Top 20 Best Sites to Watch Anime for Free

Best Streaming Anime Sites Featured in This Roundup

Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll is among the top anime services in the world for good reason. This service caters exclusively to the anime genre, but in doing so, it goes above and beyond in terms of content. They got over 1,200 series, multiple simulcast shows, and even a tier for ad-free viewing.

The streaming service categorizes their astronomical anime hours of programming into categories to cater to specific tastes like action, adventure, drama, fantasy, comedy romance, sci-fi, mystery, and many others. On top of that, Crunchyroll even produces its own exclusive anime series.

Soul Anime

Soul Anime is another internet treasure trove of anime content with a vast array of choices for the anime-loving audience. This service is geared specifically at an audience looking for free viewership of anime.

Their website contains a full list, in alphabetical order of their series and movies. With any that have completed bearing the “Completed” indicator next to them, and the ongoing ones without it.

This free streaming service breaks the series down by episodes for convenient selection and viewing. The vast majority of the content is subtitled, which is a fair point to share with fans who enjoy dubbed anime offerings.

MidNight.Pulp

MidNight.Pulp is a service geared around collecting some of the world’s top cult following movies. This service is great for those seeking to find otherwise hard to obtain kung fu flicks, horror and gore movies, as well as anime from decades past.

The content is updated weekly, always giving fans of the rare something to view. Clearly, this service is not anime-centric, and the free tier is said to have redundant ads, but if you want some rare anime in your life, it might be a service worth checking out.

Kissanime.ru

Kissanime.ru contains lots of anime choices, so it is a good place to find a wide variety of viewings in the genre.

Customer reviews have expressed concern over the nature of the overwhelming amount of ads (which is how the site makes up its sustainability) and their generally adult and perverse nature.

There have been some concerns in terms of the safety of using this service, as there generally are with most services of this type, but Norton has rated Kissanime.ru as “Ok” in their safety rating.

Anime Planet

Anime Planet is another free site for streaming anime. Anime fans can watch well-known anime films, series, and read manga. With 40,000 anime episodes, there is no lack of choices from anime viewing.

This site is legal and free. It can even compile a list of anime you have already seen so you do not willingly stumble into repeat content.

You can also make lists of anime you are not interested in watching, and you will not be prompted with those offerings in your lists of suggested choices.

The legality and safety help it partner up with other reputable streaming services like Hulu and Crunchyroll to offer licensed content, however, regional restrictions may apply.

Funimation

One thing that makes the Funimation platform stand out is the focus on dubbed shows, making this a superior service for those who prefer dubbed anime over the subtitled variety.

Seeing as dubbed anime is harder to produce, it limits the choices available on Funimation by comparison to its competitors, but that is not at all meant to imply that the choices are minimal, with hundreds of titles still available.

The site has an easy to master, stylish interface, great-searching algorithms, and offers offline downloads. They also offer a variety of pricing tiers, including an ad-supported one that is free to use.

Check this out: 10 Best Free Movie Streaming Sites With No Sign-Up

Asian Crush

Asian Crush is a movie streaming app with lots of anime choices. While it’s hailed for its selection, it’s widely criticized for subpar app performance with many crashes reported and claims of intuitive interface operation dampen the platform’s reputation.

The pricing tiers claim to offer free content, but users have reported that they have a hard time finding anything that does not require a monthly subscription. Some have reported that even in the ad-free platforms, they still get occasional ads.

MyAnimeList.net

The anime selections of MyAnimeList.net is respectable, and many acknowledge its fill of gaps through content not available on many other services. Reviewers even praise its UI and fantastic anime community.

Fans of MAL often note its ability to customize anime viewing pages with just a few HTML tweaks. The community forums also make a great place for getting recommendations for great anime viewers who may have missed them.

Many agree though, that the moderators on the site are subpar, with many fans regarding this site more as a great choice for finding ideas for anime to watch rather than watching the anime there and paying a premium service that is comparable to other services paid tiers.

AnimeHeaven

AnimeHeaven is a great place to find a vast selection of older anime movies and shows in HD quality.

Aside from its wide array of choices of vastly different types of anime, while the free version does interrupt streaming with ads, reviewers have reported that it is a rare instance of a site that minimizes the ad disruptions and poses minimal risks to account information and sensitive data.

AnimeHeaven does not inherently provide downloading options for its content, but many download manager browser extensions offer the ability to bring the content to your own device offline for viewing free of ad interruptions.

Tubi.tv

Tubi.tv is a popular free content streaming service that has titles and genres of movies and shows that span the streamable entertainment spectrum.

