Crunchyroll’s New App Is Great News For Anime Fans (But Bad News For Manga Readers)

Reading Japanese manga online is trickier than fans might expect when they get into this hobby. While print manga is a simple matter of buying whatever is on the shelf of the local bookstore, reading manga online feels rather similar to trying to watch various TV shows on just as many streaming platforms. This has been an issue for anime viewers for some time now, and the world of manga is more or less the same way now, thanks to Crunchyroll.

The famed anime streaming platform Crunchyroll is the premier destination for anime, boasting a gigantic library of this content with its various subscription plans. It’s relatively easy for anime fans to subscribe to Crunchyroll alone to get their anime fix, but when it comes to manga, things are trickier. There is no definitive online source for manga, with the world of manga now being split among Manga Plus, the Shonen Jump app, and now, Crunchyroll’s new subscription plans. There may be clear-cut options for reading manga online, but this industry is being pulled in all different directions, and fans may not like that.

Reading Manga Online Feels Like the Endless Streaming Wars

The mass availability of media online has become a serious double-edged sword. Streaming once promised to be a leaner, more affordable version of cable, allowing a consumer to subscribe to one major platform and enjoy all kinds of TV shows and movies at as fraction of the cost of traditional cable. For a time, it felt like Netflix in particular had become cable 2.0, but over time, the pool of TV shows and movies got stretched thin as more platforms arose and competed with one another. Fans of streaming have seen this for themselves, with platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Paramount+, Max, Prime Video, and more all competing for shows to stream.

By now, streamers feel overwhelmed, with certain shows or movies hopping from one platform to another. If a streamer wants access to all the shows and movies they like, that calls for a handful of subscriptions to get everything, so cost-wise, it’s as though everyone has come full circle with cable. This is made even more complex by the ever-expanding world of anime, with anime appearing on Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, Prime, HIDIVE, and the like. Now, the world of manga is about to go a similar way.

Crunchyroll is primarily known as the single biggest anime streaming platform, and it also has a huge online marketplace for anime merch as well. Now, Crunchyroll is working to establish itself as the go-to destination for digital manga, meaning it’s now seriously competing with Viz, Shonen Jump, and Manga Plus. If this keeps up, fans might see digital manga go the way of streaming, with many platforms offering the goods but with no platform providing everything.

Of course, reading manga can be simplified with collecting print volumes, since sellers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon will have practically everything. On the downside, print manga is costlier than digital manga, and it also takes up physical room that a reader might not even have. If print manga isn’t a solid option for a manga reader, then they’re about to deal with a streaming-style conundrum with manga. If a fan’s manga interests are broad enough, then they’ll face the same issue streamers do, having several competing platforms to choose from. To read everything, a fan may have to subscribe to two or three of these manga platforms at once, Crunchyroll among them, and it can add up. There’s little doubt Crunchyroll may end up with some exclusive titles not found on Shonen Jump or Manga Plus, so readers want to know what they should do about all this.

Even With Crunchyroll’s New Platform, It’s Harder Than Ever to Read Manga On a Budget

It’s trickier than ever, and potentially more expensive than ever, for fans of manga and anime to find the content they enjoy on the internet on official platforms. That’s the bad news, but the good news is, there are some reasonable approaches to try, which may call for some minor sacrifices. The interesting part is, Crunchyroll’s recent changes to its subscription plans isn’t such a big deal for anime viewers, since Crunchyroll still puts anime first, at least for now. It should be noted that subscribing to Crunchyroll to watch ad-free anime is the Fan plan, which costs $8 per month, a plan that excludes the platform’s manga offerings. The cheapest plan that offers manga is the Fan + Manga plan, costing $12 per month. That includes all the benefits of a regular Fan subscription, along with access to Crunchyroll’s manga library.

Thus, it’s possible to subscribe only to anime on Crunchyroll at the relatively low price of $8, but for the moment, consumers cannot get a cheap plan for just Crunchyroll’s manga. Fans can get just anime, or manga and anime, which is a clunky deal for fans who only want access to manga. Of course, Shonen Jump and Manga Plus both offer manga for prices under $12 per month, though they may lack some titles that Crunchyroll has, and vice versa. There’s also the issue of how Crunchyroll’s manga library has a selection of fine titles, but not a vast quantity of titles overall. Crunchyroll may be the single biggest and best destination for anime, to the point anime fans can subscribe to Crunchyroll alone to get their anime fix, but the same isn’t true for manga. It’s not the destination for digital manga, at least not yet, and for that matter, neither are Manga Plus and Shonen Jump.

For now, the world of digital manga is relatively modest compared to how enormous Crunchyroll’s anime library is, and fans may end up stretched thin between Crunchyroll’s manga, Shonen Jump, and Manga Plus. For fans who want a massive selection of titles on a modest budget, there’s no easy way to do this, unfortunately. Compromises have to be made with the way things are now, and consumers may simply have to adjust and be happy with what they can get.

Arguably, the best option is for manga readers to pick just one of these three major manga platforms and be happy with whatever that platform offers. It’s also an opportunity to not just seek out desired titles, but browse a selection of unfamiliar titles and find a new favorite or two. Anyone stuck in a rut can lean into a limited manga selection and get maximum value for what they’re paying for, and that can actually be great fun, whether it’s on Crunchyroll or its competitors.