 Internet retailer Amazon terminated its curated streaming service Anime Strike on Friday just one year after its launch. Anime Strike provided Amazon Prime customers in the United States with access to more than one thousand anime episodes and movies for a $4.99 monthly subscription fee. The streaming service also shut down its Facebook and Twitter pages, which had been inactive for months prior to its cancellation. In a statement provided to Forbes and other news media outlets, an Amazon spokesperson said that the entire lineup for Anime Strike and Heera—a curated channel specializing in Bollywood entertainment—has been transferred to Prime Video. "We have decided to move the curated catalogs of Anime Strike and Heera into Prime Video so that more customers can enjoy this content as part of their Prime membership," the statement read. Anime Strike launched in the United States on January 12, 2017, and gained exclusive streaming rights for anime titles such as Kuzu no Honkai (Scum's Wish), Made in Abyss, and Inuyashiki. The service also offered older titles such as Akira and Death Note in its lineup. Anime Strike's entrance into the North American anime market came following the 2016 announcement of a partnership between Crunchyroll and Funimation to offer both their titles jointly. The service quickly garnered criticism because it was only available for customers with a subscription to Amazon Prime, which costs $99 annually, or Prime Video, which costs $8.99 per month. Over the course of the service's lifetime, Amazon officials contended that Anime Strike was performing better than initially expected. In one interview from May 2017, one spokesperson said, "Signups are higher than initial projections as we add more content and more features." Amazon has never shared subscription numbers for Anime Strike. However, critics of Anime Strike argued that its subscription model created a double paywall which restricted access to new content from anime viewers. By moving Anime Strike's exclusive titles to the larger Prime Video offering, more Amazon customers will have access to its anime catalog. In July, the Los Angeles Times reported that smaller anime distributors have felt some uncertainty with the growing presence of big players like Amazon and Netflix. Viz Media's vice president of animation Brian Ige was quoted by the Times in saying that with Netflix and Amazon looking to gain subscribers, content acquisition for has become "increasingly difficult." Source: Kotaku |
| A bit late on this, MAL. That being said, it's about time. Strike access should have been rolled into Prime benefits since its inception, but Amazon's gotta try and squeeze out whatever extra cash they can, I suppose. Happy to see it didn't work out for them, as that's yet another broadcasting leech we don't have to worry about. Sucked having to view certain seasonal series through alternative methods as they were leashed to Strike. At the very least, I now have an added reason to keep using Prime. |
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| Already heard the news but the double payment idea was so bad I knew it wouldn't work out in the long run. If online distributors like CR or Netflix decide to go simulcast without region restrictions then I will finally move on from "other alternatives". I have long since forgiven CR for the way they became a legal anime service from an illegal one and their subtitles have improved quite significantly from the time they couldn't differentiate between THAN and THEN, IT'S and ITS and YOUR and YOU'RE. |
| Stay Home and Wash Your Hands. Protect Yourself. Protect Your Loved Ones. Protect Your Community and Help Defeat Coronavirus. |
| I heard that some of the series that were on Strike are Pay to Own instead of added to the Prime library. At least whatever Sentai licensed over those months can be added to Hi Dive now. |
"What has two arms, two legs, and is alive? Not your favorite character lol! xD" |
Roloko said: Yup the poorly encoded hidive good news!!!! yayI heard that some of the series that were on Strike are Pay to Own instead of added to the Prime library. At least whatever Sentai licensed over those months can be added to Hi Dive now. |
| Heard about this a few days ago and it's not surprising. Although i never used the service, i had a feeling it was fucked based on what I've heard about it. The double paywall, bad subtitles (i think i even read comments about episodes showing up WITHOUT subtitles), late uploads. It just sounds awful, so I'm glad to hear it's gone. |
| People on MAL refuse to actually enjoy watching anime. Your taste in anime isn't a personality trait. |
| Fucking good riddance, knew it was a shortlived investment; overpriced fuckers taking all the high budget anime. Seems way more beneficial to just put it on Prime Video, less complicated and would get a wider audience. Now all we have to do is get Netflix out of the anime streaming game. |
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Jerkhov said: Fucking good riddance, knew it was a shortlived investment; overpriced fuckers taking all the high budget anime. Seems way more beneficial to just put it on Prime Video, less complicated and would get a wider audience. Now all we have to do is get Netflix out of the anime streaming game. Netflix doesn't need to go completely, they just need to change their format for anime. If they simulcasted ALL of anime they have, and also don't cherry pick which countries get the show, then they'll be fine. |
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| This means no more yellow subs right? |
| Still a huge shame that most anime titles on Amazon are not available in Germany. When I say most I mean like nearly all of them. I think I have more fingers than anime titles for me to watch on Amazon Prime. That's pretty much the case with Netflix as well, but on Netflix we can see how they try to "fix" this, adding new anime titles once in a while and even add some others strictly for the german audiences, titles that are not available in other regions. And so I find myself forced to watch most of the anime titles I like on shady streaming sites, even tho I own a subscription to Netflix, Amazon and Crunchyroll as well. |
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| Good fucking riddance, took them long enough. |
"At some point, I stopped hoping." |
jc9622 said: Hell No! Aside from their unwillingness to simulcast anime, Netflix is pretty much saving anime. The amount of money that they bid in just so they can grab a worldwide exclusive license is astronomical. No it isn't, others also have exclusives and crunchyroll funds series just as much as netflix, Yuru Camp is almost all funded by CR. |
