Got a free month of crunchyroll premium somehow, maybe it was a TwitchPrime thing. I’m not a huge anime or manga fan, but have enjoyed most of the very little I’ve sampled over the decades. Was hoping to find some horror to watch, but that’s not in their genre list and I’m not really familiar with anything listed overall.

Does premium even really add much to what they offer, or is it just making it ad-free mostly?

My tiny history in sorta anime:
Ultraman fan from the 1970s, Perfect Blue was good, love Godzilla, Miyazaki films, Akira was cool

Any recommendations on things to enjoy this next month?

Premium just removes ads, gives you HD options (720p & 1080p), and lets you view things on release day. Free users have to wait a week to view an episode, get ads, and only have 480p.

As for some horror... imo anime doesn't do horror very well so they tend to fall flat to me.

But going off what MyAnimeList has listed under Horror that I've enjoyed and is probably on Crunchyroll:

• Another
• School-Live!
• Angel of Death
• Shiki
• From the New World
• Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
• The Promised Neverland

If you like horror, you'll love Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories. It's a bunch of short 5-minute ghost stories. Some of them are really creepy.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/yamishib...-ghost-stories

I hear Zombie Land Saga was a fun Horror/Comedy show.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/zombie-land-saga

And the current series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is really good.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/demon-sl...metsu-no-yaiba

Here's a comparison chart for Free/Premium Memberships.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/premium_...?src=bottombar

Basically, the paid membership gives you all the latest episodes, HD quality, no ads, streaming on all devices (Roku, AppleTV, etc), and free Manga.

The free membership has a one-week delay on new episodes, SD quality, commercials, limited apps, and a few sample Manga.

If you're thinking of subscribing to Crunchyroll, I suggest signing-up for VRV instead. It's only $2 more ($7.99 vs $9.99) and it gives you:

Crunchyroll - anime
HiDive - more anime
Boomerang - classic american cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Flintstones & Bugs Bunny
Shudder - horror and cult movies

And you can use your VRV account to sign-in to Crunchyroll. So you get all the benefits of a premium Crunchyroll member.

https://vrv.co/

Do you have Netflix? They have both a modern Ultraman show (adapted from the current manga, though it's a cartoon) and a modern Godzilla cartoon. Also, Crunchyroll has a few Ultraman (live action) shows as well.

Also, try SSSS Gridman. It's an update on the show that was turned into Super Human Samurai Squad in the US.

Thanks everyone! That VRV bundle has always tempted me, but probably won’t subscribe, even though I’m a big Shudder fan and would dabble in the other channels. Iirc, the VRV version of Shudder is slightly crippled, and I keep finding great deals in Shudder. But I consider it at every renewal point.

Checking out Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories now.

I don't know how true it is so maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I always heard the VRV app was worse than the Crunchyroll app. Can you login to Crunchyroll directly with your VRV login?

I was tempted to subscribe back when they had Funimation bundled in, but they lost both that and DramaFever and I lost all motivation.

VRV doesn't have the Shudder TV livestream. So you can't watch Joe Bob when it airs. You have to wait until it's added to the library.

The VRV app sucks. The menu is awful. It's difficult to find stuff. Most of the time, you have to either browse through the huge A-Z listing. Or do a Search. I'll often use the website to find stuff, and add it to my Watchlist.

You can connect your VRV account to your Crunchyroll account. And it will upgrade your Crunchyroll Free account to Premium. Unfortunately, this only works with Crunchyroll. I wish it also worked with Shudder, HiDive, and Boomerang.

I'm disappointed that VRV lost Funimation, Dramafever, Stargate Command and Mubi. But they added HiDive and Boomerang. I was subscribing to both those, so that saves me some money.

HiDive is a great anime service. They have some of my favorite shows. And they get OVAs and Movies. I don't know why other streaming services ignore those.

I don't watch much Boomerang, but the kids love Scooby-Doo. And there's tons of Scooby shows and movies.

I prefer my rolls soft.

Honestly, when they first started they basically aggregated fansubs and didn't credit anyone, so it left a really bad taste in my mouth. But they did pretty much pioneer (legal) anime streaming, and their service is usually pretty good.

Sometimes their service slows to a crawl. It happens less often than it did when new Dragon Ball Super episodes were coming out, though.
Their manga app is worthless. Hasn't been updated in a long time and I usually can't even authenticate to the server.
They've had problems with limiting bitrate in the past.

But they do have so much anime that you'll be able to find something even if you only have a passing interest. It was a large blow when funimation split with them, though. I'm actually going to go with funimation streaming (which also has issues) in the near term mainly because my kids are young enough that dubs are easier than reading subs all day.

Considering how much my DVD/Blu-ray anime buying has gone down because of streaming services, I'm ok with paying for the ad free experiences.

I like the Crunchyroll Manga app. The series I read are updated on time (Restaurant to Another World, Farewell My Dear Cramer, and Morose Mononokean). But I agree, the authentication errors are a hassle. Sometimes I have to close/reopen the app a dozen times before it finally connects.

You should check out HiDive. They have a lot of Dubs. And they're cheaper than Funimation.

https://www.hidive.com/dubs

I would add Parasyte -the maxim- (https://www.crunchyroll.com/parasyte-the-maxim-) to the mix. I think this series should appeal to a broader audience (it did air on Toonami in the past).

I personally liked The Garden of Sinners (https://www.crunchyroll.com/the-garden-of-sinners), but I don't think it's for everyone (especially those that haven't watched much anime).

Japanese horror anime is all over the place. Their idea of a ghost story is much, much different than Western ghosts. The one anime most like Stephen King horror is probably Another.

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia is a great series and a personal favorite, but it liberally mixes in several different genres from romance to slapstick comedy.

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https://www.funimation.com/subscribe/