A popular streaming service for anime fans can confidently transform into one of the major players of 2024, at least. A vast number of programs, reasonable prices, and outstanding functions make it appreciated by occasional watchers and enthusiasts. This review is going to discuss pricing for Crunchyroll, its subscription tiers, any current discounts, and things that set Crunchyroll apart from other streaming services.
Overview of Crunchyroll Review
Anime buffs will be glad to discover that Crunchyroll is one of the largest online streaming services that provides a vast library with over 40,000 episodes. In 2024, it features four subscription tiers – Fan $7.99 monthly), Mega Fan ($11.99 monthly), and Ultimate Fan ($15.99 monthly) all of which include ad-free streaming and other privileges. They can use the platform to watch the episodes released shortly after airing in Japan and have an integrated manga database. Limited by the subscription options, Crunchyroll is not the cheapest service for anime fans but students can still get a discount.
Crunchyroll Free Trial
When getting a Crunchyroll account, you have two choices: the first one is a limited account to access the website with a limited number of advertisement-supported content. But if you are ready to get something that does not interfere with ads and has a separate list of premium offers, you are welcome to subscribe for any of the offered plans and get 14 days on trial for free. It is necessary to give your payment information but you can exit the subscription at any time during the first-period free trial without any fee being charged to your account.
Crunchyroll Billing Discount
Currently, there is only one way of paying even less for a Crunchyroll premium subscription and that is by signing up for a longer period. For example, the lowest range Fan plan has a monthly plan that costs $7.99 per month. Alternatively, if you go with the quarterly billing, which means every three months, the cost per cycle is $22.99, and it is equivalent to $7.66 per month, though it is a 4% discount.
The cheapest way to subscribe is through the annual subscription where the charge is $79.99 per 12 months. And that comes out to be $6.66 per month, about 16% cheaper than what they usually charge.
Crunchyroll Premium Perks
Crunchyroll adds a few bonuses for the mid and the highest tiers of the subscription plan. You get to be the first to participate in Crunchyroll Expo events and lotteries in the $11.99 Mega Fan plan and $15 off $100 on any 3-month Crunchyroll store purchase.
But on the $15.99 per month Ultimate Fan plan, that $15 quarterly discount then increases to $25 off of $100. While that’s not quite enough to offset the additional money you are spending for the top-tier plan in the long term, perhaps you are sharing the costs of subscriptions with several other people anyway.
Exclusive Crunchyroll Merch
The Ultimate Fan plan also includes an annual swag bag and the ability to buy an Original Nendoroid of Hime, Crunchyroll’s mascot and everyone’s best girl.
We couldn’t discover more information on this swag bag or exclusive figure available online, however, Ultimate Fan subscribers can purchase Hime Nendoroid for 43% off using the code HIMENENDO at checkout. It comes to $37 before tax and shipping if you don’t want to use the calculator, pull it out.
Crunchyroll 15% Off Store Coupon
If you sign up for the Crunchyroll newsletter using the code CRNEW when ordering, you’ll receive a Crunchyroll store discount of 15% on your first order, though of course, it doesn’t affect the price of a Crunchyroll subscription.
Free shipping applies to orders of $100 or more and while that isn’t the best as Entertainment Earth offers free shipping on orders of $39 with code FREESHIP39, Hot Topic on orders of $60 or any order on Amazon for $35 it might not matter if one is buying one of the expensive $300+ figures.
Crunchyroll Plans and Prices
| Plan | Price | Offline viewing | Crunchyroll Game Vault? | Full anime catalog? | Streams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | — | — | — | 1 |
| Fan | $7.99/mo. | — | — | ✔ | 1 |
| Mega Fan | $11.99/mo. | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | 4 |
| Ultimate Fan | $15.99/mo. | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | 6 |
The only sure-fire method to decide whether Crunchyroll is for you is to register with a free version. This allows you to narrow it down to a slice of the said platform with no obligations on your part.
However, to be able to view those new episodes of your favorite simulcast you are going to need a subscription package. If you are not a member of a large household where multiple people use one account, then the cheapest pack, the Fan package is ideal. That means for a few dollars less than that, you will be able to watch all of Crunchyroll’s anime without ads.
On the other hand, a $7.99 Hulu plan is full of advertisements. When it comes to savings, Crunchyroll must give anime lovers what they are looking for the most.
