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KissAnime shut down on August 14, 2020, taken offline along with sister site KissManga after copyright holders moved to remove its files under Japan’s revised anti-piracy law. Any site using the KissAnime name today is a mirror or clone with no connection to the original.
The legal streaming market has grown enough since 2020 that most of what KissAnime offered has a direct, licensed replacement now. Here are ten legal alternatives, what each one actually carries, and a factual look at where the unofficial conversation has moved since.
TL;DR: Crunchyroll and HIDIVE cover simulcasts and dubs on a paid plan, while Tubi, Pluto TV, RetroCrush and The Roku Channel carry large libraries for free with no account required. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video add exclusives if you already subscribe for other content, and Muse Asia plus VIZ Media’s YouTube channel fill in free subtitled and dubbed catch-up. The KissAnime name itself is retired, and any site still using it should be treated as unrelated and unsafe.
Paid platforms built specifically for anime
Crunchyroll carries the largest licensed anime library by episode count, with simulcasts landing within hours of their Japanese broadcast. Subtitles cover multiple major languages including Spanish, French, and Arabic, and dubs are available for most mainstream titles after Crunchyroll absorbed Funimation’s back catalog.
Crunchyroll ended its free ad-supported tier on January 1, 2026, so full access now requires a paid plan starting at 9.99 dollars a month for the Fan tier. It runs on browsers, phones, smart TVs, and consoles, the same broad reach KissAnime users leaned on.
HIDIVE costs about half of Crunchyroll’s base plan and carries a Sentai Filmworks catalog that Crunchyroll does not, including several niche and cult titles from the 2000s and early 2010s. It also simulcasts new seasonal anime alongside Crunchyroll, so subscribing to both is a common pairing among dedicated fans rather than a redundant one.
Free platforms with no subscription required
Tubi, owned by Fox, is free permanently with no paid tier to upgrade into and no account required to start watching.
The library includes Naruto, One Piece, Death Note, Bleach, Dragon Ball Z, Sword Art Online, and Hunter x Hunter, most with proper English dub options alongside the Japanese sub, though nothing currently airing this season.
Pluto TV, owned by Paramount, is also free with no account needed, but it runs as scheduled live channels rather than a browsable library.
The Naruto Channel, Dragon Ball Channel, and Anime All Day channel play whatever is scheduled when you open the app, closer to background cable television than an on demand catalog. This free anime streaming guide covers how both services handle daily use in more depth.
Where to find older and rarer titles
RetroCrush, owned by Cineverse, is built around vintage anime from the 1970s through the 1990s, including Great Teacher Onizuka, City Hunter, Galaxy Express 999, and Devilman. The ad-supported tier is free with no account needed, and dub or sub availability varies by title depending on the original licensing deal.
The Roku Channel is free permanently and does not require a Roku device, since it also runs as a website and app. It carries the same free Crunchyroll Channel rotation that Pluto TV runs, plus a dedicated RetroCrush channel, so there is genuine overlap with the two services above.
Platforms that add anime alongside other content you may already pay for
Netflix produces some of the highest-profile anime originals and exclusives currently airing, though its simulcast catalog stays limited compared to Crunchyroll.
For someone already paying for Netflix for other shows, its roughly 200 anime titles, including over 140 originals, cost nothing extra.
Amazon Prime Video holds a handful of genuine anime exclusives, though the platform buries them deep enough in its general catalog that discovery is a real problem. It is a reasonable pickup only if the Prime subscription already exists for other reasons.
Peacock’s free ad-supported tier reportedly carries Naruto, Hunter x Hunter, and Jujutsu Kaisen, according to several current guides, though at least one source states free sign-ups closed to new users back in 2023. That conflict was not fully resolvable through available reporting, so check peacocktv.com directly before counting on this one.
Free channels for current season simulcasts
Muse Asia, a YouTube channel run by Taiwan-based licensor Muse Communication, uploads full licensed episodes of current season anime, sometimes within a day of the Japanese broadcast.
Attack on Titan, Spy x Family, and Frieren have all streamed through Muse Asia this way, free with no account, though it is aimed at Southeast Asia, India, Bangladesh, and the Middle East with subtitles rather than an English dub.
VIZ Media’s official YouTube channel posts complete episodes of Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Inuyasha, and Sailor Moon free with no account required, in both dub and sub depending on the title.
It leans toward completed classics rather than anything currently airing, closer to what KissAnime’s back catalog offered than to a simulcast service.
What each option covers, side by side
| Platform | Cost | Language | Platforms supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | From $9.99/month | Sub, dub, multiple subtitle languages | Browser, mobile, smart TV, console |
| HIDIVE | From $4.99/month | Sub and dub | Browser, mobile, smart TV |
| Tubi | Free | Sub and dub | Browser, mobile, smart TV, streaming devices |
| Pluto TV | Free | Mostly dub | Browser, mobile, smart TV, streaming devices |
| RetroCrush | Free, $4.99/month ad-free | Varies by title | Browser, mobile, streaming devices |
| The Roku Channel | Free | Sub and dub | Browser, mobile, Roku devices |
| Netflix | Included with subscription | Sub and dub | Browser, mobile, smart TV, console |
| Amazon Prime Video | Included with Prime | Sub and dub | Browser, mobile, smart TV, console |
| Muse Asia (YouTube) | Free | Subbed | Browser, mobile, smart TV via YouTube app |
| VIZ Media (YouTube) | Free | Sub and dub | Browser, mobile, smart TV via YouTube app |
Where has the unofficial conversation moved?
None of the names cited in the previous section are recommended, linked, or described with setup instructions. This is a factual record of what still comes up in the same community threads that used to point people toward KissAnime, offered so the pattern is understood rather than as something to act on.
On Reddit and similar forums, people rarely call these sites by a single shared name. The most common framing is calling them gray area sites, a phrase that shows up constantly in anime discussion threads to describe platforms operating without licensing agreements.
Mirror site and clone are the other two terms that come up often, specifically for domains built to imitate a shut-down service’s name and layout after the original disappears.
Community threads also use the phrase notorious markets when discussing enforcement, borrowed directly from the US Trade Representative’s official designation list, which named HiAnime before its March 2026 shutdown. The same enforcement pattern is what ended KissAnime’s own run in 2020, and what has continued to close whatever tries to fill the gap since.
Every domain in this category carries the same basic risk profile regardless of which specific name is circulating this month: no licensing agreement, no accountability if the site vanishes overnight, and a documented history of aggressive ads and malicious redirects. That instability is not a side note; it is close to the entire story.
What years of enforcement have actually changed?
KissAnime ran for roughly eight years before Japan’s revised anti-piracy law, and a Delhi High Court blocking order in favor of Disney India closed it down in 2020.
The legal options that exist now, from Tubi’s free library to Crunchyroll’s simulcast speed, did not fully exist in that form when KissAnime was still online, part of why its shutdown felt like a bigger loss to fans at the time than it would today.
The gap that remains open is same-week simulcasts outside a handful of regions covered by Muse Asia and Ani-One Asia. Crunchyroll’s paid tier is still the option that closes the gap fully, everywhere, without touching anything unlicensed.
The unofficial names keep changing because enforcement keeps working, even when it takes years rather than days. That pattern held with KissAnime in 2020, and it has held with every name that tried to take its place since.
