One of my favorite things is the anime, but I do not always like to watch anime sitting in a chair in front of the monitor. That’s when Crunchyroll made me happy releasing apps for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. There’s nothing quite like watching anime your favorite anime series or japanese drama from the comfort of your living room!
So is there any differences from watching this on a computer? Actually no, all the functions we enjoy from the website are present in both apps, anime, dramas, queue titles of choice, etc.
Have both consoles (360 and PS3) had an opportunity to see how the crunchyroll app works and is there a difference between consoles? It doesn’t seem like very important, however there are details that can make a big difference in your final experience. I hope this comparison can give you an idea of which to choose (if you have both consoles esque) or just to see the pros and cons between them.
Crunchyroll PS3 Interface, simple but functional
Design wise both apps look great, featuring orange with tones of grey in the background, i have preferrence for the 360 design as it looks and matches perfectly by using the Metro style of the 360 dashboard. While both console apps share the same color scheme, hands down to the 360 win on this one.
Once you go beyond the metro style, the way you search or browse for is pretty much the same on both platforms, either by using the thumb buttons or the D-pad. Something i like is how good the controls work with the game pads, forward and rewind with L/R 2 and previous or next episode by using L/R 1 among others.
You can browse by Popular, Simulcast, Updated and Alphabetical, same options as you get on the PC.
Xbox 360 Interface, elegant use of the metro style
Downsides
On the PS3 sometimes skipping the ending theme to watch the next episode, the app stays in on a eternal loading screen, pressing circle does not take you back to the main menu, your only option is to quit the app and this crashes the console, this is truly annoying and should not be there, there’s no reason for a bug like this to be there, no sir!
On the 360 people have reported getting error messages about server issues. Also the xbox doesn’t warn that it is auto loading the next episode, where as the ps3 will say “now loading episode 3 in 8 seconds”. Not a big deal really, but can be annoying when the next episode starts right away.
Overall
In the end there’s not a winner or a loser, pick the one you feel serves your needs best (if you own both consoles). Apps have pros and cons, if Crunchyroll can fix those issues here and there they can have one of the best console apps out there.
It’s a unique experience to watch anime sitting in the couch in the company of friends, nothing can beat that, it’s an experience we can enjoy with Crunchyroll!
Rating the apps i’d give the Xbox 360 app a 9 and the Playstation 3 app an 8.5 out of 10