However, if you find yourself in a situation where you have several people paying for the account then mega fan has benefits. In Crunchyroll, multiple people can watch anime at once from different devices and the Mega Fan subscription is for four streams at the same time. It also enables offline mode if you travel a lot or have no internet, and the Crunchyroll Game Vault with River City Girls, Behind the Frame, and more.
If you’re using your account with over three other individuals—unlike Netflix, Crunchyroll does not mind if you share your password with people who do not live in your house—it is reasonable to pay extra to get this plan. That actually is quite expensive with the $14.99 monthly subscription fee since it does not include any extra features but what is cool is that you get a 10% discount on all goods offered in the Crunchyroll Store.
Crunchyroll vs The Competition
| Service | Price | Simulcasts? | Streams |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crunchyroll Editor’s choice | $7.99–$15.99/mo. | ✔ | 1–6 |
| Hulu | $7.99–$14.99/mo. | ✔ | 2 |
| Netflix | $6.99–$19.99/mo. | — | 2–4 |
| Max | $9.99–$15.99/mo. | — | 2–4 |
| Tubi | Free | — | N/A |
| HIDIVE | $4.99/mo. | ✔ | 2 |
| RetroCrush | Free–$4.99/mo. | — | N/A |
So for those who are not super involved, you are most likely going to be picking between Crunchyroll and Hulu. The series has similar prices and broadcasts famous simulcasts like SPY x FAMILY, My Hero Academia, and TRIGUN STAMPEDE.
However, each of them ‘has been found to have its benefits’. While Crunchyroll has an ad-supported $7.99 plan, the only way to remove ads on Hulu is to take the $17.99 package. Or $24.99, if you’re going for the Disney+ bundle. Thus, in our view, it is just too expensive to pay for too scarce, if not scanty, anime titles. In terms of anime, Crunchyroll has Hulu beaten by far and this mainly has to do with some splendid corporate buyouts.
That we claim is a big deal because Hulu adds captions to English dubbed content and such rarely happens. If you are a person who only watches subbed anime or if you don’t require captioning for your television shows then you should be just fine with Crunchy Roll. But if you’re like this writer and need captions on your dubbed anime, you might want to check if the shows you want are available there first.
Alas, such is the fate of the anime fan: sponsored by Hulu, meanwhile watching anime on Crunchyroll is not easily accessible.
For those few anime that the Crunchyroll/Hulu sphere doesn’t offer, look no further than Netflix. It may come with lots of truly fantastic new material and it only always gets cancelled halfway through!
Crunchyroll Anime
Crunchyroll is home to hundreds if not thousands of anime which no other site compares to. That is not a joke, if streaming services were the Pokémon trainers, Crunchyroll would be the Champion since it has captured them all.
That’s our slightly silly way of saying that Crunchyroll has been acquiring all of its rivals and assimilating their libraries. Now Funimation and VRV are mere corpses next to its cheery remains. HIDIVE and Netflix are the final barriers stopping Crunchyroll from taking over the world or, at the very least, owning nearly all of anime here in America.
Anime on Crunchyroll
- My Hero Academia
- Dangan Ronpa
- I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss
- The World Ends With You
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
- Ace Attorney
- Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School
- Bungo Stray Dogs
- TRIGUN STAMPEDE
- Chainsaw Man
- SPY x FAMILY
- One Piece
- Mob Psycho 100
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- JUJUTSU KAISEN
- Tokyo Revengers
- Attack on Titan
- Food War! Shokugeki no Soma
- Heaven Official’s Blessing
Crunchyroll Manga
Unfortunately, Crunchyroll shut down manga service at the end of 2023. It’s sad to see that you can no longer read manga on Crunchyroll.
If none of that works for watching anime or reading manga and you want to read manga legally online, try the Libby app and see if your library has any. (The Brooklyn Public Library, for example, carries Spy x Family, Demon Slayer: They include Kimetsu no Yaiba in both print and ebook form, and Chainsaw Man, Free for all New York State residents.
Crunchyroll Games
Like Netflix, Crunchyroll launched free mobile games for users in 2023. Some series are open for general viewing, while some are only accessible if they are in the Crunchyroll Games Vault which can only be watched by Mega and Ultimate Fan subscribers. Stacked onto the already monstrously large amount of content on Crunchyroll, they do make that ~$30 a month~ price tag seem a little less randos.
