I only have enough extra cash for one anime service, I don’t care about “drama” just anime. Looking at funimation, crunchyroll, and animenetwork. All three promote a lot of hype and asking the forum seems to be the only way to get a somewhat real answer.
For most anime, it’s pretty much a three way tie. If you want more dubbed content, then it’s either Anime Network or Funimation. Anime Network gets more new series each season than Funimation, but not as many as Crunchy. Simulcasts are pretty much always censored, so there is no difference between the three there. Both Funi and Anime Network show their times uncensored later. Crunchyroll gets their simulcasts up the quickest, and is probably the most reliable, though all three sites have some issues. Funimation is notorious for having one of the worst video streaming sites online, and many people have issues with TAN’s as well.
If you care primarily about simulcasts, then Crunchyroll is probably the way to go. If you want dubbed content, then TAN and Funi are pretty equal, though TAN gets more new dubbed series each season, though often a week or two behind CR.
[quote=“dragonrider_cody”]
If you care primarily about simulcasts, then Crunchyroll is probably the way to go. If you want dubbed content, then TAN and Funi are pretty equal, though TAN gets more new dubbed series each season, though often a week or two behind CR.[/quote]
Pretty much this.
With the current “beta” streaming thing going on with TAN this month (as well as before this, when it was only 1 ep./week) dubs of new series that have been simulcast tend to get put up on TAN faster than FUNi, mostly because of Sentai’s fast turnaround times.
All in all though, I’d say CR is pretty much the way to go if you’re only interested in the most new content, served at the fastest rate.
I run free on all three, to be honest Crunchyroll is fine free, if you have trouble with Funi’s video player they put a lot of their stuff on Hulu for free too.
If you must pay for one I would go TAN, that is if you can use their player, they hide their stuff behind the pay wall sometimes, and they have a lot bigger of a library if you pay.
If you can’t wait a week go Crunchyroll.
I have to +1 what has already been expressed.
Though one thing I’m curious about is how you intend to watch, more specifically, how important is mobile streaming to you? Crunchyroll has a fairly solid app but it has issues, especially with Android. Funimation’s app costs $10 but it is vastly superior to their website (which, as was said, is pretty horrible) and is solid on both iOS & Android. TAN’s mobile presence isn’t really there yet; if you have Android you’re SOL.
I subscribe to TAN, Funi & Crunchy. I could easily part with Crunchy but I think that the other 2 are both essential. Either way, its kinda brutal to ask for a recommendation to just one anime service on the TAN forums…just sayin’ 