Fans of many genres not heavily carried by mainstream services like Netflix and Hulu often have to rely on specialized services off the beaten path. These sites can become a hub for the genre and the center of an online community. Such is the case with Crunchyroll, a leading international platform for fans of Japanese anime and manga. Crunchyroll offers hundreds of titles that are ad-free for the hardcore fan to get access to everything truly.
Crunchyroll carries over over 1,000 titles and 30,000 episodes of anime and Japanese drama. While some licensing restrictions mean that not all programming is available worldwide, that’s still a substantial library that is accessed by millions of registered users to the popular site.
How to Watch Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll offers both free and paid subscriptions. The paid tiers are referred to as “Crunchy Roll Premium” and offer a 14-day free trial of premium access. All service tiers stream in 1080p HD. We break down the plans below.
Crunchyroll Free
You can watch Crunchy Roll free. Free access to Crunchyroll is ad-supported and doesn’t include simulcasts or access to all of Crunchyroll’s anime and manga. You can also watch on only 1 device at a time. New episodes of shows on Crunchyroll will be available one week after the premiere.
Crunchyroll Premium
Premium access to Crunchyroll is broken into three tiers, Fan, Mega Fan, and Ultimate Fan.
The Fan tier costs $7.99/month and provides the following:
- Get all streaming anime and Asian dramas available on Crunchyroll
- Simulcast from Japan will be available as soon as 1 hour after Japanese broadcast
- all episodes are ad-free
- stream on one device at a time
The Mega Fan tier costs $9.99/month and provides the following:
- everything in the Fan tier
- Download shows for offline viewing
- stream on up to four devices at a time
- $15 off a $100 purchase in the Crunchyroll Store every three months
The Ultimate Fan tier costs $14.99/month and provides the following:
- Everything in the Mega Fan Tier
- stream on up to six devices at a time
- $25 off a $100 purchase in the Crunchyroll Store every three months
- Annual Ultimate Fan member swag bag
- Exclusive access to Ultimate Fan merchandise
You can sign up for any of these plans or enjoy Crunchyroll free by signing up here. Also note, that if you just want to sign up for the Fan tier, you may want to sign up for VRV instead. VRV bundles premium access to Crunchyroll and several other services (including Boomerang, Cartoon Hangover, Hidive, RoosterTeeth, and NickSplat) for $9.99 per month. See our review of VRV for more information.
What’s on Crunchyroll
As mentioned, Crunchyroll carries hundreds of titles of anime, Asian dramas, and manga for fans to dig into. These titles include a wide range from old-school fan favorites from the 1980s and 1990s to current popular series. Most current shows still airing are available as simulcasts from Japan, as soon as an hour after the original Japanese broadcast. Also, all shows on Crunchyroll are ad-free and HD if supported by your viewing devices.
Device Support
Crunchyroll is available to stream on select online, as well as through apps for iOS and Android devices, Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV devices, as well as an array of PlayStation devices, and Xbox 360.
Why get Crunchyroll
If you’re a fan of Asian dramas or anime, and a reader of manga, Crunchyroll is one of the best places to get virtually any title out there. From the classics to the new shows, there are hundreds of titles available to watch right now, ad-free. The Crunchyroll site also links to an online retail storefront with an incredible array of plushies, action figures, collectibles, clothing, and more. For a die-hard fan of Japanese entertainment, Crunchyroll is the place to be.
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