Watching anime has never been more popular, and thanks to Crunchyroll, it's equally as convenient. With a revamped series of membership services and the ability for fans to watch episodes of their favorite shows faster than ever, Crunchyroll has positioned itself as the premiere anime streaming service. The various new perks offered to its members not only provide simple entertainment for the fans, but also help to officially support the Japanese anime industry from all across the world. This, along with KissAnime's recent death, continue to kill off the rampant piracy that has consistently been a part of the non-Japanese fandom.
A Tier of Its Own
Instead of the simple Free and Premium tiers of the previous version of Crunchyroll's membership, the service now has several options. These include Free, Fan, Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan. The latter three all offer a variety of benefits, with the most notable being unhindered access to Crunchyroll's entire library. This means that fans can not only read through the numerous manga that the service provides, but also watch the entirety of the available anime shows, completely ad-free. Likewise, viewers will have access to same-day simulcasts of shows' Japanese airings, while those with only the free version of the service will have to wait a week for new episodes.
Other features include offline viewing for when wireless streaming isn't possible. The higher cost memberships also allow for multiple streams across one account. These features, common among other streaming services like Hulu and Netflix, have been demanded from Crunchyroll for years, and their presence make the service more competitive than ever. Ironically, Crunchyroll itself began as an illegal streaming service for anime, but not only has it legally offered content for years, it has potentially become the best way to gain access to the most popular and obscure anime out there.
Kiss Your Anime Goodbye
This paid access to material helps to officially support production studios and the anime industry as a whole. Piracy has been a constant moral issue with many fans outside of Japan who wish to watch or read certain series, but don't have an official international release to support. This lack of international availability drastically increased piracy within the industry, as many took to torrents and sites such as Putlocker to watch shows that were otherwise unavailable. Recently, the well-known pirating website KissAnime was shut down for good after years of essentially robbing the anime industry and the creators within it.
The convenience factor was one of the biggest reasons to pirate anime, as viewers didn't have to pay outrageous prices for shows that were unavailable in their native country or wait for official releases of episodes. But, with same-day simulcasts, easily affordable price, and an ever increasing library of mainstream and niche shows, Crunchyroll continues to help eliminate the need to turn to illegal means for anime viewing. The official subs and translations will also likely be of a much higher quality than what was found on KissAnime, where oftentimes "fanlations" were stolen from other groups. Though piracy sites are seemingly dying their deserved death, Crunchyroll and the anime industry are in a better position than ever to thrive.
Updates to the Crunchyroll Android and iOS applications will be rolling from Aug. 21 to give fans access to these new benefits. Not all users will have access right away, but the updated application should be fully available to global fans in early September.
Fans without a current premium membership can learn more by going to crunchyroll.com/welcome. Premium members can learn more at crunchyroll.com/acct/membership.
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