To clarify, most of the Cruncyhroll library is free. The reasons that there is an option to purchase a Premium membership are, as far as I know, twofold. Firstly, as DubiousDelphine mentioned, it gets rid of the ads entirely. The second and bigger reason is simultaneous broadcast/simulcast. Simulcast is when a currently running show is airing a new episode in both Japan and internationally. If you're following a currently running show then it's very convenient to have a Premium membership because otherwise you have to wait a week for the episode to be made available.
I know a bunch of people with Crunchyroll memberships, though I've personally never felt the need to purchase it myself. When I watch a series, I like to binge it all at once instead of following it as it airs since it allows me to see what happens next practically immediately even if it is significantly after the rest of the world has seen it.
That said, you mentioned that:
Stella-Io said:
I was poking around on Crunchyroll and it said join for a free 14 day trial. I was under the impression it was totally free. Right now it won't let me watch a video. Is it actually free or do I have to have a paid subscription?
If you're trying to watch a new episode that just came out then it's due to the simulcast rules where they upload it for non-members to watch a week later. If it's not that then I have no idea why you can't watch the show you want.
As far as the shows you mentioned are concerned, all of them are available on Crunchyroll.
There are some shows that you might find you might want to watch that aren't available on the site and usually, unfortunately, aside from piracy like KissCartoon or whatever, that means you'll have to pay for a subscription to some other service like Funimation or Hulu. Crunchyroll and Funimation actually had a partnership for a while that made a number of Funimation's licensed shows available for Crunchyroll viewers (such as Cowboy Bebop or Yu Yu Hakusho). That arrangement ended a while back though, so those shows and more aren't available via Crunchyroll anymore.
If at some point you decide that you'd want a Crunchyroll premium membership, it might do to keep VRV in mind. VRV is a site where you pay $9.99+tax per month but allows you not only access to Crunchyroll's simulcasts but also the libraries of other video services like HIDIVE (other anime that Crunchyroll doesn't have the licenses to), Nicksplat (certain old Nickelodeon shows), and even Shudder (a horror movie service that I can personally recommend). At least I think it allows you access the whole libraries, I've never tried it myself as I've only ever used Shudder on its own. I've just heard of VRV a lot so, yeah, if you ever plan to go premium it might be something to consider and do more research on.
