Crunchyroll is the ultimate streaming service for people who are huge anime and manga fans. Crunchyroll was purchased by Sony a couple of years back and I feel it has just gone from strength to strength. Currently, I use Crunchyroll on my Amazon Fire TV Stick, My PlayStation 5, and also a pretty damn old Samsung android tablet and the service works great on all devices.
How to Download Crunchyroll
You can download the app from a digital store. Click on the Download button located at the end of this review.
The Program Review
The amount of content that Crunchyroll has is just staggering. They have some awesome series on here ranging from things like Dragonball Z, One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Attack on Titan to name the ones that are favorites of mine. I have also come across some more obscure shows that I never even heard of before thanks to this service.
Crunchyroll works pretty much the same across all the devices that I currently have it on. It is easy to navigate, it has your favorites, recommends stuff to you and if you have used any streaming service before, you will find it very easy. My old ass Samsung tablet that has to be pushing ten years old even runs this app well!
The video quality is full HD and it really does look great, I have very rarely experienced any buffering or a drop in quality, and when it did happen, it was because of my internet not because of Crunchyroll. Most of the shows just have their Japanese voice track, but with English subtitles, there is a handful of those that are dubbed, but not many.
One of the best aspects of Crunchyroll is how quickly they add new episodes. A great example of this is a show that I really got into was called Blue Exorcist and Crunchyroll would air the episodes an hour… yes, an hour after their aired in Japan! That to me is just insane and it is not just this show that they do this for, but a ton more awesome shows as well.
There is a free version of Crunchyroll, but if you are into your anime which you are as you are reading this review, it is very limited. The free version has a lot of ads that you have to deal with and you also do not get access to episodes an hour after they air in Japan, you have to wait a week.
There are two premium versions of Crunchyroll. The Fan tier gets rid of ads, lets you watch episodes an hour after they air in Japan, and gives you access to a ton of digital Mangas to enjoy. It does though only allow you to watch on one device at a time and you cannot download and watch stuff offline, this is priced at £6.50 a month here in the UK, with other territories having the same kind of price point.
The next premium tier is called Mega Fan. Mega Fan is the tier that I subscribe to, you get the same things you get with the Fan tier, but four people can use it at once and you can download shows to view offline. This costs a little bit more at £7.99 a month, but if you have more than one person in the house that is into anime, it is worth it.
For anime fans, Crunchyroll is a service that is 100 percent worth it. I have been using this for a few years now and I have no complaints about the service at all. You can try out the free version, but the two premium versions do offer a 14-day free trial which is what I suggest you go for instead of trying it out with the free version.
