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I am extremely underwhelmed by Crunchyroll

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SalvaPot

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I recently started a 14 days trial in Crunchyroll since I felt like watching Hunter x Hunter 2011 and the new Season of Gintama, the service works fine, even if sometimes it decides to randomly jump episodes in the autoplay feature, but other than that is a solid service.

But after I was done with those two, I was in the mood to watch a classic series, something that people had recommended me on the past, so I started looking through the catalog and all I saw was, well, fairly recent shows. I was familiar with a lot of them, most I had read the manga instead, but they did not seem like my cup of tea. I tried a few and found them not that interesting off the bat.

I saw Ashita no Joe, but to me annoyance it was something they called the second part, what happened to the first?

I do realize the problem might be with licencing and old series are hard to get, but even then I felt like there was really not much worth my time in there. Right now I only have new chapters of Gintama to look up to.

Is it too much of me too ask or should crunchyroll try to get a better catalog of classic series? Or maybe they did have them before me joining and they removed them because no one was interested?

And while we are at it, what shows can you guys recommend that crunchyroll curently has?
 
Basically you sub for a month watch anything decent then let it expire.

Hulu is where its at for most anime, seems like they have as much as CR & Netflix combined.
 
The main point of crunchyroll is to watch the simulcast series as they air in Japan. I think they focus on keeping that part up to date rather than paying for classic catalogue entries.

Netflix or funimation's own streaming service is definitely a wider back catalog. Funimation might be paying for exclusive overseas distribution rights when they license a series for dubbing.
 
Crunchyroll works by licensing series directly with the producers of such series.

In the case of older titles, many times those are already licensed and owned in the United States by other companies. Given that it's probably not worth it for either company to sub-license those titles.

For an example, Manga Entertainment owns the rights to classic series like Dirty Pair, Astroboy, the older Yamato series, Paprika, and it's likely you won't see those titles on Crunchyroll. Funimation has its own streaming service.
 
Hulu Plus is a much better platform for watching anime. Their catalog just can't be beat.
 
The commercials completely killed Anime on Hulu Plus for me last time I tried them out.

Considering paying the extra for the no-commercial service they offer now. Anybody else use that?
 
Bear in mind that Hulu is only officially available on the USA. OP appears to live in Mexico.
 
Funimation has hold on a lot of the older, well known series like Bebop, Champloo, Black Lagoon, etc.

In comparison, Crunchyroll is somewhat better for series that are currently airing or are pretty recent.

It sucks that everything can't all be in one service, though. I don't think Hulu is an option outside of the US (legally).
 
Yeah, Crunchyroll is definitely more focused on the currently airing series than catalog stuff. They have been adding a few catalog titles recently, but if that's mostly what you're looking for, other services might be more in line with what you want.

For most of what I want, CR is perfect.
 
Is it too much of me too ask or should crunchyroll try to get a better catalog of classic series? Or maybe they did have them before me joining and they removed them because no one was interested?

Crunchyroll focuses on licensing current shows for simulcast purposes. Current shows will tend to get more views than older shows, so it's a more effective way of using their resources, and since Crunchyroll puts bids in on every TV anime that comes out in an attempt to draw their net wide they'll license things such as Brave Beats and Shin Atashinchi that other Western companies would be unlikely to touch. So I appreciate their approach. Plus it's easier to negotiate with Japanese companies who are actively working on the international licensing of their products than dealing with older anime whose licenses may already be in the hands of Western companies, including direct competitors of Crunchyroll such as Funimation.

But you are in luck; just last week Crunchyroll added 6 older anime to their site, all licenses that are held by Rightstuf in the US, in what they call the Crunchyroll Library Expansion Project: Space Adventure Cobra (historical landmark of anime), Cat's Eye, Yakitate Japan, Space Pirate Mito, Princess Knight, and Fantastic Detective Labyrinth. Miles has said that if viewing numbers on these are good, it'll make it easier for him to negotiate further older anime that he wants to add to Crunchyroll. So if these efforts are supported by viewers, you should see Crunchyroll continue to fill out older titles in addition to their simulcasts.

And while we are at it, what shows can you guys recommend that crunchyroll curently has?

Yeah, sure. Going through the list of Crunchyroll's anime catalog, here's what I would recommend:

5 Centimeters Per Second
Ai-Mai-Mi
Akagi
Ano Natsu de Matteru
Bakemonogatari
Cardcaptor Sakura
Chihayafuru
Dragon Half
Encouragement of Climb
Erin
Fate/Zero
Flowers of Evil
Food Wars
Gankutsuou
Gintama
Girls und Panzer
Haikyu
Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East
Hourou Musuko Wandering Son
House of Five Leaves
Hozuki no Reitetsu
Humanity Has Declined
Hunter X Hunter
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Kaasan Mom's Life
Kagewani
Kaiji
Kids on the Slope
Kimi ni Todoke
Kyousougiga
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Love Lab
Lovely Muco
Lupin the Third Parts 1-3
Magical Somera-chan
Meganebu
Mononoke
Monthly' Girls Nozaki-kun
Moyashimon
Mr. Osomatsu
Mushishi
Mysterious Girlfriend X
Natsume Yujin-cho
Natsuyuki Rendezvous
Non Non Biyori
Poyopoyo
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Rozen Maiden ZurĂĽckspulen
Sabagebu
Samurai Flamenco
Shin Sekai Yori
Shirobako
Silver Spoon
Sket Dance
Sound! Euphonium
Space Brothers
Teekyu
The Eccentric Family
The Place Promised in Our Early Days
The Rose of Versailles
Time of Eve
Tonari no Seki-kun
Tribe Cool Crew
Tsuritama
Usagi Drop
Ushio and Tora
Wagnaria
Yowamushi Pedal
Yurumates3Dei

That should keep you busy for a while.
 
