Many people these days prefer to spend their free time watching anime. It’s a really interesting and exciting pastime. Some people watch anime in dubbing, but for some, watching it in the original is more appealing. Fortunately, you don’t have to be fluent in Japanese to watch anime in the original, you can use subtitles!
Crunchyroll also provides subtitles for most of their shows. Whether or not there will be subtitles for this or that anime depends on Crunchyroll’s licensing agreement with the company that has the distribution rights.
For which shows on Crunchyroll there are subtitles
As mentioned above, subtitles are available for most shows. Most of the time this applies to newer streaming content, older shows often only support subtitles in English. Accordingly, the newer a show is, the more likely it is to be available in all 9 languages that Crunchyroll supports.
In addition, subtitles will automatically be applied to the video, depending on your geographical area. So you are unlikely to have to switch them on manually, as the streaming service automatically assumes you don’t know Japanese. But you can always switch them off, or change the subtitle language.
The only exception is the dubbed videos. If the audio is dubbed, it will not be possible to include subtitles in English or any other language.
How to get subtitles on Crunchyroll suitable for you
Crunchyroll cannot offer all the shows in its library in all nine languages because of geographic licensing restrictions.
To find out if the show has subtitles in a certain language, you need to go to the information page. On the right side of the window below the description is a list of languages supported by this series. if you don’t see your language right away, keep checking anyway, because license agreements are constantly changing.
Turn on Subtitles via Web Browser
In case you use Crunchyroll directly from the browser, you can enable and modify subtitles in the video stream itself.
To do this, click on the gear icon in the lower right corner of the video screen to open the settings menu. Then click on Subtitles/CC and select the language you want. You can see all nine supported language options or just a couple, it depends on the publisher of the show.
Turn on Subtitles via the Crunchyroll app on a PC
Turning on subtitles in the Crunchyroll app is slightly different. The app allows you to change the subtitle language for absolutely all of your videos, instead of having to change each of them.
To change the subtitle language settings you need to:
- Log in to your Crunchyroll account
- Click on the main menu icon or the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner of the screen. When you click on the main menu, you have very few options to choose from, you need Settings
- Click on Subtitle Language in the General section of the Settings menu
- Select your preferred language
The next time you watch a video, your subtitles will be in the language you selected. The translation of episode titles will also change.
Turning On Subtitles via Console
You can also switch the subtitle language if you’re watching the show on an Xbox or PlayStation console. However, turning subtitles on and off will not be available.
To change the subtitle language:
- Go to the Menu
- Scroll down and click on the Settings option
- Select Language
- Exit out of the Menu
These changes will only affect video streams, not the user interface of the application. To change the application language, you need to make these changes to the console system.
Also, changing the language does not guarantee that your show will have subtitles in that language. It depends on the licensing agreements between Crunchyroll and the distributor.
Don’t worry if you notice that some shows have disappeared from your queue since the change. Chances are they just didn’t have subtitles in the language you selected. If you choose a language that is not available for items in your queue, they won’t show up in your list.
