Crunchyroll App
Description
Crunchyroll was launched in 2006 as a video hosting site where people upload anime episodes — most of them ripped from Japanese broadcasts and distributed without authorization. The site operated in legal grey territory for three years before moving to a legitimate streaming model in 2009, licensing content both from Japanese studios and publishers and becoming the first streaming service to build its catalog primarily around anime at a time when no major platform treated the genre as a serious category worth investing in.
The service now has the largest licensed anime catalog in the world, with over 45,000 episodes and over 1,300 titles. Sony finalized its acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T’s WarnerMedia in 2021 for about $1.175 billion and merged it with Funimation to form a single anime streaming entity. The merger brought together two competing services into one platform, integrating Funimation’s English dubbed catalog and Crunchyroll’s subtitled-focused library into the Crunchyroll brand beginning in 2022.
ORIGINS AND GROWTH
Kun Gao and two partners from the University of California, Berkeley, started Crunchyroll in 2006, originally operating as a user upload site in the style of YouTube. The site drew anime fans who wanted to watch Japanese series that had not yet appeared outside Japan. Subtitling communities that translated episodes of anime and distributed them as fansubs drove much of the early traffic.
The pivot to licensed content in 2009 led to a complete change in business model. Crunchyroll negotiated deals with Japanese studios to stream simulcasts — new episodes available on the service within hours of them being broadcast in Japan, often the same day. Simulcasting gave Crunchyroll a proposition no other service had: A legal way to watch new anime from Japan in real time. This isolated Crunchyroll from services that licensed older catalog titles and the illegal fansub channels that required users to search for content via file-sharing networks.
Investment and acquisition ensued. VIZ Media took a stake in 2013. The Chernin Group took over with a majority interest in 2013. AT&T’s Otter Media bought Crunchyroll in 2018. Sony’s acquisition in 2021 saw the service come under a media conglomerate that already owned Funimation, and wanted to create a comprehensive anime platform rather than see two competing licensed streaming services split up the subscriber base.
The Funimation merger that was finalized in 2022 transferred Funimation subscribers and content to Crunchyroll. Funimation’s stand-alone service and app closed in April 2024, which completes the consolidation.
FEATURES
Simulcast Streaming
New episodes of anime air on Crunchyroll within hours of the Japanese broadcast for the entire airing season (roughly January-March, April-June, July-September, and October-December). Simulcast episodes are aired with official subtitles in English and other languages, usually the same day as or the day after the Japanese air date. Simulcast coverage extends to the most popular seasonal releases, as well as many mid-tier releases.
Dubbed and Subtitled Content
The addition of Funimation’s library to the mix greatly increased Crunchyroll’s English dubbed catalog. Popular titles such as My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen are available in both official English dub and subtitle options. The app changes between dub and sub tracks per-episode with a language selector. Subtitles include languages other than English, such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian and Arabic, depending on the title.
Offline Downloads
Crunchyroll Premium subscribers at the Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan tiers are able to download episodes for offline viewing. Downloads are shown in a separate section of the app, which can be accessed offline. The download license expires after a period of time and requires reconnecting to the license to be renewed. The Fan tier does not provide offline downloads.
Watch Queue & Crunchylists
The Continue Watching section keeps track of playback progress across devices so that episodes where the user left off are resumed when they switch from a phone to a TV. Crunchlists are user-created watchlists that can be shared publicly or kept private to create collections of anime based on theme, genre, or recommendation.
Manga Reader
Crunchyroll has a manga reader with a list of licensed manga titles, for Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan subscribers. The reader supports horizontal page turn and vertical scroll modes with zoom. New chapters of ongoing series are updated on a schedule.
4K and HDR Support
Select titles stream in 4K resolution with HDR support on compatible devices. 4K availability is dependent on both the source material and the device. The Ultimate Fan tier prioritizes the allocation of stream quality during high-traffic periods, minimizing the chances of resolution drops under high traffic.
Simulcast Language Coverage
Crunchyroll has subtitles for English for most simulcast titles. French, Spanish, Portuguese and German subtitles cover a wide range of the catalog. Arabic subtitles are available for an increasing number of titles for the Middle East markets.
