
The Problem with Anime Streaming Services
In the early 2010’s, anime’s popularity in the west entered a renaissance. Crunchyroll had fully taken off and become a licensing company. May 26th, 2012 saw the full return of the Toonami block. By 2014, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods was in American theatres. Anime was, is, back in full swing. Most of all, due to the crackdown on piracy, most streaming services were legal and could develop competition. This would allow dubs and North American releases to become more accessible much faster.
January 2017, Amazon began its very own anime streaming service available to Amazon Prime members for an extra $5 per month. It contains older series and newer series, with some being simulcast across regions. Though years behind its competitors, Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll, it opened with a bang. However, like most streaming services, it is not perfect.
Anime Strike’s problem is complex in a sense that it would be a massive overhaul to their current dynamic. It is only available to those with an Amazon Prime account. This presents a situation that is harmful for both those with Prime accounts and those without. For Prime members, being given so much for $10 per month, and then suddenly being charged for Japanese cartoons isn’t worth the pricing. Unless a person already has something like a Crunchyroll account, they won’t suddenly develop an interest in this service.
For those who do not have an Amazon Prime account, this service is about twice as expensive as Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu. There is not option to simply pay for Anime Strike, or any individual aspect of Prime, without signing up for the entire deal. Gigguk did the math, and it would cost about $150 per year for Anime Strike, compared to the $70 for Crunchyroll and $80 for Netflix and Hulu, who both offer much more content. And if they don’t have Prime, Prime with anime is not going to entice them to pay for it. Prime offers many services, so if an anime fan isn’t already paying for it, they don’t want anything it’s offering, or maybe can’t afford it.

For Netflix, they must learn that anime fans are fickle. Anime fans are bombarded with about sixty shows every year, fifteen per season. The shelf life of a show is approximately a month longer than the actual span of the show. Anime fans are constantly reminded of the new series coming out in a matter of weeks and must finish their current show before moving on to a new one. Sites such as Mangafox and the failure of Shonen Jump in North America reveal that manga fans are not interested in waiting. Manga and anime fans have a significant overlap and come from the same subculture, meaning they have the same thoughts and feelings about this.
Netflix’s practices work for most things. Rather than releasing a show weekly, they release it all at once allowing viewers to watch at their own pace. However, this doesn’t work for anime fans. Almost every other streaming service simulcasts for anime, or at least releases the episodes soon afterward. They’re not going to wait months to see a new series. Anime fans are not above piracy. And, the Japanese division of Netflix offers simulcasting, so the North American one should as well.

Hulu’s problem is much bigger than its anime section. The basic paid subscription comes with commercials. This is the only streaming service that does this and acts as a turnoff to many potential customers. Netflix, Prime, Youtube Red, nor Crunchyroll do this. For any subscription service, the basic idea is pay money to avoid commercials. This goes beyond video streaming into other streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify. There’s no excuse for this. All it serves to do is force viewers to fork over more cash or move to a different service. The only real benefit to Hulu is the fact that it simulcasts most things, including its western television.
For the most part, streaming is getting better. Crunchyroll is easily the best place for anime fans though. It specifically appeals to anime culture as a whole as opposed to other services that view anime as a peripheral demographic. Although anime is becoming more and more common, it has yet to reach a level of mainstream as it had in the late nineties and early 00’s. However, the community of anime fans is growing much faster each day. Companies that don’t try to appeal to the demographic of existing fans will never have any chance of healthy competition with peers. For any company wishing to appeal to anime fans, go in or not at all. Anime fans can be fickle, and many are young or college aged so they want the most “bang” for their buck. Sleep tight.
Check out Gigguk’s video on the subject which inspired me to write my own. He brings up other issues and alternatives that I don’t.

