App Shark Review: Crunchyroll Anime and Manga

When you live in America you can imagine that it’s not the easiest thing to watch the latest anime and read the latest manga.  You would often have to find some kind of unreliable online source that couldn’t be depended on like Youtube where you wouldn’t know what you were getting sometimes.  So I was very surprised when I was told about a service that would give me massive amounts of this Japanese entertainment for an affordable price and all completely legal.  The one-two punch of Crunchyroll and Crunchyroll Manga gave me access to just about everything I wanted to watch and read.  

Starting with the Anime, there isn’t much more I could ask for from it.  Thousands of Anime shows are displayed with a friendly interface that includes a popular page, simulcasts, easy access to new episodes, and various easy ways to find exactly what you’re looking for and then some.  I started a free trial for the purpose of checking out Gurren Lagann and got caught up in Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure instead and have yet to watch what I actually wanted to watch after being swept up in the catalog.  There’s quite a bit to watch is the main point I’m trying to make.

Crunchyroll also extends into a separate Manga App dedicated exclusively to everyone’s favorite backwards literature.  The selection while not as extensive as one would like, it still provides enough to justify getting in the package with the Anime membership.  What you will have access to is worth the price tag of under $5.  The interface for this aspect is also very user friendly and has a feature that guides the reader through what they are supposed to be reading in the proper order for those unfamiliar with how to maneuver through as manga.  The free trial gives you select chapters of some very well known books and some I had never heard of before.  Worth a monthly subscription.

The combo package of a Crunchyroll Anime and Manga subscription will run to a total of about $13.00 per month for everything they have in their catalog. The diehard anime fan will find this to be a small price to pay while they are watching things that would otherwise be very difficult to find proper versions of on the internet.  And while there are some aspects of the catalog that i hope will be increased in the future, I know that Crunchyroll is frequently adding new material to watch and read.  If you have any interest at all in Japanese entertainment, this may be a very good investment if you have some spare money each month.