Last year I did a round-up of free legal anime streaming services where you could watch Yuri anime. Recently I was name-checked on Twitter when someone discovered an older legit channel for the first time. And, since this happens regularly and old services close down and new services pop up, it seemed apropos to go through some of the free, legitimate anime streaming services available to you on which to watch Yuri anime. Update for 2020: Please see the 2020 Updated edition.
Caveats: I’m focusing on US-based services, because while I am dedicated to you, my readers, my dedication does not extend to working with proxies or VPNs in every major market to see if these services work in your hometown. Assume there are regional restrictions in place for some or all of these services. But feel free to use proxies or VPNs on your own. ^_^ And, if you use a regionally legal, free streaming site in a non-US country, by all means, please let folks know in comments!
I’m also not focusing on paid services like The Anime Network or Amazon’s Strike. Today we’re focusing on services that are free and legitimate.
ALL these services have shifting catalogs. That’s just the nature of the beast, the beast being video licensing. Just because a series is on one service now, does not mean it will always be. Another good reason to update this list periodically.
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is doing a pretty good job of licensing anime as broadly as possible. They have been very Yuri-positive and often, when they lose a license, circle back around and get it again – for instance, they have Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers once again after viewers complained when the IP holder pulled the show after a limited time. Crunchyroll is my go-to, because their catalog is one of the most comprehensive, from Bodacious Space Pirates to Riddle Story of a Devil to Yuru Yuri to Sakura Trick to Cardcaptor Sakura.
Rating: A- They’ve really kept up the commitment to Yuri. It’s not an all-in-one-place-go-to-stop for everything, but it’s damned close. The biggest issue is the region-blocking, which is not Crunchyroll’s fault, but does have an impact.
Viewster is a trove of forgotten Yuri treasures. Their library includes Strawberry Panic!, Maria Watches Over Us, Aria and some other random things I’ve liked over the years, like Murder Princess. ^_^ Viewster claims to be available worldwide.
Rating: B- The catalog is hit or miss, but they often have stuff you can’t find anywhere else.
Hulu
This time last year, Hulu had a ton of anime but they purged most of it, including a large pile of interesting western animation. However, it’s the only place you can go for the original Sailor Moon. How fun, huh? Where Toei licensed Sailor Moon Crystal to everyone and their cousin (finally!), Viz obviously has an exclusive agreement with Hulu for streaming the original series.
Rating: B- There’s nothing else here, the adverts are annoying and for the cost of subscribing (which doesn’t get rid the ads,) I might as well get the DVDs.
Tubi TV
Tubi a newish service that includes a random smattering of anime, but has a surprisingly strong showing in Yuri, on account of Nozomi’s titles. So they have Revolutionary Girl Utena, Season 3 and 4 (? No idea why only those two seasons) of Maria Watches Us and Bodacious Space Pirates. They’ve also got a few other notable series, like Moribito, and Sound of the Sky. It’s worth a look, if only to boggle you with the vagaries of anime licensing.
Rating: B- It’s worth looking at, but I probably wouldn’t subscribe.
Nozomi Entertainment on Youtube
The Official Nozomi channel currently has all of Revolutionary Girl Utena and Rose of Versailles in full on Youtube, but this may be ephemeral.
Rating: C It’s cool as long as it lasts, but there’s no way to know how long it will last. And Youtube.
Speaking of services no one remembers, Daisuki was launched by the Japanese government with “Cool Japan” money a few years ago in order to create a better streaming service to overseas watchers. Unfortunately it fell into the exact same pit as all the other “Cool Japan” endeavors – it was random, inconsistent and had no long-term planning. So you can still watch, say, Jubei-chan on Daisuki, but only Season 2, not 1. I will give them credit for excellent genre break down, “sci-fi” “robots/mechanic” “heartful” “novels” “games” “sports/race”. You actually have an idea what a series is about/from with descriptions like those.
Rating: D
Funimation
Auuuughhghghghghghgh. Funimation, you have the worst website. Always. Ever. There has never been a single day I have visited the Funimation website and not wanted to put my fist through the screen. Sure, they have Riddle Story of a Devil, and Yurikuma Arashi, but so does Crunchyroll without committing every single website design failure in the world.
Ratings: D Go anywhere else. It’s never worth the agita.
If Media Blasters and Nozomi licensed their catalogs to Crunchyroll, they’d be the all-in-one-place, but even so, they come closer to anywhere else. The biggest problem is the inconsistency and ephemerality of the licenses. And the region-blocking, which is a relic of another age that is slowly disintegrating, but still exists, for now.
