First, Crunchyroll is free just with ads (unless you use ad block).
I watch a lot of anime legally on Crunchyroll or on Netflix (used to watch on Hulu) which we now get as a bonus for no additional charge with our phone plan. Actually, there are a lot of legal sites where you can watch anime for free nowadays, so I don't watch illegally very often. Heck, you can even watch some anime (indie or not) on Youtube for free.
When I do watch illegally, thanks to how much more available anime is nowadays, it's kinda more like, "Eh. Just this once". I'm also not afraid to drop some dollars on the anime I really love. There are sites like Rightstuf who seem to always have sales and deals too-- eventually you're going to find some of your favorite titles for a good price if you don't want to spend the full price. I don't really use Prime Video because I prefer having the physical copy, but I noticed Amazon has rental options for certain anime usually for like $2.99, which is pretty cheap.
When Borders was around, I'd buy a lot of manga new there, but I also bought a lot of secondhand anime and manga, so I own a lot of physical copies of both manga and anime. Ya know, I even buy some manga here on MAL-- you can't read them offline, like with other digital manga sellers, but sometimes they sell a manga volume for like 99 cents and I can't help but buy it if I'm even a little interested. I think 99 cents is the least I can do.
ALSO, Shonen Jump has free manga up a lot. Subscribing to Shonen Jump (digital) is only $1.99 a month which gives you access to like almost all their manga. I remember Shonen Jump used to be like $20 a month though it was huge and had some nice little extras.
Like yo, things are so cheap compared to how much they used to be. I know money's tight for people-- me too, but I just can't help but side eye a little when people are like, "I have no money, so I pirate" because most things you can watch for free or it's really cheap.
I dunno. I was raised by "unless it's a necessity, if you can't afford it then you don't need it and won't get it". It was just that simple. We didn't have money for a lot of things so I didn't get them. Things are easier to get illegally these days, but I never feel like I'm entitled to watch them even if I do. I don't do things that I'm not able to/willing to pay for or wouldn't be willing to pay any fines for if I were caught. Just like with speeding while driving; I've never been caught and usually drive the speed limit, but I'd know what I did, just give me my ticket so I can go. |