Free Games with Crunchyroll
- One Punch Man: World
- Street Fighter: Duel
- Eminence in Shadow: Master of Garden
- Bloodline: The Last Royal Vampire
- My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero
Premium games with Crunchyroll
- Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump Dimensions
- River City Girls
- Wolfstride
- Behind the Frame
- Inbento
Crunchyroll Specs and Features
Crunchyroll’s largest strength may well be its Crunchylist system. Not only can you create a watchlist of anime; but it is also possible to add shows to more personal lists. So if you want a list just for you where it only contains simulcasts that are currently airing or if you want only isekai fantasy, then you definitely can. I think that it is much, much better than the chaotic emission of the typical watchlist.
Or you can check out Crunchyroll’s manually created lists of recommendations that are creatively named such things as “It was not aliens… B Ut It WAS ALIENS,” and “Oh no! Beautiful men are all around me! Even the scroll to the bottom of the home screen there is an easter egg added to it by the designer.
The only drawback here is that you can only navigate through just these selected lists and not random other lists – you are at the mercy of the Crunchyroll algorithm and the elements it deems you will like most including the “Top Picks For You” and “Crunchyroll News.”
Multiple Streams and Offline Downloads
| Plans | Streams | Offline downloads? |
|---|---|---|
| Fan | 1 | — |
| Mega Fan | 4 | ✔ |
| Ultimate Fan | 6 | ✔ |
Interestingly, Crunchyroll is okay with users sharing Crunchyroll with friends; that is if you are subscribing to the platform. As a single watcher, the Fan plan coughs up only $5.99 to watch only one series at a time. You are still, however, allowed to log into as many devices as you wish.
Still, if you have a big house with many members, all of whom are fans of different anime series who wish to watch it at the same time you will want to go with the Mega Fan tier. It’s just two dollars more per month and that does make a difference but you also get offline access.
The largest category is Ultimate Fan. This tier is necessary if your group wishes to watch six different kinds of animes at once (or maybe six individuals want to watch six animes at once from different corners of the world) Though, ideally, in a group of six you should be able to divide that monthly $14.99 bill.
Crunchyroll Devices
| Device | Can you watch Crunchyroll? |
|---|---|
| Amazon Fire Cube, Stick, TV | ✔ |
| Android phones, tablets | ✔ |
| Android TV | ✔ |
| Apple TV (4th gen.) | ✔ |
| Apple TV 4K | ✔ |
| Chromecast, Chromecast with Google TV | ✔ |
| Facebook Portal | — |
| Echo Show | — |
| iPhone, iPad | ✔ |
| LG TVs | — |
| Nintendo Switch | ✔ |
| NVIDIA SHIELD Pro TV | ✔ |
| PC, Mac web browsers | ✔ |
| PlayStation | ✔ |
| Roku Ultra, Express, Premiere, Stick, TV | ✔ |
| Samsung TVs | — |
| TiVo Stream | — |
| Vizio TVs (select models) | — |
| Wii | Discontinued in 2019 |
| Xbox One | ✔ |
| Xfinity X1 | — |
You can watch Crunchyroll on almost any device—it is one of the few streaming services available on the highly coveted Nintendo Switch. The only way that you are likely to miss out is when you depend on native apps from smart TVs, such as LG and Samsung. It isn’t compatible with connecting to a gaming console or a streaming device such as the Amazon Fire TV or the Roku.
Crunchyroll Video and Audio Quality
At the moment, Crunchyroll does not have any packages with 4K streaming and the main streaming limit is 1080p. That’s still quite reasonable, though. They most likely pre-choose 1080p or 720p, which are both high definition, and the audience themselves can decide on which resolution will be most suitable for them.
That’s not all, however; you can even set your mode to 240p if you are concerned about the data or if you are a fan of the 2000s bootleg anime, where everything was, pardon my French, crunchy.
Conclusion
Crunchyroll remained the main player on the scene of anime streaming. The best thing about it is its success in combining low costs, a vast library, and numerous specific to anime services, making it appealing to both the occasional watcher and avid anime enthusiast. Anticipated performance unveiled that Crunchyroll is in an ideal place to meet the demand of anime aficionados in 2024 and the past, regardless of the Fan, Mega Fan, or Ultimate Fan plan clients pick.
