It is true that there are thousands of anime fans throughout the world, but just as that is also true, all of us who are anime fans know that there are not so many platforms that offer us a good anime catalog so So much so, we have to get the chestnuts out of the fire together. In this article we are going to talk about Crunchyroll is a good and safe platform with anime content.
It is true that in recent months the well-known streaming film and series platform, Netflix, has wanted to attract audiences with these tastes and preferences towards them, with examples such as Cowboy Bebop or the well-known Evangelion, also others such as One-Punch Man but not it is enough because we will eat them in a matter of hours or we have already seen them. The problem with all this is that there are very few (legal) platforms that offer this type of content souls.
However, as always, we want to bring you solutions. A platform has arrived in Spain which we could baptize as 'the Netflix of anime' Since it is currently one of the most recommended platforms with the best opinions to keep up with everything that happens in the Japanese entertainment industry. That platform is called Crunchyroll and that is what we are going to talk about in this article.
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Crunchyroll: what is the platform like?
Crunchyroll was born as a project already in the years 2006. It was a website that promised and gave what it promised, a lot of content related to Asia, including fansubs and the original versions, but yes, without asking permission from the owners of the rights to those content. In other words, Crunchyroll was not legal in its first steps. What they did do (we understand that for fear of lawsuits and compensation to owners) was to eliminate the content that had rights once they were requested.
Over the years and especially with the arrival of capital from investors, pledged to only include legal content on the page without affecting third parties since many companies known as Bandai Entertainment sued the web. The web portal arrived in our country in 2013, although it is true that it did not have all the power that it had in other parts of the planet in terms of catalog.
Today Crunchyroll has more than 40 million active users and at the end of 2018 it already had more than two million paid subscriptions worldwide. Therefore, in this article we started with a question, Is the Crunchyroll app reliable for watching anime? and we answer emphatically yes, it is.
Digging a bit into how Crunchyroll is in terms of the web aesthetically and functionally, it must be said that It has an intuitive, basic interface and you will find a slider that guides you to find the most popular titles that most people search for. You will also find in lists the anime episodes that are launched at the same time in Japan and in our country, being the platform of the first places where you can see them. You will also find lists of the latest news in anime and manga or all the latest chapters that have been uploaded to the platform.
What does Crunchyroll offer?
On the web platform you can find different content, all of them legal at this point, it has nothing to do with its beginnings in which the content was pirated. Said contents can be read, such as sleeves, they also have the best known. So that you are aware of the news and updates of the page, more than anything to know what will bring you new this month, they have a news section. The web also has a forum where you will answer questions and you can chat with other users or see people's recommendations.
This would be in terms of free content with a free account, but now we will go over what the platform offers in its paid versions.
Differences between free user and paid user:
With this registration and without paying anything, you will be able to have access to a fairly limited part of the content that you will find on the web. For example, the simulcast or episodes that are broadcast at the same time in Japan and here it will be exclusive to paying users and you will not be able to see them first. The advertising will also be mandatory on the player. And finally, the user who does not pay the subscription will have to settle for staying with a rather poor video quality, such as 480p, while the user who pays subscription will be able to enjoy the content in 1080p.
If all that convinces you to know more about users who pay subscription since you are a total fan of manga and anime and you are interested in enjoying it at full capacity, you have to know that there are two types of paid subscription on Crunchyroll: premium and premium +, which cost € 4,99 and € 8,99 per month respectively. If you want to try these subscriptions to see if it's really worth it, You have a fourteen-day trial with the premium subscription from the moment you register on the platform.
At this point in the article you can be more or less clear if it is worth registering and paying for the platform, so we will finish giving you a few more information to finish the job and you decide if it's worth it or not. But at least, you already know that you can try the subscription completely free of charge for 14 days, therefore, you lose nothing. See if it looks like a website with a good user base and a journey that up to Sony was interested in buying the platform (or so the rumors said) for more than 950 million dollars.
Crunchyroll does not have its own app as such to use on Smart Tvs, so if that is what you are looking for, keep that in mind. What you can use is the web page in a normal web browser, as is obvious. Besides this you can download the Crunchyroll app on platforms such as Playstation 4 and Xbox One (We have not confirmed if they are already updated for PS5 and Series X / S, although it should not take long since all streaming video apps such as Netflix, HBO, Prime Video ... have been updated).
You can also use the web with Chromecast, Amazon Fire Tv Stick, or Roku TV. In each and every one of these platforms you can use the web to view content in 1080p no problem.
As a final touch or opinion, it should be said that despite being a good place for anime and manga fans and that it is already totally safe and legal, it still has enough points to improve, such as the lack of dubbing in Spanish in its version free, something that can be quite annoying and that you have to take into account.
As a positive aspect you have one of the largest catalogs and that above all, it is updated with the best titles in the Japanese market, and all this at a price of less than 5 euros per month. Therefore, we recommend that you try the web, and from there, decide for yourself.
Greetings. The article is somewhat out of date. For years, free users also have 1080p content available, the main difference being that simulcasts see them 1 week later, which is when they are released for everyone, and not 1 hour after being broadcast in Japan as they can enjoy the paying users. The payment tiers have also changed, currently being the Fan and Mega Fan plans.
Hi Hazu!
Thank you for your comment, it is noted to update.