Crunchyroll versus Animebox, free and paid access to a wealth of content

With the arrival of a new streaming platform in the field of Japanese animation, the most logical thing is to confront the one that is already well established, the famous Crunchyroll. But, AnimeBox, this recently created Spanish service, at the height of the platform behind the giant Sony? We faced them to find out.

Crunchyroll is the most popular legal streaming service in the world. Created in 2006 as a website hosting multimedia content uploaded by users, it was at the end of 2007 that, thanks to agreements with distributors, Crunchyroll has started hosting anime legally. The platform was growing in global users, as well as the number of licenses acquired for distribution; until Sony bought out Crunchyroll in 2020, a move that bolstered the platform’s presence. With the arrival of AnimeBox in Europe, the Sony service has direct competition in this country.

Novelty weighs heavily on AnimeBox

On the left, AnimeBox; on the right, Crunchyroll. Both in annual bonus accounts

Crunchyroll and AnimeBox both focus on a very specific type of multimedia content: Japanese animation; although it’s not the only thing available in their catalogs, there is also real image content. As we said, behind Crunchyroll is entertainment and device giant Sony; For its part, AnimeBox is the internet streaming platform created by Selecta Visión, the largest anime distributor in Europe

When it comes to differentiating the two services, where they are furthest apart is in the catalog: as usual given how new AnimeBox is, it still doesn’t have much to do in terms of available content. It’s a matter of time, the variety and quantity of movies and series is much greater on Crunchyroll. For its part, AnimeBox beats its opponent on a key aspect: voice acting. The entire catalog of the Spanish platform is dubbed in Spanish with the exception of Simulcast, the simultaneous premieres with Japan. Additionally, some AnimeBox series and movies are dubbed into co-official languages ​​of Europe, such as Catalan or Basque.

This gives the impression that AnimeBox came to market very hastily, since not only is the available catalog limited, but it also does not offer all seasons of the Selecta Visión licensed series. For example, it is not possible to see Ranma 1/2 in its entirety. nor any other series consisting of several seasons. Only the former is currently available (AnimeBox has confirmed that this limitation will be fixed as the platform settles).

On the left, AnimeBox; on the right, Crunchyroll. Both in annual bonus accounts

Too bad a good release is spoiled by a fairly fair catalog, it’s still too early to say if AnimeBox will be able to keep up with its main rival, Crunchyroll (probably not). Even other players in the streaming landscape, besides Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, to give two bigger examples, They also bet a lot on the anime. Selecta Visión has a wide range of licenses in Europe, but we don’t know if these licenses are also suitable for streaming. We will update this article as AnimeBox expands its catalog.

Applications: none of them come out very well

On the left, AnimeBox; on the right, Crunchyroll. Both in annual bonus accounts

Both platforms seem to ignore a large part of the devices most suitable for multimedia content: televisions. AnimeBox started its journey only with mobile app support, iOS and Android; Crunchyroll has no apps for Smart TV beyond Android TV; even though it offers support for video game consoles. Both have Google Chromecast delivery, in-browser playback, and allow content to be downloaded to smartphones (in paid subscriptions).

Crunchyroll is not known to offer a very stable and complete Android application: constant connection problems, with subtitlesplayback can be cut off for trying to forward or rewind and so on until a long etcetera, something incomprehensible for a platform that has been around for several years.

On the left, AnimeBox; on the right, Crunchyroll. Both in annual bonus accounts

AnimeBox also doesn’t perform well when it comes to the app, although it has the mitigation of having been released recently. Sending to the Chromecast is sometimes impossible, the mobile screen being off, the reading returns to the beginning and in each chapter you must remove the subtitles because they insist on appearing. The application is quite unstable and even requires constant connections: it seems that its development was very hasty.

Both platforms aspire to compete with giants like Netflix or Prime Video, even their app interfaces are clearly similar to their more general rivals. Even so, the level of quality of the applications is far from what was expected, not least because of low interest in including smart TVs in the equation. Hopefully AnimeBox will place more emphasis on TVs as it matures.

Price: Crunchyroll is second to none

Both anime services offer free access to their platforms, though you can’t do much with AnimeBox other than check out its catalog. Crunchyroll lets you read its content for free, that’s a huge plus; always in exchange for a good number of ads and with restricted access to the catalog.

Both AnimeBox and Crunchyroll unlock all of their options on higher payment plans: both offer a low-cost annual subscription, monthly subscription, and cheaper and limited premium access than free download for offline viewing. The characteristics of the two platforms are summarized as follows:

So far there is a clear winner

AnimeBox holds great promise for anyone looking for an exclusive anime streaming platform, but in terms of satisfaction, Crunchyroll currently offers more benefits. Beginnings are always difficult, especially when there is fierce competition in streaming media. The key to AnimeBox is how it sees the future in the short and medium term: if it manages to improve applications, extend its service to Smart TVs and offer access to the entire Selecta Visión catalog in one click, the newcomer will have a chance.

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