Crunchyroll, saying that its suspension of simulub updates was due to “changes” in its simulpub distribution program.
Kodansha Ltd. launched its K MANGA distribution service exclusively in the United States on May 10.
Source: Email correspondence