Sporting a respectable number of selections for a full free service with minimal ad interruption, Tubi.tv offers a decent selection of anime titles, though it is certainly not its predominant brand.

The downside is the ability to see items that are of any interest to you is a little tougher. The app bases its searches almost entirely on titles and a search for an intended anime film or show can bring up a list of many others ahead of it with similar naming conventions.

The film and show ratings are listed, but parents of youngsters should be aware that there is not much along the way of preventing kids from being exposed to mature content.

9anime

9anime is a popular site for anime streaming with many available titles for choices. It is not however strictly legal as its content is not licensed, so the original creators of the content do not get any compensation.

The site disclaimer that its anime content is stored offline and kept by third parties, setting themselves as just a provider of access to these selections.

As far as how well it works as a streaming site, 9anime is safe for online visitors to utilize and not intended to be an online scam. There are ads to support the platform’s revenue but there have been no major reports of user safety concerns or malware.

Fire Anime

The Fire Anime app caters exclusively to anime fans. It was designed to specifically operate with the Amazon Fire Stick or Android TV, though it will run on other android devices.

Still, it is not much of a player on tablets or phones. Fire Anime has lots of anime options and the app is free (of cost and of ads).

The UI is regularly updated with the latest additions. It runs multiple servers which allow for the streams to run smoothly and hassle-free.

Chia-Anime

Chia-Anime offers a good variety of anime content that is easy to watch and download through the site.

It is generally safe when used only for the streaming and download component of anime content, but it does have a lot of pop-up ads, clicking onto which can immediately expose your device to malware and viruses.

Users of the platform who practice caution can have access to a good amount of content. It is fair to point out that like other services of this sort, this site does not license the materials so it is not legal in the strictest sense.

Users report the streaming itself to be great and the site has manga access as well. The anime choices include multiple categories for a wide selection of anime subgenres.

AnimeDao

AnimeDao is a site stocked with many anime choices and a nice, intuitive, smooth UI. It regularly updates its episode library, and even allows for a “Random” selection for those viewers who wish to be surprised by the title.

The site offers content in excess of 2000 anime hours, with a smooth streaming delivery with the ability to read a description of a series before choosing to watch it.

The homepage contains no ad banners, which allows for easy browsing. Once a selection is made, there will be ads involved.

It is overall a cleanly interfaced source to access extensive anime content with high-quality streams, but as with most other sites of this nature the content offered is not licensed with its creators.

ConTV.com

ConTV.com offers a lot of viewing choices, many of which are not found on other streaming services, and includes user-generated content as well.

Of course, it includes anime among its genre selections, offering both free and paid tiers, with the free one being ad-supported.

The interesting thing with this platform is that ads are relevant to those accessed from the account, but access to the free tier only provides access to a partial amount of content from the selection library.

It is a perfect service for those seeking rare, odd selections often neglected by other services. They contain original programming and cosplay features as well, though anime is not the platform’s primary focus.

Niconico

Niconico is a very popular Japanese streaming service, offering a lot of anime options. Using YouTube as a video source, the site has grown to feature many user-generated content inclusions.

Throughout its operation, Niconico, which had originally been strictly catering to Japanese audiences, began to delve into English-based versions, but in 2018, the platform abandoned the growth initiatives.

The site had troubles in late 2018 with cyberattacks that took them out of commission. To this day, it offers a wide range of content, most are user uploaded, including some level of anime selection.

It operates on a free, ad-supported forum, as well as a paid version that Japanese users can purchase through pay services like PayPal.

AnimeTake.tv

AnitmeTake.tv is another internet location for streaming various types of anime featuring English subtitles. They have the movies and shows split into a variety of categories like action, comedy, adventure, sci-fi, and more.

The site is free to use and offers hassle-free searching and browsing of anime content, and can even be set up to notify viewers of upcoming releases.

VIZ

Viz is a bit different in the type of anime it offers users. Rather than consumed via streaming, it is offered in the form of manga.

It offers a wide manga reading selection as well as previews of upcoming manga content for readers who can purchase the materials that get stored directly in their personal library on the app.

The selections are not massive, but they are by no means small, making this a premier destination for manga fans.

Animefreak.tv

Animefreak.tv is another delightful choice for anime fans, offering many show and movie choices, with the latest installments added frequently.

A good part of streamable content is dubbed, and an easy search tool makes the content searchable by title or by sub-genre.

The site is generally considered safe, but it does feature quite a few advertising pop-ups, which could be harmful to your device if clicked.