Crunchyroll Rolls out Store Updates
What Is Happening to the Crunchy-roll Store, and Why Anime Fans May Want Another Option
For a lot of anime fans, buying physical anime has always been part of the fun.
Maybe it is a Blu-ray of a favorite series. Maybe it is a manga collection, a collector's edition, or something that can sit on a shelf for years. Streaming makes watching anime easier than ever, but it has not completely replaced the desire to actually own something.
That is why the recent changes to the Crunchyroll Store are worth paying attention to.
Crunchyroll has announced that its store is moving toward a new shopping experience focused on curated drops, Crunchyroll-exclusive merchandise, collectibles, and limited-release products. The new experience is being made available exclusively to Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan members.
From a customer's perspective, that raises a simple question:
Where does the average anime fan go when they just want to buy anime stuff without needing to fit into a particular membership or retail model?
The Problem Is Not That Crunchyroll Is Changing
Crunchyroll has every right to change its store.
The company has grown into one of the biggest names in anime, and its store has become much more than a place to buy Blu-rays. It carries figures, clothing, manga, collectibles, home goods, and physical media.
The problem for customers is what happens when one company becomes such a large part of the anime retail market.
Crunchyroll also absorbed Right Stuf Anime in 2023. Right Stuf had built a reputation around being a dedicated anime and manga retailer, particularly among collectors and people who wanted a large selection of physical releases.
For longtime customers, that change meant losing one of the most recognizable independent-feeling places to shop for anime.
Now the Crunchyroll Store is changing again.
Crunchyroll says the new store will focus on curated drops and exclusive merchandise. At the same time, the company has introduced changes to its return policies, including final-sale restrictions on select purchases. Existing orders will continue to be handled, but the overall shopping experience is clearly moving in a different direction.
That does not automatically make Crunchyroll bad.
It does mean that fans have fewer reasons to assume there will always be one large store that serves every kind of anime collector.
What Does the Average Anime Fan Actually Want?
Most fans are not thinking about corporate retail strategy when they buy a Blu-ray.
They are thinking about things like:
"Is this in stock?"
"Can I afford it?"
"Will it actually arrive when it is supposed to?"
"Can I get the edition I want?"
"Can I find older releases?"
"Do I have to pay for a membership to get the best deal?"
"And if something goes wrong, can I actually get help?"
That is the customer perspective that matters.
A good anime retailer does not need to be the biggest store in the world. It needs to make buying physical anime feel easy, fair, and worth doing.
That could mean competitive prices.
It could mean better communication about pre-orders.
It could mean carrying older and harder-to-find physical releases.
It could mean making physical media a priority instead of treating it as one category among thousands of collectibles.
Most importantly, it could mean giving fans another choice.
The Demand for Anime Merchandise Is Already There
The interesting part is that this is not an argument for creating a market that does not exist.
The anime merchandise market is already large and growing.
Grand View Research estimates that the global anime merchandising market was worth about $12 billion in 2025 and projects it to reach nearly $24 billion by 2033.
The U.S. market is growing as well. Grand View Research estimates the U.S. anime merchandising market at about $638 million in 2025, with an estimated annual growth rate of 18.2% through 2030.
Online shopping is especially important. The global online anime merchandising segment was estimated at approximately $7.5 billion in 2025.
These numbers cover anime merchandise broadly, so they should not be treated as proof that a specific number of people want a new physical-media store.
They do show something important, though.
There is a large and growing group of people willing to spend money on anime products.
The opportunity is not necessarily to build another giant Crunchyroll.
The opportunity may be to build something different.
Why Build Another Anime Retailer?
That is where our Kickstarter comes in.
The goal is not simply to make another anime store with a different logo.
The idea is to explore whether fans would support a more focused alternative for physical anime.
A retailer that puts the customer first.
A retailer that understands why someone wants to own a physical copy instead of simply streaming a show.
A retailer that can give collectors another place to shop, while creating more competition in a market where one company has become extremely important.
Competition is good for customers.
When there are more legitimate places to buy something, retailers have more reason to compete on price, selection, customer service, shipping, availability, and overall experience.
That is the kind of market we want to help create.
This Is Bigger Than Crunchyroll
It is easy to make this conversation about one company.
That is not really the point.
Crunchyroll is simply a good example of how quickly the anime retail landscape can change.
A store can merge with another retailer.
Products can disappear.
Membership requirements can change.
Policies can change.
Entire categories can become less important.
What seemed like a permanent place to buy anime can look very different a few years later.
For fans who collect physical anime, that creates a problem.
You do not want the future of physical anime collecting to depend on having one giant retailer that controls most of the conversation.
You want options.
We Think Fans Should Have Options
That is the reason for the Kickstarter.
We want to see if anime fans are interested in helping build another option.
Not necessarily another massive corporation.
Not another store trying to sell absolutely everything.
A retailer built around the people who still care about physical anime.
The people who want Blu-rays.
The people who want collector's editions.
The people who want to discover older releases.
The people who want fair prices.
And the people who simply want to know that there is somewhere else to shop.
The anime industry is growing.
Anime merchandise is growing.
Physical collecting has not disappeared.
So maybe the next step is not asking fans to accept fewer choices.
Maybe it is time to create more.
If you believe anime fans deserve another place to buy physical anime, support our Kickstarter and help us build it.
Checkout our landing page for all the details on how you can support (as of 8/18/2026 our kickstarter is processing and will go live soon) : CherryHillAni.com
