The Crunchyroll Website has announced a partnership with Pony Canyon, a Japanese anime distributor.  Under the terms of the agreement Crunchyroll will begin online streaming and digital distribution of a number of Pony Canyon anime titles starting with the Steel Angel Kurumi anime produced by Oriental Light and Magic.  Crunchyroll will have access to the initial 24-episode Steel Angel Kurumi series (released here by ADV), the 12-episode Steel Angel Kurumi 2 anime (also released by ADV), and the 3-part Steel Angel Kurumi Zero OVA, which hasn’t been released on DVD here in the States.

Crunchroll has recently announced deals with Toei (see “Toei Titles on Crunchyroll”), TV Tokyo (see “Crunchyroll Goes Legit,” Skip Beat, Shugo Chara on Cruncyroll”), and Udon Entertainment (see “Udon Manga on Crunchyroll”).  Crunchyroll is attempting to become the major anime portal for North America (see “Crunchyroll CEO: Replacing Toonami”) and simultaneously develop a new model for monetizing Internet distribution (see “Crunchyroll CEO: Making Anime Pay”).