If you are using a legitimate streaming site for your country and want to share, please add it to the comments!
My main complaint about Crunchyroll is that they don’t have a genre/category listing for yuri. So you basically have to already know what you’re looking for in order to watch it. Therefore, as a service to fellow yuri fans, culled from my queue, here’s the (definitive?) list of yuri and yuri-ish titles available to watch on Crunchyroll:
Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie
Jubei-chan: The Ninja Girl
Shamanic Princess
Sakura Trick
Shin Sekai Yori
R.O.D.
Saki
Saki: Episode of Side A
The Rose of Versailles
Koihime Musou
Shin Koihime Musou
Shin Koihime Musou – Otome Tairan
Battle Girls – Time Paradox
Kill la Kill
Girl Friend BETA
Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Bodacious Space Pirates
Sweet Blue Flowers
Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon
Samurai Flamenco
Sailor Moon Crystal
Riddle: Story of Devil
Flip Flappers
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
Bonus! No yuri but worth watching:
Hozuki no Reitetsu
Gankutsuou
I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying
She and Her Cat – Everything Flows
And if I missed anything, *please* let me know!
The problem with a list like this is that it contains very personal interpretations of “Yuri” which is why I did not include one. There are any number of series on your list I do not consider Yuri and undoubtedly, you would feel the same about any list I created, which is why I did not include one. ^_^
I hope people do not feel limited by this list and feel free to watch what they want on their favorite streaming site!
Of course, I meant “definitive” in a very tongue-in-cheek way. And yes, the list ranges the gamut from “so, so gay” to “only if you squint hard and turn your head sideways.” :P
I am not an authority and I certainly didn’t mean it to be some kind of canon that people shouldn’t look beyond or should feel is mandatory that they watch if they want to be “real” yuri fans. I just hoped it would be helpful as a reference since CR itself provides no way to search for yuri content.
I understood, just putting out the disclaimer for others. Pretty much no anime streaming sites acknowledge Yuri. (Nor does Amazon or Amazon JP.) In fact, CR basically adheres to the demographic genre, with a few broad actual genres. BL series are likewise not categorized. The only site I know for a fact that has Yuri as a category is Bookwalker and Global Bookwalker for manga and light novels and let me tell you how much I appreciate that!
Funimation used to have a yuri category, albeit with some questionable inclusions. However, I just checked and it seems that with their site reorganization they have eliminated it. :/
I understand why, too. For the same reason *I* don’t make lists. Who wants to get hate mail over whether Bodacious Space Pirates is Yuri or not? I mean, think about it. There’s one couple pretty far in. so it’s not a “Yuri series” but it has Yuri and is female-focused and empowering, but is it worth dealing with angry mail about choosing one side or the other? Nope, it just isn’t. It’s a sci/fi story. End of that. ^_^
True; I guess what I’m thinking of more is content tags, which is how Funi’s old system worked. That way a series doesn’t have to be bucketed as one thing or another – it can be labeled as many things as it needs to be to inform its potential audiences.
Animelab in australia can be good, though they are clearly struggling in a world with cr. but cr never gets Funi titles, while AL often does here in Oz.
Wasn’t CR supposed to start carrying all of Funimation’s subtitled series, per their partnership-type-thing from last year? I haven’t seen any real movement on that front.
The partnership’s why Funi-licensed shows like Riddle Story of Del/Yurikuma Arashi are no longer limited to Funi’s awful player.
Good to see YKA is there (wasn’t last time I checked), but they still don’t have everything. Still missing from yuri stuff:
Rin: Daughters of Mnemnosyne
Mikagura School Suite
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
Shattered Angels
Mikagura was kinda decent in a fun way, but I don’t think the rest are a big loss. Also missing is “Venus vs. Virus,” which was tagged as yuri on Funi’s site but has no yuri at all. It does have pretty kickass opening and ending songs, though.
This also seems as good a place as any to mention I’m still bummed that CR no longer has “Blue Drop”
Yes, they do. That’s why I said watch their stuf on CR. ^_^
CR is carrying Funimation titles now. Thanks for the Australian recommendation!
They do have a yuri tag though: http://www.crunchyroll.com/showtag?tag=yuri&type=2
That’s new, then. Excellent.
There’s also Viki which has Rose of Versailles and lots of other stuff. Not sure how much of it is yuri though.
Yes, I had considered adding Viki, but they hadn’t added anything Yuri for some years.