'I'm CEO of a major streaming service - here are 10 amazing shows you can watch for free'

A major streaming service CEO has highlighted some of the best and underappreciated gems available on the platform.

The exclusive home to some of the best and most popular shows ever made, there are hundreds of titles on offer promising something for absolutely everyone who signs up.

To sweeten the deal, the platform offers a totally free, ad-supported subscription tier, meaning you can watch thousands of episodes without paying a single penny.

Moreover, you can remove ads for as little as £4.99 per month with its first premium tier; plus, stream on up to four devices at once and download to watch shows offline with its next tier, costing just £5.99 a month.

Anime haven Crunchyroll is undoubtedly one of the most affordable streaming services out there, and Express Online recently caught up with CEO Rahul Purini to recommend some of the best shows for Japanese animation newbies.

"We say there's anime for everybody," he said. "Every individual has different interests and passions. So we have shows for everybody."

Given Crunchyroll tripled its userbase between 2021-2024 and currently has 15 million paying members - with the total number of users surpassing 120 million - it's clear to see the worldwide appetite for anime isn't slowing down.

"There are what we call Shonen shows, which are fighting shows targeted at boys and male audiences, everything from Dragonball to Naruto and now Demon Slayer," Purini continued.

"There are [shows with] great female protagonists, like Frieren or Sailor Moon, that are amazing shows."

However, his most enthusiastic recommendation was for a series that has just wrapped up its second season earlier this year, recently telling Deadline "we hope" work will be getting started on its highly anticipated third season very soon.

"I would say, right now, one of the most popular shows, globally, on our platform is a show called Solo Leveling. It just came back for its season two earlier this year and it's breaking records. Fans love it," Purini continued.

"So, there's great shows for every fan and, depending on what kind of shows they like for their entertainment, there's definitely anime filling that.

"It's got stunning visuals, great storytelling, all of that from an amazing studio. But I also think, one, it's a simple story told really well. It's also got a lot of themes that younger audiences are familiar with.

"Audiences who are gamers who have played RPG games, they understand and have grown up with these themes, so all of that being brought into a story format is just connecting really well with audiences."

Solo Leveling is set in a world that has been invaded by monsters from an alternate universe and where certain individuals awaken as 'hunters' to fight the forces of evil. Hunters' power levels are seemingly fixed when their abilities first emerge, until a famously weak hunter, Sung Jin-woo, is granted the ability to upgrade by a mysterious system that propels him on a dangerous quest.

Purini also went on to highlight Frieren again, a female-led fantasy epic that has a "huge audience" in its own right, though hasn't quite reached the same level of popularity as Solo Leveling, as a series that potentially deserves more recognition than it's getting.

The CEO added: "There are also countless new series starting every year as well as anime staples returning for their next seasons over the next few months.

"This quarter we have an amazing lineup of shows. My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, which is a new show from the same IP as My Hero Academia, which is really popular.

"There's another new show called To Be Hero X, which seems to be a fan-favourite. We have One Piece returning, Fire Force season three. So some really great shows in the spring lineup and I think we have some amazing shows for the rest of the year as well."

With hundreds of shows offering action, adventure, horror, romance and slice-of-life drama, signing up to Crunchyroll is a no-brainer for anyone curious to delve into the world of Japanese anime.

Sign up to ad-supported Crunchyroll for free or remove ads from as little as £4.99 a month.