This Is the Greatest Streaming Service for Sci-Fi (and It’s Not What You Think)
Big streaming fans know that the major players are often better at quantity than quality, while the more specialized streaming services will have fewer — yet sometimes more interesting — things to watch. Shudder is the place to go for horror movies, but what about sci-fi? As it turns out, the best place to find science fiction is surprisingly Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll is, of course, the streaming site dedicated to anime (and anime-adjacent content, like music videos and the occasional live-action remake), and while not all anime is sci-fi, a lot of great sci-fi stories happen to be anime. Just look at Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 masterpiece Akira, a cyberpunk sci-fi movie about a guy with the coolest motorcycle of all time (and his red leather jacket is no slouch). It happens to be anime, and one of the all-time great anime movies at that, and you’ll never believe where you can find it right now. (It’s Crunchyroll.)
Why Is Crunchyroll the Best Streamer for Sci-Fi?
Orange Piccolo looking angry in his ripped uniform, ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’Image via Toei Animation
The obvious answer for why Crunchyroll is a great destination for sci-fi is that it has a ton of great sci-fi, but it’s also worth noting that a lot of prominent sci-fi filmmakers outside of Japan have been influenced by anime. The Wachowskis have always been very open about the impact anime had on the Matrix movies, even if you don’t count the big Dragon Ball Z battle that ends The Matrix Revolutions (a bunch of Dragon Ball movies are on Crunchyroll, by the way, and they count as sci-fi). James Cameron has also talked about his fondness for anime, even going so far as to suggest the possibility of an Animatrix-style spin-off of his Avatar movies. If you’re new to anime but not new to sci-fi, Crunchyroll can provide a fun and easy structure to discover some of the stuff that inspired the stuff you like. For example, director Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell — possibly the most influential movie since the train coming at the screen, which is only slightly flippant hyperbole — is not on Crunchyroll, but Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie and the prequel series Ghost in the Shell: Arise (originally released in Japan as an OVA, or original video animation, which is like a straight-to-DVD movie but cooler) are there. It’s not the ideal version of the franchise, but it’s something.
What’s the Best Sci-Fi To Watch on Crunchyroll?
Robot conductor waving arms in Robot CarnivalImage via A.P.P.P.
Other than aforementioned hits like Akira and the Dragon Ball movies (including 2022’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero), Crunchyroll has iconic classics like Galaxy Express 999 and alt-history action movie Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. Crunchyroll also has some of the great Mobile Suit Gundam movies, including Char’s Counterattack, which will be slightly incomprehensible to newcomers but is important to the upcoming Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe. Or, if you want to stay hip to younger anime fans, go with the Kaiju No. 8 movie, Mission Recon, which is a compilation/recap of the show’s first season. But if you’re absolutely pressed for time and really need to get as much sci-fi anime into your eyeballs as quickly as possible, Crunchyroll has the very cool 1987 anthology movie Robot Carnival. Featuring nine short films directed by different filmmakers (including Akira’s Katsuhiro Otomo), the movie is an excellent showcase for what can be done with anime — with extremely varied tones, art styles, and approaches to storytelling. And the music was done by Studio Ghibli favorite Joe Hisaishi! Sadly, like with Ghost in the Shell, you’ll have to go elsewhere to find the arguably superior follow-up Memories (which features the undeniably brilliant Magnetic Rose, written by Perfect Blue’s Satoshi Kon). Crunchyroll is still a great place to start, though.
Release Date
July 16, 1988
Runtime
124 Minutes
Director
Katsuhiro Otomo
Writers
Katsuhiro Otomo, Izô Hashimoto
已发布: 2025-12-19 22:00:00
来源: collider.com
