RetroCrush
is an anime streaming site that primarily focuses on older and more obscure titles rather than the latest big hits to come out of Japan. Most of its hosted content ranges from "merely" a few decades to around half a century in age if not longer. Needless to say it puts a strong emphasis on "the good old days of anime" where men were muscular and shirtless, women were cute and moe and giant robots and horrific monsters ruled the roster of most big name shows. Simply put, RetroCrush is an app for that classic nostalgic anime goodness that has been mostly lost to time.
While other major anime streaming platforms pull in numbers from their giant libraries of content and brand new releases RetroCrush prefers to keep things cheap, simple and easily accessible. Rather than prioritizing hot upcoming shonen or generic isekai series viewers can expect to find some of the rarer hidden gems from the early days of anime, including popular cult classics and the occasional So Bad, It's Good schlockfest titles such as Devilman, Crying Freeman or Wicked City just to name a few.
If ancient series from the first wave of anime to hit American shores isn't your thing don't despair, they also have many more modern (though still relatively old) shows both mainstream (like Yu-Gi-Oh!) and obscure (like Puppet Princess) for your viewing pleasure as well. One last important thing to note however, is that while RetroCrush has many shows that are aimed at kids, families or young teens the vast majority of their content is intended for people aged 13+ with no shortage of brutal violence, vulgar language and messed up scenes filling most of their more popular series. (To give you an idea of what to expect on this service both Violence Jack and Angel Cop are currently available to stream on the platform. Yes. You Have Been Warned.)
RetroCrush also has a Youtube account which can be viewed here.
Series that have been hosted on the platform include:
- Angel Cop
- A Wind Named Amnesia
- Barefoot Gen
- City Hunter
- City Hunter: .357 Magnum OVA
- City Hunter: Million Dollar Conspiracy OVA
- City Hunter: Bay City Wars OVA
- City Hunter: The Secret Service OVA
- City Hunter: Goodbye My Sweetheart OVA
- City Hunter: Death of the Vicious Criminal Saeba Ryo OVA
- City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes OVA
- Cat's Eye
- Crying Freeman (All 6 OVAs.)
- Devilman
- Devilman Lady
- Violence Jack (All 3 OVAs.)
- Fatal Fury
- Fatal Fury The Motion Picture
- Golgo 13
- Lupin III
- Puppet Princess
- Robot Carnival
- Street Fighter
- Urusei Yatsura
- Urusei Yatsura: Only You
- Urusei Yatsura: Remember By Love
- Urusei Yatsura: Lum The Forever
- Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter
- Urusei Yatsura: Always My Darling
- Virtua Fighter
- Virtua Fighter (Season 1 only.)
- Wicked City
- Yu-Gi-Oh!
RetroCrush provides examples of:
- Nostalgia Filter: As the name probably tipped you off this is their main selling point. Their primary target demographics are older anime fans who mostly grew up in the 80s and 90s on the more gritty, brutal and infamous OVAs and movies that were popular during the early days of the medium and fans of the often sillier and cheesier series that came out during this period. That being said they also tossed in a few more modern shows and titles aimed at younger audiences to cover all their bases.
