Crunchyroll Is Getting (Back) Into the Manga App Game

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During Sony Group Corporation’s press conference at CES 2025 in Las Vegas yesterday, the company announced a series of PlayStation video game adaptations in production. Sony-owned anime streamer Crunchyroll also announced a new lateral move with the aptly titled manga service Crunchyroll Manga. This manga app, scheduled for release this year, aspires to be the premier destination for anime fans to read their favorite series.

While Crunchyroll has yet to reveal when fans should expect Crunchyroll Manga to roll out, the company did disclose that the standalone app will be a “new premium option for Crunchyroll members” What’s more, Crunchyroll has plans in motion to release the app on iOS and Android with plans further down the road for a web browser integration.

“Crunchyroll Manga will be a premiere online manga app that carries catalogs from renowned publishers, offering fans unparalleled access to the visionary works that inspire the anime we love,” Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini said in a press release. “As we strengthen partnerships in this exciting new venture, we aim to add even more value to the Crunchyroll membership, complementing our vast anime library, Crunchyroll Game Vault, and extensive selection of products in the Crunchyroll Store.”

He continued: “Research shows that nearly 70% of anime fans read digital manga at least once a month, highlighting the immense demand for this medium. Crunchyroll Manga will not only meet this growing interest but also fuel the continued global popularity of anime and manga alike.”

Another “new” manga app with a lot of questions

As Purini notes, the feedback loop of fans picking up manga after the season finale of an anime (or while watching an ongoing anime adaptation) is a time-honored tradition. In fact, whenever new seasonal anime crops up, social media managers at manga companies like Viz Media and Yen Press are quick to remind folks to download their app or visit their storefronts to pick up where the anime left off while they wait for new seasons to premiere.

Reading manga via apps like Viz Manga, Shonen Jump App, and Manga Plus allows folks to keep up with ongoing and older manga series at the affordable monthly subscription prices of $1.99, $2.99, and $1.99 ($4.99 for a deluxe plan), respectively. For perspective, Crunchyroll’s premium membership prices are as follows:

  • Fan ($7.99 a month):
  • Mega Fan ($11.99 a month)
  • Ultimate Fan ($15.99 a month)

While Crunchyroll dipping its toe in the manga app service makes a ton of sense given it’s currently housing the largest catalog of anime—thanks in major part to its merger with Funimation—this isn’t technically the first time the streamer has offered subscribers a manga reading add-on. In fact, before the streamer made a website overhaul last year, Crunchyroll used to offer a web-based manga reading add-on to premium members where they could read chapters of Kodansha series like Attack on Titan online. Unfortunately, the service was seemingly shuttered in 2023.

In a customer service response to a user about what happened to the oft-forgotten service on the r/Crunchyroll subreddit, a Crunchyroll representative reportedly told them, “As a part of Crunchyroll’s commitment to providing fans with the best experiences possible, we will be sunsetting the Crunchyroll manga application on December 11, 2023 [though] it’s been removed from Google Play already.”

io9 reached out to Crunchyroll for comment about whether Crunchyroll Manga is a soft relaunch of its older service, which membership tiers it will be associated with, and whether it will have separate pricing options for users who don’t wish to have it as a premium add on. We’ll update should we hear back.

Crunchyroll’s 2024 changes show no sign of slowing

Anime fans already seem a bit trepidatious about Crunchyroll Manga. Feedback on social media has called the service out as a revisionist history relaunch, lamented that it’s only launching in English in the U.S. and Canada with loose plans to expand later, and championed physical media over digital licensing.

Others have noted how the previous service used to only offer Kodansha manga, bringing into question how Crunchyroll Manga will live up to its promise of “making it easier than ever for fans to read brand-new and beloved titles from multiple top publishers all in one place,” when its prospective competitors and former partners like Kodansha offer their own manga reading services like K Manga.

K Manga, like Square Enix’s Manga Up, use a ticketed payment service which essentially gamifies manga reading like a live service video game. There’s a chance Sony’s ensuing merger with Kadokawa—further monopolizing the anime industry—will result in Crunchyroll Manga’s catalogue of series being filled with manga from the publisher like Delicious in Dungeon.

This all comes after backlash resulting from fans discovering Crunchyroll’s Funimation merger meant they could no longer access manga they digitally purchased on the sunset anime streamer. Crunchyroll also initiated a couple of user experience changes, including removing its comment section from anime episodes and letting users have multiple profiles on an account.

While the aforementioned changes are largely innocuous with how they fold into the way other streamers operate, Crunchyroll’s late 2024 announcement that it would be paywalling One Piece episodes to premium subscription tiers made fans feel like taking to the high seas to pirate the mega-popular anime rather than prepare to pony up more disposable income to watch the long-running anime. Maybe Crunchyroll Manga will serve as the driving force sweetening the deal for fans on the fence to upgrade to Crunchyroll’s premium membership.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.




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