Crunchyroll Finally Offering Anime Free With Ads Again

Crunchyroll fans might recall that the rather famous anime streaming service started life as a platform that offered anime for free if you don’t mind a few ads here and there. Alas, when Sony acquired the service back in August 2021, one of the first things they did with it soon after said acquisition was deleting the free with ads option entirely. At first, it was just all the new incoming anime series. Then slowly over time, they locked the entire anime library behind the premium paywall. They ended up only leaving the first 3 episodes of a select few new anime series per season as free with ads, and even then, it was a temporary thing. As soon as a set time elapsed, they would go behind the paywall.

It seemed that Sony was allergic to the idea that made Crunchyroll into the hit anime streaming service it is now. Now though, it seems like Sony has changed their minds. What else do you call it when Crunchyroll is now offering some anime series free with ads once more?

Crunchyroll: Free at Last Details

There’s a reason why this anime is the most prominent one on the list.

Crunchyroll is proud to announce that they have returned the free with ads option for anime fans. Not just for a handful of sample episodes either. No, they’re actually making entire anime seasons free to watch for free users, so long as they don’t mind a bunch of ads mixed in. They have have made a grand total of 19 anime series available to free users. All you have to do is sign up for a free Crunchyroll account, and you can access these specific anime series. Note though that for a few anime series, users in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand won’t be able to access them for some reason. Crunchyroll offers no explanation why. We at THS will keep you posted if this changes later.

Another thing Crunchyroll doesn’t mention is how long these anime series will be free for. They don’t mention if this is permanent, or just a temporary thing. Until they do, treat this as the latter, so if you have any interest in watching any of these anime series for free, then you might want to hurry up.

For now though, you might be curious as to which Crunchyroll anime series are free at last again? Well, you can check out the full list (which includes which specific episodes are available) below: