Anime Strike Spring Lineup announced!
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Granblue Fantasy the Animation: April 1 Streams on Daisuki
Sagrada Reset: April 5
Armed Girl's Machiavellism: April 5
Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend Flat: April 5
Kabukibu!: April 7
Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul: April 7
Re:CREATORS: April 7
Eromanga Sensei: April 8 Streams somewhere else?
Grimoire of Zero: April 10
Anonymous Noise: April 11
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Sword Oratoria: April 14
Atom The Beginning: April 15
Everything else is EXCLUSIVEThe war begins anew, just this time there won't be a bidding war...
FAQ for those "out of the loop"
What is Anime Strike?
Anime Strike is Amazon owned specialized channel for Anime. To get access to Anime Strike you need to first have an Amazon Prime account then you have to subscribe to this specialized channel for access.
This must cost a lot of money?!
Correct, approximately $150 yearly (Amazon Prime) + $5 monthly (Anime Strike) for a total of $210 yearly
This isn't too bad Crunchyroll has been terrible recently and Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the World!
Hold on there pardner, while yes Anime Strike will apparently finally have Anime OPs and EDs translated for once for some shows. They do have a better delivery system and the only complaint so far seems to be:
- Bad sub timings (Apparently it desyncs over time too)
- No proper release schedule (They just show up when they're done without any time ETA given)
- Big double paywall
- No access for anyone outside of the US
No access outside of the US? That can't be right, I just got used to Crunchyroll having licensed out shows to my foreign far away country that isn't within the borders of the United States?!
Well sort of, apparently Funimation licensed shows and when Crunchyroll got hands on them through their partnership, Well Funimation shows they got a more global reach as Crunchyroll knows supplying anime to different parts of the world is a good idea. However Crunchyroll has definitely ramped up their outside of US releases and they've always tried to at least get another region on its' licenses at all times. This has increased further over time and well.. That changes now.
Sadly, Amazon is a big behemoth that do not need such small parts of the world. They only operate within countries like United States, Germany, UK, Japan and so forth.
Apparently most of the licenses were given to Sentai Filmworks if that name rings a bell. Well usually they are the one company that has a firm "No, we do not license outside of the United States." stand and usually their licenses are very hard to grab sublicenses to other countries.
Well, Amazon after their gigantic failure of getting the licenses for the NoitaminA block which shows horrendously flopped decided they needed a sub-partner. Enter Sentai Filmworks the one company that loves to stay the F away from Crunchyroll who had been haphazardly jumping from streaming platform to streaming platform hoping something would stick and well. I think this one more likely will stick.
Can we do anything about this at all or is this the true Game Over situation for outside US anime watching other than buying them blu rays?
I'd say it definitely is, most likely your hope is to be in Crunchyroll spending all their license money to obtain licenses for the most hyped shows (2 shows basically) while letting Amazon shark the others. However depending on the budget Amazon has they could outbid Crunchyroll on almost everything and it'd definitely be what could potentially happen for the super hyped summer season which has several sequels that many people are looking forward to.
This would definitely be an excellent draw to Anime Strike for Amazon. Pure agony for anyone in the US without a pretty penny and outside of US who's a fan of anime in general.
Why do you bring this up here?
Because I'd just like to personally thank Sam for keeping it straight business wise. I just want to give people money for the things I enjoy and yet it seems that the market for anime keeps going back to step 1 everytime I see advancements that show an encouraging view of the outside landscapes of the United States.
At least it seems Light Novels took the step outside this hellish cycle and I think it's important to acknowledge that in consideration of how backwards the anime industry just went again.
Anyways, the funny story I am looking forward to is seeing Isekai Smartphone only being available on Anime Strike. It's such a typical Sentai license. So I cannot wait!
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A while ago there were more channels with streaming exclusives, now it's basically just Crunchyroll and Amazon. Netflix doesn't have much, Hulu none and Funi is only for dubs. It's not the end of the world.
I think Sentai was always going to try to find a partner outside of Crunchy once the Funi merger happened and Hulu dropped ad revenue. They don't want to line their competators pockets, it makes sense.
I already have Prime as I shop Amazon a lot so the extra $5 is no big deal. I understand many don't have Prime (at least that's what I read online, most my irl friends do) so if you're paying for it just for anime that's too much. Totally agree. Wish they'd do the subscription outside of Prime, maybe at $7.50 outside $5 within. I think that would be reasonable.
We'll see how it goes. Reading the forum on ANN does make me wonder how the modern generation would have handles the "old days" where you were happy to pay $35 for one episode of Bubblegum Crisis on VHS because "Holy shit, they're releasing subtitled anime!" Times change and so do expectations, but all y'all kids don't know how good you have it!
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I think Amazon Prime is a very valueable package if you live in US, UK and other Amazon regions. However the extra $5 monthly really just makes it ridiculously distasteful even in the eyes of Prime subscribers.
I agree though, that monetary value of Anime is so ridiculously low for the West compared to the East where it's $60 for each 2 episode volume. Maybe we got spoiled by a lot? I have no qualms paying $210 for quality anime yearly. As long as I have access to it. But, I see the issue is very valid. How many people who consume anime has a disposable income to spend 210 dollars yearly?
Honestly though I am just disappointed Grimoire of Zero got licensed by them. I was really looking forward to it. Now I have to sigh and realize that I just aren't part of the great USA and move on with the fact that us outsiders can't catch a break ever.
I guess this was meant to happen once Netflix entered the market. It's just lame as it is the same boring war all over again. Except this one won't likely end.
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I have been an amazon prime member for like 5 or so years, I get more then enough use out of it to justify the price of a yearly membership.
Having a double paywall isn't ideal but I will sign up and see how it goes just because of Danmachi Soinoff, and Saekano sequel.
I probably shouldn't support a site that I don't agree with I already do that with FAKKU so what's another $5/month on top of my prime subscription.
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I get more than my money's worth out of the free Amazon shipping Prime I can't imagine they could afford exclusive shows if they didn't charge more for it. I totally get that. I think lobbeying Strike for more international showing of their shows and a non-Prime option are both things that they could do. I suspect they are beta-running right now to see if it's successful enough to run worldwide or not. Sending Amazon pleasantly written feedback could help them realize rolling out these options would be to their immediate benefit.
I'm more of a fan of Sentai than Funi so I'm at least happy that this deal can potentially keep them on as a major player.
Honestly my biggest hope is that all the Discotek shows get picked up somewhere. I'm a classic anime fan and subscribe to DAISUKI right now just for L-Gaim and Aura Battler so if anyone got the Discotek catalog that would be instasubscribe for me even if the channel offered nothin else.
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@the-green-death Hold on you can subscribe to Daisuki? Are you telling me that they regionblocked subscription?
Damn, that's ridiculous. So their subscription program is only available in the U.S? I was wondering what happened to it. I heard they had added it and tried going to it (As I wanted to support them for giving me so many shows that would otherwise not be available outside of the US) and got redirected to the main site. Hah, that's really funny.
I mean, Amazon has been kind enough. Especially during the "The Grand Tour" outrage that they opened up access to everyone worldwide to access the show as long as you had a Prime account on any of the respective services. So maybe that could happen here as well with enough feedback? Hopefully that will happen.
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@Fezu I didn't know DAISUKI was us only, strange I can't imagine it has too many subscribers...
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@the-green-death It's so disappointing too, I love the service and yet they seemingly decided to regionblock subscription for those outside the US. I thought they had decided to delete the subscription method and stay "hush hush" about it.
Not that they had actually decided to regionblock the whole service altogether.
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We'll see how it goes. Reading the forum on ANN does make me wonder how the modern generation would have handles the "old days" where you were happy to pay $35 for one episode of Bubblegum Crisis on VHS because "Holy shit, they're releasing subtitled anime!" Times change and so do expectations, but all y'all kids don't know how good you have it!
LOL! Oh so true. I think that's one of the reasons Eva will always leave a bad taste in my mouth. I think I spent over $450 on that series.
As far as Strike, I haven't decided whether or not I'll use it. I'm guessing that eventually Netflix will start losing some of the tv series that they share with Strike and won't even have as much as they have now. Also, I really want to see DanMachi: SO. I'm thinking what I may do is sign up at the end of April(7 day free trial), use it for May and June, and then see what they get for summer. If it's worth it I'll keep it but if I only keep it for the spring season then I'll only have to pay for two months. Also, with the Comixology deal Strike offers, I'll get to download three free comic/manga GNs.
I'm an INTJ so I'm always the bad guy.
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@gocav I don't know the comiXology deal... I'll have to google!
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@the-green-death You can either get a free download or you can take into consideration something called Comixology Unlimited which gives you unlimited access to everything apparently.
Only available in the US, of course.
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Usually, I wouldn't comment on it here, but someone is wrong on the internet which is time to act.
Correct, approximately $150 yearly (Amazon Prime) + $5 monthly (Anime Strike) for a total of $210 yearly
Just where it says $150 yearly? Amazon says it's between $99 and $132 per year depending on payment cycle. Does big bad amazon lie to us here? Besides, it's not >$100 for just anime, you get a lot more in the bundle.
Anime Strike will apparently finally have Anime OPs and EDs
Since you mentioned that, funi used to do songs for a handfull of simulcasts when they were working on their own. Ever seen that happen after partnership with Our Anime Savior Crunchyroll?
(Apparently it desyncs over time too)
This one only happened for this season's titles and it's some dumb technical error (they get desynced because speed is exactly 1.001x slower or faster than it should be) and they can't just ignore something so noticeable, so it surely will be fixed.
No access outside of the US?
Some of amazon titles (in some sense all of amazon titles) are avaliable worldwide - all Noitamina titles, Onihei, Chii, Vivid Strike, Nanoha and probably Rage of Bahamut S2 and Re: Creators. Not a lot, but they are just starting.
Crunchyroll having licensed out shows to my foreign far away country
Cool story bro.
Well usually they are the one company that has a firm "No, we do not license outside of the United States." stand and usually their licenses are very hard to grab sublicenses to other countries.
That one company also takes just what they need - right to stream in English-speaking territories (or even US-only, but license tries to sell a bundle like they are used to - this is where good guys from CR with lot of industry connections jump in and offer to buy everything sans US. Sentai gets what they want - US rights for a cheaper price. CR gets what they want - happy customers outside of US. Licensors get a lot of money from both. Win-win, right?). Here you're trying to sound like you know a lot about distribution outside of US, but you clearly don't. Two Sentai titles aired on AnimeStrike so far and both are also available on German's anime-on-demand.de, because guess what, Sentai didn't buy out whole world's streaming rights to troll people around the world and bully poor Crunchyroll. In fact, all Sentai's Amazon simulcasts are available either in France or in German on local streaming services. Crunchyroll certainly can get streaming rights there or in other places like MENA and Asia, they just don't usually do it because of fixation on US licenses - that's a really simple truth you won't see as long as you keep thinking about CR as everyone's friend and not just another big business. As for English-Speaking territories where Sentai happened to hold a license, Australian Anime Lab streams some of those titles, Crunchyroll won't do the same either because Sentai don't want that and asks a lot of money or because Crunchyroll don't want to give them money for those relatively small markets (which is again, quite possible if you stop thinking CR wants would rather give joy to customers than try to kill competition), either way this could also be solved if Sentai could sublicense it so some non-CR streamer which is not currently possible thanks to CR's monopoly.
gigantic failure of getting the licenses for the NoitaminA block which shows horrendously flopped
[citation needed]
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Saekano E0 subs were so out of sync it was almost unwatchable. I feel like I'm paying an extra $5 a month to get half my simulcasts on an inferior service, especially with, for the devices I use, Crunchyroll's update to the tvOS app fixing all the issues people were complaining about, and the iOS app being fantastic as well. Now I have no idea when my shows are launching, have to AirPlay the shows (which is not entirely Amazon's fault, Apple needs to realize not every company benefits from using in-app purchases) and worry about subtitles being out of sync. I feel like this is Amazon coming into another industry to steal from the guys passionate about their industry. They do not do much to promote the shows they have. I had to turn off Twitter notifications from Crunchyroll because they are too excited about every show they simulcast. So many people are just going to pirate instead of paying $15 a month to Amazon. But, from what I hear, it's still better than being a Japanese speaker in Japan when it comes to streaming anime.
Someone really needs to make a competitor to Crunchyroll manga though, since they don't seem to care about that part of their service anymore.
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@erictbar Wanna volunteer to enhance our reader to handle manga, too?
Actually though, even if we did manga I don't think we could make enough money because we can't sell digital manga on Amazon without incurring huge download fees or terrible royalty rates... Need to go through a larger publisher I think.
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@Sam-Pinansky For manga on Crunchyroll really just want my Kodansha simulpubs. I calculated that if I were to switch from Crunchyroll to ComiXology, I'd be paying over $22 a month for simulpubs. Though if I actually had to do that I would instead cut down on the amount of simulpubs I was reading by at least half.
Also I wonder, is that why manga on Amazon is of lower quality than other platforms? Because they charge the publisher for downloads? Or does Amazon just restrict the quality you can make manga? World Trigger has the highest quality digital manga files i've seen. Higher than other new Shonen Jump series that came out this month even. On iBooks, volume 15 is 226MBs for 191 pages, but only 156MBs on Amazon.
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@erictbar Amazon automatically re-encodes what you download to match the display resolution of your amazon device, and also imposes some arbitrary per picture limits (150 Kb or something?). And they charge us a fee for each MB that download ends up being.
I'm pretty sure the large book distributors have different deals though.
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Yeah... Reasons like this is why I either buy the bluray of the anime shows I like or I pirate anime shows (I'm a prime member but in Canada so I cannot even get anime strike). Use to pay Crunchyroll until they no longer had any of the newest shows I liked because other companies got it. Instead of paying multiple services I decided to simply to pirate the shows and buy the ones I really like.
Sam don't get into manga or anime unless you are willing to make physical copies with some bonus material (art book/art work/ music cd/ figurines, etc.) There are simply too many free ways of getting manga/anime the moment it releases in Japan. I'm a customer that buys what I like and I no longer subscribe to these streaming services due to them being fractured.
Regardless I still spend like 500+ USD a month on Japanese goods... So if you get figures/physical edition stuff I'll buy them from your store!
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@_08 Fine,
Giving a short answer to each question.
my estimation was off the ballpark it's still between $99 to $132 per year for a Amazon Prime account. Still pretty expensive for anyone interested in watching anime and comparison to Crunchyroll it is an absolutely ridiculous price hike for the current market. Other than that I disagree that it's too expensive and I would gladly pay for it if I had access to it. I don't however. So there's that.
Funi did that? Interesting, I couldn't get past their awful font and besides their website was completely locked down for anyone accessing it outside of the US.
Well Amazon are good at fixing stuff.
Hopefully the license do get global reach after a while, I hope so at least. Amazon are more willing to spend a bit to get their licenses out to their other Prime services outside of US.
Eh, it's true.
Problem is no one will pick up sublicenses as they aren't worth the time or money.
Eh, both Kabaneri and Battery weren't really that good..
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@Sam-Pinansky Amazon has Comixology Unlimited as a service. Which provides unlimited manga for a 5.99 monthly subscription too. Not sure about the selection of Manga though however.
