Crunchyroll streaming service review: Price, features and content

Founded in 2006, Crunchyroll has always been a go-to destination for anime fans. A niche streaming service, Crunchyroll specialises mainly in anime series, subbed and dubbed, but also offers a vast collection of digital manga and anime-based mobile games.

Moreover, Crunchyroll hosts an online store with collectibles, media, clothing and accessories that will appeal to anyone with a passion for Japanese culture. Unfortunately, it ships from the US, so you may need to wait a bit to get your hands on your order.

As of March 2022, Crunchyroll and Funimation have merged under the Crunchyroll brand, which means that Crunchyroll is now the ultimate platform for anime enthusiasts. Funimation will continue to add new episodes of ongoing series, but any new series will stream exclusively on Crunchyroll. You can find more details about what that means for subscribers in the dedicated section below.

Pros and cons

Crunchyroll price

Crunchyroll is completely free to use, with limitations.

You'll need to sign up for an account to watch most titles (as they come with age restrictions), but once that's done you can watch a wide collection of anime episodes for free, with ads. You can't access the entire library with a free account nor read manga.

If you enjoy using Crunchyroll and want to unlock everything the service has to offer, you can splurge on a paid subscription, which comes with extra perks.

Crunchyroll Premium

There are 2 types of Premium subscriptions that Crunchyroll enthusiasts can opt for: Fan or Mega-Fan.

With Fan, you unlock the entire library with no ads as well as get access to new episodes 1 hour after Japan and the collection of manga. It costs $10.99 a month but doesn't include offline viewing and you can only stream on 1 device at a time.

If that's not enough, Mega-Fan costs $13.99 a month and lets you stream on 4 devices at the same time as well as download content on your mobile device to watch offline. Plus, you get all that's included in the Fan subscription.

You can sign up for 12 months and save 16%. A Mega-Fan subscription for an entire year costs $139.99.

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Name	Product	Free trial period	Max video quality	Simultaneous streams	Monthly price
Crunchyroll Fan		14 days	HD	1	$10.99	Sign up View details		loading Fetching your data...
Crunchyroll Mega Fan		14 days	HD	4	$13.99	Sign up View details		loading Fetching your data...

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Crunchyroll/Funimation merger details

As of March 2022, Funimation and Crunchyroll have merged, so anime fans no longer have to pay for 2 separate services to keep up with their favourite shows.

The Funimation library is moving to Crunchyroll and any new shows will stream exclusively on Crunchyroll moving forward. For the time being, Funimation will continue to add new episodes of ongoing series. However, it is strongly advising subscribers to move over to Crunchyroll in March. Even better, eligible Funimation users get an extended 60-day free trial of Crunchyroll Premium. If that's you, you should have already gotten instructions for how to redeem the trial via email.

The downside? You can't log in to Crunchyroll with your Funimation credentials or transfer your watch history and queue just yet. However, given that Crunchyroll will become home to any new shows moving forward, it's best to make the switch sooner rather than later.

What content is on Crunchyroll?

Crunchyroll has a vast library of anime series, so there's no chance you'll run out of stuff to watch, even with a free account. One of the most popular anime on the platform is One Piece, which has over 900 episodes, all streaming on Crunchyroll.

Other notable titles include Attack on Titan, Dr. Stone, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach, Dragon Ball Super and Fruits Basket – to name only a few. Following the merger with Funimation, even more titles will become available on Crunchyroll, like Cowboy Bebop, which was previously missing from the service. A few movies are available as well, though they might be hard to find since everything is listed under "Shows".

Crunchyroll content

Looking for a new anime series to watch? Check out the full Crunchyroll TV show library.

What can I watch on Crunchyroll?