Crunchyroll is seriously in the news these days, and anime production and distribution companies all over the place are feeling the effects.

Since the revelation, a few days ago, that it had received backing from the venture capital firm, Venrock, the Crunchyroll website for Asian video content has been busy forging partnerships with several companies. The latest working arrangements involve Akibanana, DLE, G.D.H./Gonzo, and GT Channel.

Anime fans will immediately recognize the G.D.H./Gonzo connection (the company has been involved with such series as Basilisk, Full Metal Panic, Gantz, Peacemaker, Samurai 7, and so on). Many other fans will know something about Akibanana, whose parent company, GIJane, created it specifically to promote the otaku culture. (Very loosely translated, otaku means "obsessive fan" when referring to anime. The site supposedly revolves around anime culture of the Akihabara area of Tokyo, but in fact has a much wider scope.)

DLE Inc. describes itself as an "entertainment solutions company," meaning that while it creates original animations (it is currently one of the top runners in FLASH animation, having participated in the Transformers series, for example), it also works on distribution through existing media, and marketing of toys, food, stationery, and other products based on copyrighted characters.

The GT Channel partnership is a slight diversion from the anime world, since it involves Japanese car culture. But it will provide another avenue of interest for those visitors to Crunchyroll who simply have a love of all things Asian or Japanese.

At the same time that all these Crunchyroll partnerships were announced, G.D.H. was taking this new business model and running with it. The company has made its own announcement that its two brand new series - The Tower of DRUAGA - the aegis of URUK, and BLASSREITER - will be made available online for overseas viewers, on the same day they are broadcast in Japan. They will be uploaded, with English subtitles, to Crunchyroll, YouTube, and BOST-TV, yet another online video service that specializes in anime.

The options will vary somewhat among the three sites, providing free streaming in some cases, or fee-based downloads of high-resolution movie files in others. G.D.H. describes this as "a legal online alternative to illegal file-sharing and downloading." This undoubtedly refers to the fact that in the interval between a series appearing in Japan, and its eventual licensing in North America, fansubbed pirated footage tended to flood the internet from file-sharing communities who didn't want to wait so long to see the new series. It will be interesting to see whether this move by G.D.H. really does eliminate the cost-free "middleman" as it hopes. Its success may depend on what proportion of its offerings is "fee-based."

Meanwhile, in an announcement that is very likely related to the new distribution model symbolized by the Crunchyroll developments, Bandai has retracted its recent announcement of the imminent release of three new series in North America (Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed, true tears, and sola). According to Tatsunori Konno, President of Bandai Visual USA, "Many aspects of the anime market are in a transitional phase." He states that the company needs time to "reinvent" itself.

In his official explanation on the blog of Bandai USA's Dot-Anime.us website, Konno gives more details. Bandai has found the anime market in the U.S. to be "sinking every day," and therefore the company has "thrown out" all the preparations they had been making for this summer's release of the three series, so Bandai can do its "reinventing." Konno sees one ray (pardon the pun) of hope, with the Blu-Ray format now having become the standard for future video releases. Presumably this will help financially, since the company will not have to split its resources between Blu-Ray and the Toshiba HD-DVD format that has been withdrawn from the market. Meanwhile, Bandai will re-evaluate its marketing strategy.

Just over a week ago, both Bandai and FUNimation had issued statements warning fans that sites like Crunchyroll could be the death of the anime industry, so both the fans and the streaming site had better straighten up (and, the implication was, fork over). Yet G.D.H./Gonzo, Akibanana, and DLE appear to believe that anime will survive very well indeed, if they partner with Crunchyroll rather than attempt to crush it.

Now Bandai appears to be reeling, and has acknowledged the need to "reinvent" its marketing style in the current conditions. Now we can only wonder if FUNimation, too, is feeling the "Crunchyroll effect," and what its next move might be.