Crunchyroll has announced a major overhaul of its online store, and the headline detail is hard to miss: starting in August, the new curated shopping experience will be locked behind a Mega Fan or Ultimate Fan subscription. That means anyone on the base Fan tier, or anyone without a subscription at all, gets shut out of the new store entirely.
The Fan tier runs $9.99 a month and covers access to the anime streaming library. Crunchyroll has clarified that Fan subscribers can still "browse" the existing store, but the new curated experience arriving in August will be exclusive to the upper tiers. Mega Fan costs $13.99 a month and adds multi-device streaming and access to the game vault. Ultimate Fan, at $17.99 a month, layers on top of that with manga library access, six-device streaming support, and a monthly swag bag.
What the new store actually looks like
Crunchyroll is pitching the revamped shop as something resembling a convention exclusive merchandise setup. The announcement describes "collectibles, curated drops, and limited-release products inspired by the anime series you love," with the swag bag model that Ultimate subscribers already receive apparently serving as the template for the new experience.
The store being overhauled here is the same one that absorbed Right Stuf Anime back in 2023. Right Stuf was a dedicated Japanese import and anime merchandise specialist with a genuinely deep catalog, and its absorption into Crunchyroll's broader storefront was already a downgrade for serious collectors. The new paywall adds another layer on top of that.
The inventory situation is already raising questions. A significant number of items appear to have quietly disappeared from the store ahead of the overhaul. Titles like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and The Apothecary Diaries, two of the most popular series right now, have noticeably sparse listings. The Ancient Magus' Bride manga is currently listed under final sale terms. Whether the new curated store restores that depth or doubles down on a narrower, drop-based model is still unclear.
Sony's broader push away from physical goods
Here's the thing: this doesn't exist in isolation. Sony acquired Crunchyroll through Funimation in 2021, and the company has spent recent months generating significant backlash over its plans to phase out physical game discs on PlayStation. That decision drew widespread criticism from players and collectors, and the Crunchyroll store change is landing in that same atmosphere of frustration.
Putting a subscription fee in front of a merchandise store is a different category of decision than ending disc-based games, but the direction of travel is consistent. Physical and tangible goods, whether Blu-rays, manga volumes, or anime figures, are increasingly being repositioned as premium perks rather than straightforward purchases. For collectors who relied on Right Stuf and then the Crunchyroll store as their primary source for Japanese merchandise, this is a meaningful restriction.
What most players miss in situations like this is how the framing shifts the burden. Calling it a "member experience" makes a paywall sound like a benefit. You're not losing open access to a store; you're supposedly gaining a curated, convention-style shopping environment. The distinction matters less when the practical result is that browsing the full new store costs at least $13.99 a month before you spend a single dollar on merchandise.
What fans can expect before August
If you're an anime fan who buys physical media or merchandise, the 50% off sale running now is worth checking before the transition locks things down. Open orders placed before the changeover will continue to process and ship normally, including pre-orders that release after the store switches over.
The scope of what Fan-tier subscribers and non-subscribers will actually be able to see and buy after August remains partially unanswered. Crunchyroll has confirmed browsing access for Fan subscribers but hasn't specified whether that extends to purchasing from the baseline catalog or just window shopping the new curated section.
Anime fans on Roblox looking for something to do in the meantime can check out our Anime Fighting Simulator codes for June 2026 for free Chikara and Trait Rerolls, or browse our full gaming guides for more. PlayStation users will also want to keep an eye on our Saros free PSN avatars guide while those region-specific codes are still active.