Wish I could try Hulu, but funimation and crunchy roll have been awesome for me at least. Crunchyroll has a few random streaming problems where it will freeze for me, but generally it's perfect. I wish CR had more selection of older shows and dubs, but it's still good enough I suppose. I often cancel it after 2 - 3 months and come back later when there's new stuff up.
 
Crunchyroll focuses on licensing current shows for simulcast purposes. Current shows will tend to get more views than older shows, so it's a more effective way of using their resources, and since Crunchyroll puts bids in on every TV anime that comes out in an attempt to draw their net wide they'll license things such as Brave Beats and Shin Atashinchi that other Western companies would be unlikely to touch. So I appreciate their approach. Plus it's easier to negotiate with Japanese companies who are actively working on the international licensing of their products than dealing with older anime whose licenses may already be in the hands of Western companies, including direct competitors of Crunchyroll such as Funimation.

But you are in luck; just last week Crunchyroll added 6 older anime to their site, all licenses that are held by Rightstuf in the US, in what they call the Crunchyroll Library Expansion Project: Space Adventure Cobra (historical landmark of anime), Cat's Eye, Yakitate Japan, Space Pirate Mito, Princess Knight, and Fantastic Detective Labyrinth. Miles has said that if viewing numbers on these are good, it'll make it easier for him to negotiate further older anime that he wants to add to Crunchyroll. So if these efforts are supported by viewers, you should see Crunchyroll continue to fill out older titles in addition to their simulcasts.



Yeah, sure. Going through the list of Crunchyroll's anime catalog, here's what I would recommend:

5 Centimeters Per Second
Ai-Mai-Mi
Akagi
Ano Natsu de Matteru
Bakemonogatari
Cardcaptor Sakura
Chihayafuru
Dragon Half
Encouragement of Climb
Erin
Fate/Zero
Flowers of Evil
Food Wars
Gankutsuou
Gintama
Girls und Panzer
Haikyu
Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East
Hourou Musuko Wandering Son
House of Five Leaves
Hozuki no Reitetsu
Humanity Has Declined
Hunter X Hunter
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Kaasan Mom's Life
Kagewani
Kaiji
Kids on the Slope
Kimi ni Todoke
Kyousougiga
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Love Lab
Lovely Muco
Lupin the Third Parts 1-3
Magical Somera-chan
Meganebu
Mononoke
Monthly' Girls Nozaki-kun
Moyashimon
Mr. Osomatsu
Mushishi
Mysterious Girlfriend X
Natsume Yujin-cho
Natsuyuki Rendezvous
Non Non Biyori
Poyopoyo
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Rozen Maiden ZurĂĽckspulen
Sabagebu
Samurai Flamenco
Shin Sekai Yori
Shirobako
Silver Spoon
Sket Dance
Sound! Euphonium
Space Brothers
Teekyu
The Eccentric Family
The Place Promised in Our Early Days
The Rose of Versailles
Time of Eve
Tonari no Seki-kun
Tribe Cool Crew
Tsuritama
Usagi Drop
Ushio and Tora
Wagnaria
Yowamushi Pedal
Yurumates3Dei

That should keep you busy for a while.

Oh sweet, I am excited for Cobra, heard great things about it. I must have missed Tonari no seki-kun, since I catched a youtube clip of it the other day and liked it. Thanks for the list.

And yes, I am in Mexico so Hulu is not an option. I also have netflix and like their catalog there but they usually miss the last few seasons of the long running shows.
 
Anyone who watched anime in the 90's can never ever be disappointed by Crunchyroll. We were paying exorbitant prices for terrible dubbed tapes with three episodes of something. Nowadays you're paying ten bucks for a billion hours of shows you will never in your lifetime be able to watch all of. I just can't believe it. You literally just watched 150 episodes of HxH 2011(one of the best shows in ages) in two weeks and you're "underwhelmed".
 
Yeah, anime streaming outside of the US isn't really where it should be. Crunchryoll's US back catalog is really good and it gets better pretty much every week, they just added Space Adventure Cobra, all of original Lupin the Third series, Cat's Eye etc

They just need to start getting OVA and movies
 
Anyone who watched anime in the 90's can never ever be disappointed by Crunchyroll. We were paying exorbitant prices for terrible dubbed tapes with three episodes of something. Nowadays you're paying ten bucks for a billion hours of shows you will never in your lifetime be able to watch all of. I just can't believe it. You literally just watched 150 episodes of HxH 2011(one of the best shows in ages) in two weeks and you're "underwhelmed".

Sorry ;__;

No wait, I am not sorry. I am grateful we can have anime deliver to us directly to our TV's, but come one man, I am talking about what the service provides not the wonders of Modern Technology. Of course the internet and the streaming services are awesome, but I am underwhelmed comparing it to other similar services or the potential they are promising, they can definitely do better. I hope you can see the difference.

And yes Hunter x Hunter is fucking great, definitely worth the time.
 
Yeah, anime streaming outside of the US isn't really where it should be. Crunchryoll's US back catalog is really good and it gets better pretty much every week, they just added Space Adventure Cobra, all of original Lupin the Third series, Cat's Eye etc

They just need to start getting OVA and movies

All of those have been on Hulu for months, in addition to currently airing shows like One Punch Man. The case for Crunchyroll in the US has diminished for me. Not to mention that Hulu has tons of stuff beyond anime.

But obviously for the OP, Crunchyroll and Netflix are going to have to be the go to options. Netflix has gotten slightly better, but they obviously have little interest in keeping a large anime library.
 
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