With the arrival of a new streaming platform in the field of Japanese animation, the most logical thing to do is to deal with the already established one, the famous Crunchyroll. But AnimeBox, this recently created Spanish service, lives up to the platform behind giant Sony? We confronted them to find out.
Crunchyroll is the most popular legal streaming service in the world. Crunchyroll was founded in 2006 as a site for user-uploaded multimedia content, and in late 2007 Crunchyroll began legally hosting anime through agreements with distributors. The platform saw growth in global users, also in terms of the number of licenses purchased for distribution; until Sony bought Crunchyroll in 2020, a move that boosted the platform’s presence. With the arrival of AnimeBox in Spain, the Sony service has direct competition in that country.
Novelty weighs heavily on AnimeBox
Left, AnimeBox; That’s right, Crunchyroll. Both in annual premium accounts
Both Crunchyroll and AnimeBox focus on a very specific type of multimedia content: Japanese animation; While it’s not the only thing available in their catalogues, there is real image content as well. As I said, behind Crunchyroll is entertainment and device giant Sony; AnimeBox, on the other hand, is the internet streaming platform developed by select vision, the main anime distributor in Spain. As a bonus, Crunchyroll offers its subscribers manga through a separate app. Anime box no.
When it comes to distinguishing both services, it is in the catalog that they are most separated: as usual given the novelty of AnimeBox, it still does not have much to do in terms of the content available. It’s a matter of time, the variety and amount of movies and series is much larger on Crunchyroll. For its part, AnimeBox beats its opponent in one key aspect: syncing. The entire catalog of the Spanish platform is dubbed into Spanish, with the exception of Simulcast, the simultaneous premieres with Japan. In addition, some of the AnimeBox series and movies are dubbed in the official languages of Spain, such as Catalan or Basque.
It gives the impression that AnimeBox has entered the market in a very hasty way, since not only is the available catalog limited, but it also doesn’t offer all the seasons of the series licensed by Selecta Visión. For example, it is not possible to see Ranma 1/2 in full. nor any other multi-season series. Currently only the first one is available (AnimeBox has confirmed that this limitation will be corrected when the platform calms down).
Left, AnimeBox; That’s right, Crunchyroll. Both in annual premium accounts
It’s a shame that a good release is marred by a fairly fair catalogue. It’s too early to tell if AnimeBox can keep up with its main competitor Crunchyroll (probably not). Even from other players in the streaming landscape, aside from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, to name two other major examples, they’ve also been heavily into anime. Selecta Visión has a wide range of licenses in Spain, 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 these come out very well
Left, AnimeBox; That’s right, Crunchyroll. Both in annual premium accounts
The two platforms seem to ignore a large part of the most suitable devices for multimedia content: televisions. AnimeBox started its journey only with support for mobile apps, iOS and Android; Crunchyroll doesn’t have any apps for smart TVs other than Android TV; even if it offers support for video game consoles. Both have delivery to Google Chromecast, playback in web browser and allow downloading content to smartphones (in paid subscriptions).
Crunchyroll is not known for offering a very stable and complete Android app: constant connection problems, with subtitles, playback can be interrupted to try to go forward or backward, etc. to a long one, etc. what a platform that it’s been around for several years, incomprehensible is years.
Left, AnimeBox; That’s right, Crunchyroll. Both in annual premium accounts
AnimeBox also doesn’t fare well when it comes to application, although it does have the mitigation of being recently released. Sending to the Chromecast is sometimes impossible because the mobile screen is off, playback goes back to the beginning and in each chapter you have to remove the subtitles because they insist on showing. The app is quite unstable and even requires constant logins: it seems that its development was very hasty.
Crunchyroll doesn’t put much effort into maintaining its apps; AnimeBox starts its journey with some apps that are too green
Both platforms strive to compete with giants like Netflix or Prime Video, even the interfaces of their apps are clearly similar to those of their more general competitors. Despite this, the quality level of the applications falls far short of expectations, especially due to the low level of interest in including smart TVs in the equation. Let’s hope that as AnimeBox matures, it will give more importance to TVs.
Price: Crunchyroll is unrivaled
Both anime services offer free access to their platforms, although there is little you can do with AnimeBox other than view the catalogue. Crunchyroll allows you to play its content for free, which is a huge advantage; always in exchange for a good number of ads and with limited access to the catalogue.
Both AnimeBox and Crunchyroll unlock all options for the higher payment plans: both offer a low-cost annual subscription, monthly subscription, and cheaper and limited Premium access than forgoing downloading for offline viewing. The characteristics of both platforms can be summarized as follows:
AnimeBox // crispy roll
Konnichiwa // Free
Tomodachi // Fan
Sensei // Mega fan 1 month
kami sama // mega fan 12 months
Price
Free
Free
€5.99 per month
4.99 euros per month (14 days free trial)
€7.99 per month
6.49 euros per month (14 days free trial)
79.99 euros per year (39.99 euros in the introductory offer)
64.99 euros per year (14 days free trial)
concurrent devices
1
1
1
1
2
4
2
4
Simultaneous releases in Japan
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
So far there is a clear winner
AnimeBox shows 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 the streaming media space. The key to AnimeBox is knowing how they look to the future in the short and medium term: if it manages to improve the applications, expand its service to Smart TVs and offer access to the entire Selecta Visión catalog at the touch of a button , the newcomers have a chance.
image | Background generated with Midjourney
In Xataka Mobile | Price comparison on streaming platforms
