Crunchyroll anime streaming app is out now on Nintendo Switch

Crunchyroll has launched an app for Nintendo Switch, opening the door to fans of Nintendo’s console to watch its catalogue of over 1000 of anime series and films via the hybrid tablet.

The Crunchyroll app supports streaming for all users, but also offers the ability to download episodes for offline viewing for Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan subscribers, a feature which is has in common with the app on iOS and Android. A Mega Fan subscription costs £7.99 / $7.99 per month, which also allows for streaming without ads, watching episodes one hour after they’ve aired in Japan, a digital manga library, and streaming across up to four devices at once. The regular Fan subscriptions are a smidgeon cheaper and cut out ads, but do not allow for offline viewing. Of course, you can just watch with a few adverts sprinkled into your viewing sessions.

Crunchyroll was acquired by Sony in late 2020 for $1.175 billion, folding the anime streaming platform into the Funimation Global Group that it also owns. It was an acquisition that means that Sony has a huge amount of control over the localisation and distribution of anime around the world, with Funimation and Crunchyroll having been erstwhile competitors – Funimation typically featured dubbed shows, while Crunchyroll has subtitled shows – as mainstream streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon have much smaller libraries of anime shows.

This new adds to the paltry selection of non-gameing apps available on the Nintendo Switch. Despite being a rather handy tablet viewing device, only a handful of companies have jumped onto the Nintendo Switch. YouTube and Twitch both have apps, and there’s a pair of comic and manga viewers in Izneo and InkyPen, but the only other dedicated subscription streaming app on Switch is (funnily enough) Funimation.

It remains quite baffling why there’s now Netflix app, no Amazon Prime, HBO Max, BBC iPlayer, All4, or any of the other regional broadcasters and streaming services available on Switch, despite there being over 100 million Switch consoles out in the world.

Source: Crunchyroll