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🦉 WE READ 101 OWNER COMMENTS
Crunchyroll Premium: what owners actually say
Owners are bitter about Crunchyroll deleting its comment ecosystem and a data breach, but still grudgingly value the dubs and legal access
What owners complain about
- Community features stripped away COMMON
Crunchyroll removed episode comments entirely, deleting some threads over a decade old. Users report discovering the comments were 'gone the next day' mid-watch. Written reviews were also removed, leaving only star ratings. Multiple users canceled subscriptions over this, calling it 'deleting their own community.'
- Data breach and poor security practices COMMON
Users discovered Crunchyroll may not have been using salted and hashed passwords. One user was part of a class action lawsuit against Crunchyroll/Sony. Multiple users reported needing to urgently change passwords they had reused across sites.
- Sony ownership resentment SOME
Being a Sony company is cited as a negative, with one user stating 'Sony can bite rocks.' The association with Sony amplifies distrust around data handling and corporate behavior.
- No real alternatives leave users stuck SOME
Users acknowledge they are stuck with whichever 'monopolist has the rights' to what they want to watch. Hidive is mentioned as the only other real player for dubs, but not a full substitute.
- Dub quality is divisive SOME
While some praise specific dubs like One Piece, others call Crunchyroll's dubs 'dog shit' and 'pure cancer in every aspect.' The quality is not consistently trusted.
What owners love
- One Piece dub is genuinely good
Multiple users specifically praise the One Piece dub, noting Crunchyroll even translates the songs. One user said it was the only way they could finally get into the series.
- Funds dubs that wouldn't exist otherwise
Users acknowledge Crunchyroll helps fund dubs they enjoy, and that without it there would be few legal options for English-dubbed anime.
- Legal way to support the industry
Some users value having a legitimate streaming option, noting that piracy will always exist but a legal service still helps fund the creators and translations.
Surprising patterns
- Users are buying cheap Premium accounts through gray-market key resellers like Kinguin for as little as 12 euros per year, then changing the email and password — and report it working perfectly for months.
- Crunchyroll was originally an illegal streaming platform until 2009, which multiple users note with irony given its current position as the dominant legal anime monopolist.
- The removal of comments hit harder than expected because reading decade-old community commentary after episodes was a core part of the viewing experience — one user calls it 'half the fun of watching anything.'
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Buyers who care about community interaction, trust in data security, or want consistent dub quality across all titles will likely be frustrated — Crunchyroll has stripped social features, suffered a breach with questionable password handling, and delivers uneven dub quality.
Synthesised from 101 real owner comments across 4 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →