Crunchyroll Subtitles: Your Language, Japanese, or Both

People ask Crunchyroll two questions, and the subtitle menu answers neither of them well.

The first is "does it have subtitles in my language?" Sometimes, and it depends far more on the language than on the show. The second comes from anyone learning Japanese: "can I watch with Japanese subtitles?" On Crunchyroll's own player, no — not on any series we found.

This guide answers both with numbers rather than forum guesses, and then shows how Linglass, a free browser extension, now puts the missing line on Crunchyroll's player: your language, a Japanese line, or both at once.

Add the missing subtitle line on Crunchyroll — free →

Which subtitle languages does Crunchyroll have?

We read the subtitle list of every series in Crunchyroll's catalogue — 1,569 series, sorted by popularity — on 2 October 2026. Here is how often each language appears, among the 100 most popular series and across the whole catalogue:

Three things to read off it:

• Nine languages are close to universal. If yours is English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Arabic or Russian, the popular shows almost always have it.
• Southeast Asian languages and Polish cover popular simulcasts, not the back catalogue. Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese and Polish are on roughly four in ten of the top 100, and on fewer than one in five series overall. A new hit is a good bet; an older show usually is not.
• Turkish, Korean, Czech, Dutch and Swedish are essentially absent — and so is Japanese, on a catalogue where 96% of series have Japanese audio.

Two caveats, stated plainly. A language listed for a series means at least some of its episodes carry it, not necessarily all. And licences are bought per country, so the list you see in your region can differ from this snapshot — check your own episode's menu for the final word.

Why your language is missing

Subtitles are commissioned per language and licensed per market. A simulcast is subtitled into the languages of the markets Crunchyroll is selling that show in, on the week it airs; an older series carries whatever was made for it when it was licensed. That is why the same platform can have Thai subtitles on this season's biggest show and none on a classic from ten years ago.

Japanese is missing for a different reason. Every subtitle in Crunchyroll's menu is a translation out of Japanese, made for viewers who don't understand the audio. A Japanese track would serve nobody that product is built for — so it isn't there, on any series we found.

If your language isn't there: your line under the subtitles Crunchyroll has

Linglass shows two subtitle lines on Crunchyroll's player: the language you're learning on top, and your own language underneath.

• When Crunchyroll has your language, that track is used, and each line is paired with the one above it so the two stay together.
• When it doesn't, the line above is machine-translated into your language and shown underneath — built around the part of the episode you're watching, so it's ready as you play. It's free.

So a Vietnamese speaker learning English watches with Crunchyroll's English subtitles on top and a Vietnamese line below, on a show that officially has no Vietnamese at all. Be clear about what that line is: a machine translation of the subtitle above it, not an official Crunchyroll subtitle. It is there to help you follow, not to be quoted.

If you're learning a language Crunchyroll has no subtitles in — Korean or Turkish, say — the same works the other way round: an existing track is translated into it and shown as the top line, unless that language is what's being spoken.

Japanese subtitles on Crunchyroll

For Japanese learners this is the part that changes.

Crunchyroll has no Japanese subtitles. Japanese subtitle files for anime do exist, though: viewers make them from Japanese TV broadcasts and Japanese streaming releases. When you open an episode with Japanese as your learning language, Linglass finds a Japanese subtitle file for that exact series, season and episode, lines it up with the episode you're watching, and shows it as the top line.

Lining it up is the hard part. A file made from another release is usually offset by a second or more, sometimes several. Linglass compares the file against the timing of Crunchyroll's own subtitles for the episode and shifts it to match — automatically, no settings.

When the file doesn't match, you don't get it. The same comparison tells us whether a file belongs to this episode at all: a file for the right episode lines up with most of the dialogue, a file for a different episode doesn't come close. Below the threshold, we show a short note that no matching Japanese subtitles were found instead of a line that drifts against the speech.

How often it works. When we tested this on 2 October 2026, a Japanese file existed for almost all of the 100 most popular series with Japanese audio, about nine in ten of the top 300, and around two thirds of the whole catalogue. Popular shows are well covered; obscure ones are not.

If a line is slightly early or late, open the Linglass settings in the player and nudge the Japanese line by a tenth or half a second. The correction is remembered for the series, so you set it once per show.

Watch in Japanese, not in a dub. The Japanese line follows the Japanese audio. If the episode is playing in an English or other dub, switch the audio back to Japanese — a dub has its own translated script, and a Japanese subtitle would not match what you hear.

What we will never do is manufacture a Japanese line by machine-translating the English subtitles. It would be fluent, perfectly timed, and slightly different from what the character actually said — and you would learn the wrong words with complete confidence. A Japanese line from us is always a real Japanese subtitle, or nothing.

Japanese and your language together

Put the two together and you get the setup anime learners have been asking for: the Japanese line on top, matched to the speech, and your own language underneath for the words you don't know yet. The second line comes from Crunchyroll's track in your language when it has one, and from a machine translation of the Japanese line when it doesn't.

Then the study part works the same as everywhere else in Linglass:

• A reading over the kanji. Japanese lines can show a reading above the words — kana by default, romaji if you prefer — and you can switch it off when you don't need it.
• Every word clickable. One click gives the reading, the meaning in context and a native-quality pronunciation. No pausing to copy kanji into a dictionary. The free plan includes a daily allowance of these lookups.
• Save what you want to keep. One more click saves the word with the full subtitle sentence, and it comes back for review on a spaced-repetition schedule. Saving is unlimited on the free plan.

For how to turn that into a habit — which shows to start with and how to use the two lines without leaning on the bottom one — see learning Japanese with anime and anime with Japanese and English subtitles.

Learning another language on Crunchyroll

Japanese gets the attention, but Crunchyroll is a good place to practise the languages it subtitles best.

• Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Arabic, Russian: Crunchyroll's own subtitles in your target language become the top line, with your language below.
• Learning English, or another language Crunchyroll dubs into? Switch to that dub. Where a dub has closed captions, Linglass uses them as the top line — they follow the dubbed speech, so what you read is what you hear.

Setting it up

1. Install Linglass in a desktop Chromium browser — Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera or Yandex Browser — and create a free account.
2. Pick your two languages: the one you're learning and your own.
3. Open an episode on crunchyroll.com. The lines appear in the player; Crunchyroll's own subtitles are hidden while ours are on screen.

You still watch with your own Crunchyroll membership — Linglass adds lines to the player you already use, it doesn't replace it.

Honest limits

• Desktop browser only. Crunchyroll's apps on phones, tablets, TVs and consoles play their own subtitles, and nothing can be added to them.
• The Japanese line depends on a file existing and matching. Popular shows are well covered; a niche series, or an episode cut differently from the file (a recap, an extra scene), gets the "no matching subtitles" note instead.
• Machine lines are translations. The line in your language, when Crunchyroll doesn't have it, is good enough to follow along with and not a substitute for an official subtitle. Premium can replace it with an AI translation that fits the scene.
• No screenshots or audio clips in saved cards on Crunchyroll. The video is copy-protected, so a saved word keeps its sentence but not a picture of the scene.
• Subtitles are never generated from audio here. On Crunchyroll every line comes from a subtitle that already exists.

Frequently asked questions

Does Crunchyroll have subtitles in my language?

It depends mostly on the language. Across 1,569 series checked on 2 October 2026, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Arabic and Russian are on 84–99% of the 100 most popular shows. Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese and Polish are on 41–47% of the top 100 but fewer than one series in five overall. Turkish, Korean, Czech, Dutch and Swedish are essentially absent, and Japanese is on none.

Does Crunchyroll have Japanese subtitles?

No. Crunchyroll's subtitles are translations out of Japanese for viewers who don't understand the audio, and none of the 1,569 series we checked lists a Japanese subtitle track. Linglass adds one on crunchyroll.com: it finds a Japanese subtitle file for the episode, aligns it to Crunchyroll's own timing, and shows it only when it matches.

Can you watch Crunchyroll with two subtitles at once?

Not in Crunchyroll's own player, which shows one subtitle track. With the free Linglass extension in a desktop browser you get two lines: the language you're learning on top and yours underneath, taken from Crunchyroll's track in your language or machine-translated when there isn't one.

What if the Japanese subtitles are slightly out of sync?

Open the Linglass settings in the player and shift the Japanese line by a tenth or half a second until it matches the speech. The correction is saved for the whole series. If the file doesn't belong to the episode at all, Linglass doesn't show it.

Does this work in the Crunchyroll app on my phone or TV?

No. Browser extensions run only in desktop browsers, and Crunchyroll's apps on phones, tablets, TVs and consoles play their own subtitles with no way to add a line. You need crunchyroll.com in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera or Yandex Browser.

Is it free?

Yes. The second line, the Japanese line, the readings over the kanji and unlimited saved words are all on the free plan, and word lookups come with a daily allowance. You need a free Linglass account and your usual Crunchyroll membership.

Quick recap

• Crunchyroll's subtitle coverage depends on the language: nine languages are near-universal, Southeast Asian languages and Polish cover popular shows only, and Turkish, Korean, Czech, Dutch, Swedish and Japanese are essentially missing.
• When your language is missing, Linglass puts a machine-translated line in your language under the subtitles Crunchyroll does have — free.
• For Japanese learners, Linglass finds a Japanese subtitle file for the episode, aligns it to the stream, and refuses it if it doesn't match. It never machine-translates a Japanese line.
• Together that gives you Japanese on top and your language below, with clickable words, readings over the kanji and flashcards.
• It works on crunchyroll.com in a desktop Chromium browser, with your own Crunchyroll membership.