A lot of good anime is region locked in Australia; this goes for both Crunchyroll and Funimation. Here’s how to unlock it.
Some anime shows and movies are not available due to region lock in. Although it is believed to be a licensing issue, there are no other services in Australia that offer this blocked content. You will need to remove the Crunchyroll/Funimation region lock to get access to most of these animes in Australia.
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Crunchyroll boasts the largest library of anime shows and movies world wide. Although Crunchyroll doesn’t offer as much dubbed content as Funimation, it has a lot more of the classics and obscure animes that hardcore fans love. But sadly, nearly half of this content is locked in Australia.
At first I was frustrated because none of the animes that had been recommended for me were popping up on the app, but when I searched for them on Google I could click on the official page for the show or movie on Crunchyroll. Unfortunately I could not play the anime because of the following message:
"Sorry, this video is not available in your region due to licensing restrictions."
Removing the pesky region lock for Crunchyroll, Funimation and any other video streaming service is really easy. Within minutes you can be watching the animes below on your TV, but you will need a VPN.
We recommend NordVPN (that’s who we use). You can get monthly access for as little as $3.71 per month. Their app is easy to use and there servers are fast, secure and very reliable. They also offer a 30-day money back guarantee.
Once you’ve created an account you have to download their app. If you’re just watching anime on your phone, it is enough to just get the mobile app and connect to a USA server on your Android or iOS smartphone. However, if you want to create a VPN hotspot so you can watch or cast it to your television you’ll need to create a hotspot on your Windows 10 PC.
It takes about five minutes to do and here is a thorough step-by-step guide on how share your VPN connection through a WIFI hotspot using your laptop or PC.
Once you’ve followed all these steps you can connect any device to the hotspot and stream any and all region locked content. Just some of the animes I have discovered that are region locked — but I can now watch in Australia on both Crunchyroll and Funimation — include:
Another (CrunchyRoll)
Another is a dark psychological horror anime produced by P.A. Works and directed by Tsutomu Mizushima.
PLOT: A young man named, Koichi Sakakibara, transfers to a new school where he finds himself drawn into a mystery involving a mysterious girl and a series of very gruesome deaths. He becomes fascinated by an aloof girl named Mei Misaki who wears an eye-patch and is always alone drawing pictures.
Kanokon (Crunchyroll)
Kanokon is a 2008 is a rather raunchy anime with a lot of fan service based on the light novels written by Katsumi Nishino and illustrated by Koin, published by Media Factory. The series centers on Kouta Oyamada, a young boy from the countryside enrolled in his freshman year at Kunpo High School.
PLOT: Kanokon’s story revolves around Kouta Oyamada, an extremely innocent young first-year high school student who moves from the country to the city and thus transfers to Kunpō High School. On his first day at his new school, he meets a beautiful second-year female student named Chizuru Minamoto.
Kite (Crunchyroll)
Kite, known as A Kite in Japan, is a Japanese a controversial hard hitting original video animation written and directed by Yasuomi Umetsu. Two 35-minute episodes were released on VHS on February 25 and October 25, 1998 respectively.
PLOT: Kite revolves around a schoolgirl named Sawa who is orphaned in her early teens. Her parents are the victims of a gory double murder. When the film opens, Sawa is on a date with a celebrity, but he begins yelling at an old lady, who had rebuked him for promiscuous ways, being on a date with such a young girl. Sawa kills him, and the old lady dies of a heart attack sometime later, after feeling around for her glasses in the bloody aftermath. The detectives investigating the crime, Akai and Kanie, are her guardians. Akai has had a sexual relationship with Sawa for the duration of his guardianship. Akai also gave her a pair of crystal earrings, each one allegedly containing the blood of one of her parents.
Ladies Versus Butlers (Crunchyroll)
Ladies versus Butlers is an anime adaptation Japanese light novel series written by Tsukasa Kōzuki, with accompanying illustrations by Munyū. Plenty of fan service in this one.
PLOT: Ladies versus Butlers is is about Hino Akiharu, a kid who lost his parents when he was small and was adopted into his uncle’s family. But he noticed his uncle is after the inheritance of his parents, so he decides to enter a boarding school, Hakureiryou high school.
Terra Formars (Funimation)
Terra Formars is a Japanese manga series written by Yū Sasuga and illustrated by Kenichi Tachibana. It was adapted to anime by Liden Films and began airing on September 26, 2014, and finished airing on December 19, 2014 with a total of 13 episodes.
PLOT: In an attempt to colonize Mars, 21st century scientists are tasked with terraforming the planet. Their goal is to seed the planet with a modified algae to absorb sunlight and purify the atmosphere, and cockroaches, whose corpses spread the algae across the planet as they feed.
DARLING in the FRANXX (Funimation)
DARLING in the FRANXX, abbreviated as DarliFra is a 2018 Japanese science fiction romance anime television series co-produced by A-1 Pictures and Trigger and animated by Trigger and CloverWorks.
PLOT: DARLING in the FRANXX is set in a dystopian future where children are artificially created and indoctrinated solely to defend the remnants of civilization. The story follows a squad of ten pilots, particularly focusing on the partnership between Hiro, a former prodigy, and Zero Two, a hybrid human and elite pilot who aspires to become entirely human.
Excel Saga (Funimation)
Excel Saga is a manga series written and illustrated by Kōshi Rikudō. It was adapted into an anime television series by Victor Entertainment, which was taglined Quack Experimental Animation.
PLOT: Believing the World to be corrupt, the secret organization Across plans to conquer the world. The first step in the plan for world domination is to begin by focusing on one city in order to minimize setbacks. Across consists of the leader of the organization, Il Palazzo, and his young adult officers: the enthusiastic and energetically devoted Excel and the soft-spoken Hyatt, who is prone to fainting losing lots of blood at a time. Excel and Hyatt live in an apartment building in the city, along with their pet dog Menchi, who they have deemed their emergency food supply. Excel and Hyatt are later joined by a snobbish but equally clueless rival officer of Across named Elgala.