Crunchyroll

Anime fans are spoiled for choice when it comes to video streaming services. Crunchyroll, one of the best-known names in the category, is also one of the top places to watch Japanese animated shows and movies. It offers more than 1,300 series, many simulcast shows, and an ad-free tier. Thanks to recent mergers by its new parent company, Sony, Crunchyroll has become a one-stop anime shop that features dubbed content from former competitor Funimation, as well as VRV's library. All of this makes Crunchyroll the best streaming service for anime fans, and earns it our Editors' Choice award.

What Can You Watch on Crunchyroll?

Crunchyroll's library breaks down into anime and dramas, with the former being the bulk of the content. Shows are distributed across many genres, such as action, adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, music, mystery, romance, and sci-fi. Top shows include Attack on Titan, Death Note, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Hunter X Hunter, One-Punch Man, several Naruto series, and Yuri!!! on Ice. Crunchyroll also produces original anime series, including A Place Further Than the Universe, In/Spectre, and The Rising of the Shield Hero. There are too many shows on Crunchyroll to list them all out, but you can find the complete list here.

(Credit: Crunchyroll/PCMag)

Other anime streaming sites fill some of Crunchyroll's coverage gaps while offering many of the same shows. For instance, Hulu has most of the non-original shows mentioned above, plus Cowboy Bebop, some Dragon Ball series, and Trigun. Netflix has many of the same popular titles too, in addition to acclaimed platform-exclusive anime, such as Devilman Crybaby, Cannon Busters, and Castlevania.

Crunchyroll, like most other dedicated anime streaming services, maintains a library of simulcast shows. Simulcast episodes are available for streaming, in most cases, about an hour after they originally air. Currently, Crunchyroll has about 40 simulcast shows in its library, including Ace of the Diamond, Black Clover, In/Spectre, My Hero Academia, and One Piece. You can keep track of all the episode releases with Crunchyroll's simulcast calendar. Hulu also offers simulcast series.

Crunchyroll's dramas include a live-action Death Note adaptation and even some of Bruce Lee's catalog. These are certainly not the service's main draw, but some audiences may appreciate their inclusion.

Crunchyroll's library has grown even more impressive now that it has absorbed Funimation. More than 100 Funimation shows, from Tokyo Ghoul to Yu Yu Hakusho, are already available on Crunchyroll, and more will roll out over time according to Crunchyroll's release calendar. Before, Crunchyroll and Funimation stood on opposite sides of the "subs versus dubs" debate. However, with Crunchyroll bolstered by Funimation's deep dubbed library, subscribers no longer need to choose. Crunchyroll also picked up content from French anime streaming service Wakanim and VRV, which bundled Crunchyroll alongside other streaming channels. Having a few non-anime cartoon options makes Crunchyroll even more irresistible.

(Credit: Crunchyroll/PCMag)

A dedicated anime streaming service, such as Crunchyroll, should work well for you if that's the only thing you care about. However, if you or someone else in your household wants to watch popular shows and movies (or even other animated series) then you're better off choosing a streaming service, such as Hulu or Netflix, that also includes mainstream content. For instance, Netflix's top originals include Bojack Horseman, Stranger Things, and The Witcher. Hulu has some popular exclusives too, such as The Handmaid's Tale and the Veronica Mars reboot. Disney+ is a good option for family-friendly shows and animations, with shows such as The Mandalorian and Marvel's Hawkeye.

Crunchyroll Pricing and Platforms

Crunchyroll offers a free tier and three paid tiers. The free version is ad-supported and doesn't include simulcasts or access to Crunchyroll's full anime and manga catalog. Instead, you can watch a "seasonal sampler" featuring the first three episodes of new titles for a limited time. Crunchyroll's $7.99-per-month premium Fan tier removes those limitations and grants full access. The $ 11.99-per-month Mega Fan plan offers discounts on select products in the online store, access to fan expos, and offline viewing. The $15.99-per-month Ultimate Fan option lets you stream on even more devices at once and includes cool annual gifts like bags and action figures.

Notably, all tiers support 1080p streaming. They also offer exclusive access to Funimation and VRV shows going forward, at no extra charge. Crunchyroll even recommends canceling your subscriptions on those now obsolete services. If you're a Funimation or VRV subscriber, you'll receive a free, 60-day Crunchyroll premium account upon signing up. Note: Crunchyroll is working on importing users' watch lists from those now-defunct sites.

Other anime streaming services charge a similar price. Hidive's premium version, for example, costs $5.99 per month. A Max membership, which includes a lot of DC content, costs $9.99 per month with ads. Hulu's ad-supported tier costs $7.99 per month, but you can pay $17.99 per month to get rid of ads. Netflix starts at $6.99 per month with ads, but we recommend that people subscribe to Netflix's $15.49-per-month Standard plan instead. If you don't want to pay anything, RetroCrush's classic anime library is completely free.

Mainstream video streaming services also charge a similar monthly price. Disney+, for instance, is $7.99 per month with ads, while Amazon Prime Video is $8.99 per month with ads.

One unique aspect of Crunchyroll is its apparel and manga shop. Here you can browse merchandise that suits a holistic weeb lifestyle, such as books, figurines, clothes, and home videos (if you want physical media to complement your streaming). Crunchyroll's shop even has Japanese snacks available for sale, perhaps to live up to the service's delicious name. Crunchyroll bolstered its storefront by acquiring the popular online anime store Right Stuf. This should expand the amount of merchandise customers can browse and purchase, but we've seen reports that adult-targeted products have been removed from the store following the merger.

