Recently my University (who are also my ISP) sent round an email about people stopping illegal downloads since they were starting to receive a load of legal pressure and that it was in everyones best interest to cut piracy to a minimum and being a ‘team’ player I complied (well as much as you can with anime) and started using my old account over at Crunchyroll. So today I’m gonna let you all know what I think of the service after my first month.
So first off I was quite lucky in getting a month for my free trail instead of the standard two weeks. Seems they were having some sort of promotion and I was more than happy to make use of it. Lets get back to beginning though, the layout. I can’t decide whether I love or hate the site layout, the anime that is airing and what is new is way to far down the front page in my opinion and if you search it’s not obvious what they actually have and what shows just have their ‘about’ pages and no episodes.
However once you get onto an episode you want to watch, it’s everything you want. A massive video player (which can go full screen) playing in 720p if your a premium member, there are some recommendations down the bottom and an episode specific chat box on the side, which in my experience is often filled with the most inane drivel possible but it’s easily ignore-able. There is off course a forum, which I have yet to post in but we all know what we’ll be in for there.
Now lets move on to whats important. The quality and amount of shows. They have a fairly good range of shows, they have 18 from the current season including big hitter like Fate/Zero, Bleach, Naruto and Fairy Tail all the way to Working!! My personal issue comes with that they simply don’t have everything I want to watch this season for example Shana 3, Gundam Age, Persona 4 and Guilty Crown from the list of things I am watching and whilst the latter two are available on this Nico Nico Anime stream thing that is only available in the states, which is obviously great for those of you over there but for the rest of us is just annoying and in my eyes a marketing failure from two companies… Since Crunchy really should have gone for those four shows as well since they had a lot of hype and on the other hand Nico Nico is loosing out on potential revenue.
I’m getting away from the point though. In my opinion Crunchyroll needs to go after more shows each season. I realize it’s expensive to do so but is ‘gdgd Fairies‘ really making as much money for you as a big series or franchise like Shana or Gundam could be bringing in?
I would however implore every to give it a go, especially if you think the anime industry is going down hill in terms of show quality as at least on CR your views will be included in the big meetings where they decide what to make and if you do get a membership then not only are you supporting the industry and you can feel all warm and fuzzy inside that you won’t ever get in trouble. Fate/Zero is airing weekly and for free in 720p. So just sign up to a free account and give it a go.
