Hey everyone, welcome to day 5 of Blogmas!

Today’s post will be pretty short, as I have skipped out the past few days of reading through the monthly OWLS tours due to being busy. But of course, we still have something from 2017 to celebrate today, and that is the rise of mobile apps relating to anime. While most if not all of these have been out since before this year, 2017 was when I found myself using them to their fullest potential.

So yeah, in no particular order of favorites, here we go!

Favorite Anime-Related Mobile Apps of 2017

Crunchyroll 

Startin’ off easy. EVERY anime fan in the U.S. should have Crunchyroll. It’s FREE to download, and you get access to basically everything in their catalog—which is a lot, a lot, of subbed anime. From seasonal simulcasts to binging old classics, Crunchyroll is about the best you can get. I do pay for a premium membership ($60/year), and that gets me instantaneous access to the latest episode of simulcast shows in near-real time. Pretty sweet.

Funimation Now

What would be one best girl without the other, right? Funimation made major improvements over their old streaming app, the biggest being that you do have to pay up front to use it (if you use their website, most not new, age-appropriate titles can be viewed for free). I believe it’s also around $60/year, BTW. So between Crunchyroll and my Funimation Now account, $120 gets me access to just about 4/5 of all the anime I’ve ever wanted to watch, subbed AND dubbed. I admittedly haven’t used the Funimation account to watch their simuldubs yet, but I’m sure in 2018 that I’ll cave in.

Vudu

This year, I did start utilizing those “digital download codes” that come primarily come in anime films, and you know what, this app was surprisingly nifty! With the exciting announcement of newly released full SERIES by Funimation including digital downloads, I can only see myself using this app more and more in the future.

VRV

Acting as a partnership app between Crunchyroll and Roosterteeth (with a little Funimation in the mix), VRV mixes parts of both catalogs as well as some J-dramas and cartoons into its own interface. I haven’t used this app much at all, but I did download it, and for the most part, its basic features ARE free!

Pokemon GO

With its worldwide popularity seemingly plummeting after its summer 2016 release, there are surprisingly still many who play Pokemon on the go, which is cool! I’ll admit, I didn’t go Pokemon hunting much this year myself (I wish it didn’t take so long to load >.<), but seasonal events like the Halloween special did bring me back into the digital world. I just LOVE its simple use of virtual reality, and I really do hope it doesn’t die out completely in the coming year.

Fate/Grand Order

I’m pretty sure Fate GO was the app I used most this year, and it absolutely deserves the shoutout! Highly anticipated by myself and much of the the Fate fandom, Aniplex of America’s version of the hit Japanese mobile game was widely received when it came out this summer, scoring quite well into the top 100 apps at the time. Though I have lost a little steam thanks to the large time gap in story content being updated, I still loyally check my phone DAILY to rack in all of the streak benefits. Like Pokemon GO, I’m definitely not “the best” or a “pro” at the game, but I do have fun playing, and hey, that’s all that matters, right? I’ve lost so many hours playing this amazing game, and it’s so awesome being able to plug in the fragments of what I knew and what I now know with the greater universe of Fate!!

I told you it’d be a pretty short read! What anime subscriptions do you use? Which ones do you pay for? Does ANYONE use Amazon’s infamous Anime Strike? Also, what anime-related apps did you use this year? Any saucy otome games for iOS LOL?? Askin’ for a friend, heh heh, so let me know!! If I want to stay on schedule, I’ve got three months of OWLS tour posts to go read now, so this’ll wrap up Blogmas Day Five of the 12 Days of Anime! Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you all tomorrow!

– Takuto, your host