Crunchyroll is available on many different platforms and devices including media streaming devices (Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku), mobile phones (Android and iOS), and several gaming consoles (Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Switch). Crunchyroll no longer supports the Xbox 360 or the original Wii. Hulu offers both on-demand and live TV streaming on the Switch.

Crunchyroll on the Web

Crunchyroll's web interface features a distinctive gray, white, and orange color scheme. However, the amount of information on any one page is overwhelming. The interface feels more like an online forum board than a dedicated streaming service. You navigate the experience via a top menu for Shows, Manga, News, Games, and Store. In the upper right corner, there's a button for your Queue, a Random button (a delightful feature that serves up the first episode of an unknown show), and your profile icon. The Queue lets you sort saved shows by data accessed or data added, but you can't sort entries alphabetically or search the list.

(Credit: Crunchyroll/PCMag)

The profile area lets you update your basic information, add info about your anime-related interests, and customize your profile photo. You can also set notification and content preferences, and view payment history details.

On the shows page, you sort anime and drama titles by Popular, Simulcasts, Updated, Alphabetical, Genres, Seasons, or Release Calendar. Clicking the show brings you to its detail page, where you browse available episodes, see user ratings, and find simulcast information.

The main playback interface is cluttered, so you should watch videos in the full-screen mode to avoid distractions. By default, the space surrounding the content is filled not just with ads, but user comments, a carousel for episodes in whatever show you're watching, recommendations for other shows, and links to other Crunchyroll content, such as news and browser versions of anime mobile games. The quality of those games, of course, varies.

In addition to the standard playback and volume controls, the video player has a next episode button and a gear icon for selecting the playback resolution and subtitle language (10 in total). However, the video player lacks rewind or fast-forward buttons. Crunchyroll took a long time to move from the obsolete Flash to a more modern video player, and compatibility issues cropped up when testing the manga reader on the web. Fortunately, the video player itself works just fine.

Crunchyroll on Mobile

We tested Crunchyroll's mobile app on a Google Pixel phone. The app uses the same orange and white color scheme as on the web, which creates a consistent look across platforms. There's an overflow menu at the app's top for accessing account settings on one side and a search bar on the other. The Account setting section is fairly basic. The only real customization option is the ability to change the app language and manga viewing quality. The side menu also has external links to other Crunchyroll apps, such as its Manga App, News App, and Store. 

(Credit: Crunchyroll/PCMag)

The top navigation menu has four items: Home, New, Anime, and Manga Shop. Crunchyroll divides the Home section into a My Queue (essentially a list of shows you save for watching) and My History lists. The New section organizes shows in two categories: This Season and Updated Episodes. Titles are alphabetically listed, but we would like to see the ability to sort by genre or popularity.

The dedicated Anime section has all these filter options that the New tab lacks. You can sort by popularity, release season, title, or genre. You can sort the manga section by Newest and Featured.

Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan subscribers now also gain access to premium mobile games via Crunchyroll, no in-app purchases required. The current lineup isn't huge, but it has intriguing titles like puzzle game Inbento, beat 'em up River City Girls, and RPG Wolfstride. There's already a lot of overlap between gamers and anime fans, so hopefully Crunchyroll's mobile gaming library can grow to rival Netflix's impressive offerings.

Crunchyroll Features and Accessibility

Although Crunchyroll now has a better mix of subs and dubs, subs are still the focus. So, we wish we had a few more options beyond just changing the language. Other streaming services let you adjust everything from font color to window opacity to make reading as comfortable as possible. You can't customize the subtitles' appearance.

Fortunately, Crunchyroll supports offline downloads on mobile devices in its Mega Fan tier. Most other mainstream video streaming services support this feature, including Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Paramount Plus. The service also meets the standard for simultaneous streams. You can stream to one device with the Fan tier, or up to six devices simultaneously with the Ultimate Fan tier. 

We would still like to see Crunchyroll adopt more sophisticated parental control tools. We like that you can filter mature video and manga content, but there's no way to lock those settings down. Given the library's size, the ability to whitelist those series that a parent deems appropriate for their child would be helpful. Crunchyroll should also add support for multiple user profiles under one account. Additional profiles would help Crunchyroll users keep their queues organized and let them better tune their profiles.

Using a VPN With Crunchyroll

A VPN is an excellent way to protect your privacy online from malicious actors and your ISP. Another benefit? They can help you spoof your real geographic location when online. Many video streaming services, as a result, do not allow you to use a VPN since streaming rights are often locked to certain regions. Some services are not available to residents in other countries than the US or Canada. The inherently international nature of Crunchyroll's content made us wonder whether a VPN connection would prevent us from streaming.

Fortunately, we experienced no major issues watching anime with our test Windows device connected to ProtonVPN servers in Denmark and Canada. Even if your VPN works with all your video streaming services today, that's no indication that it will in the future. Many video streaming services find new ways to detect and block VPN traffic.

Verdict: Anime for All

Crunchyroll is an impressive anime streaming service due to its huge catalog size and strong simulcast support. It also has exclusive original anime series and novel extras, such as an apparel and manga shop. Offline downloads and increased simultaneous streams increase the appeal, as well. What makes Crunchyroll our Editors' Choice winner for anime streaming is that it gobbled up the competition. Funimation's dubs? Now on Crunchyroll. VRV's indie cartoons? Crunchyroll's got those, too. Feel how you want about monopolies, but these options make Crunchyroll tough to beat.

For general audiences, Netflix is our Editors' Choice for on-demand streaming due to its top-notch originals and excellent features. Hulu and YouTube TV are our top picks for live TV streaming, since both services offer a broader range of channels and capabilities at a reasonable price. Finally, we recommend Peacock for free streaming thanks to its generous library.