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| lol, people complain at amazon for regional restriction when they mainly put by japanese production comitee so they can cash more from licencors.... amazon have 0 reason to do regional restrction.... you think why even netflix now prefer to funding their own anime? |
 "If taking responsibility for a mistake that cannot be undone means death, it's not that hard to die. At least, not as hard as to live on." |
Paul said: This means no more yellow subs right? Apparently you don't own any anime licensed by Sentai, because ALL of their releases use yellow subs. Funny enough the last anime I watched on Amazon was Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (this was just before Strike started), and I remember the subs on it were white. It actually made them harder to read at times on white/light color backgrounds because of the thin outline used (compared to Funimation's subs). |
| Thank God, Anime Strike was cancer, now we just need Netflix to to stream (which is probably never gonna happen tbh) |
| The only good part of Anime Strike was to push Crunchyroll/Funimation to innovate and better their platform. But with new afordable platforms like HIDIVE might change the field too. Anyways thank god it's over, didn't even expect it to last as long as it did with as good as picks as it got. |
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| I didn’t even know it existed before I saw this article #piracymasterrace |
 Nico- said: Conversations with people pinging/quoting me to argue about some old post I wrote years ago will not be entertained@Comic_Sans oh no y arnt ppl dieing i need more ppl dieing rly gud plot avansement jus liek tokyo ghoul if erbudy dies amirite |
| One down, endless to go. |
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| We never got to try this in the UK sadly. :( Was it really that problematic? |
Kuma said: lol, people complain at amazon for regional restriction when they mainly put by japanese production comitee so they can cash more from licencors.... amazon have 0 reason to do regional restrction.... you think why even netflix now prefer to funding their own anime? Yes Netflix this season only has Violet evergarden and 3 ONAs. And the 1st of the 3 (Devilman) already got a good reception so that looks good for the other 2. They either aant to claim series as a Netflix original or fund their own instead of streaming others because that is a pain. FMA and FMAB's dub keeps on dissapearing and reappearing, Other shows expired like Guren Lagan (they better keep DN and Bebop!) And tbh, we kinda need more good ONA's like Crybaby and Castlevania (yes a well done show based on a video game! THEY DID THE IMPOSSIBLE). And Sword Gai looks pretty cool. ichii_1 said: jc9622 said: Hell No! Aside from their unwillingness to simulcast anime, Netflix is pretty much saving anime. The amount of money that they bid in just so they can grab a worldwide exclusive license is astronomical. No it isn't, others also have exclusives and crunchyroll funds series just as much as netflix, Yuru Camp is almost all funded by CR. So was the Reflection and that turned out well didn't it? Was the blade runner anime also Funded by CR? |
What's sad about it? We got all the titles just without the ridiculous double paywall. |
| There is no such thing as shit taste. Only idiots who think everyone should have the same taste as they do. |
| And here I was thinking of getting rid of Prime. I didn't use Anime Strike because of the double pay wall mentioned in the interview. I guess I'll log in and see what they've got. |
| The only anime that i know that was funded CR was Reflection and Urahara and they were pretty bad. Yuru Camp in the other hand is looking good so far. |
| The Anime Binge Is Life -PolarCyrus97 2k17- |
| Hey, this is good news! Hopefully they'll keep adding more anime to Prime Video now. ^_^ ClickBaitBuster said: especially with the download option and simulcast feature which Netflix doesn't provide. Amazon suddenly sounds like a great deal now haha.. They have a download option? Where? o_O All I'm seeing are streaming links... Maybe the download option was only for Anime Strike and Prime Video doesn't have any such thing? Adonc said: Thank God, Anime Strike was cancer, now we just need Netflix to to stream (which is probably never gonna happen tbh) What are you talking about? Netflix is, like... mostly streaming nowadays. That's where they do most of their business... |
vigorousjammerJan 8, 2018 3:24 PM
::End of Transmission:: What have I been watching? Click here and find out on my viewing blog, "Vigorous Viewing" |
| Amazon is far too corrupt for me. |
Bourmegar said: Kuma said: lol, people complain at amazon for regional restriction when they mainly put by japanese production comitee so they can cash more from licencors.... amazon have 0 reason to do regional restrction.... you think why even netflix now prefer to funding their own anime? Yes Netflix this season only has Violet evergarden and 3 ONAs. And the 1st of the 3 (Devilman) already got a good reception so that looks good for the other 2. They either aant to claim series as a Netflix original or fund their own instead of streaming others because that is a pain. FMA and FMAB's dub keeps on dissapearing and reappearing, Other shows expired like Guren Lagan (they better keep DN and Bebop!) And tbh, we kinda need more good ONA's like Crybaby and Castlevania (yes a well done show based on a video game! THEY DID THE IMPOSSIBLE). And Sword Gai looks pretty cool. well, those 3 ona, netfilx is part of production cimtee, while violet evergarden is kyoani, and you know how kyoani production comitee works... japan outdated business model is the problem as well, if you want get better streaming service... china has alwasy been struggle about this as well, and they are biggest streaming users.... vigorousjammer said: Adonc said: Thank God, Anime Strike was cancer, now we just need Netflix to to stream (which is probably never gonna happen tbh) What are you talking about? Netflix is, like... mostly streaming nowadays. That's where they do most of their business... i think he mean simulcast.... |
"If taking responsibility for a mistake that cannot be undone means death, it's not that hard to die. At least, not as hard as to live on." |
Kuma said: Bourmegar said: Yes Netflix this season only has Violet evergarden and 3 ONAs. And the 1st of the 3 (Devilman) already got a good reception so that looks good for the other 2. They either aant to claim series as a Netflix original or fund their own instead of streaming others because that is a pain. FMA and FMAB's dub keeps on dissapearing and reappearing, Other shows expired like Guren Lagan (they better keep DN and Bebop!) And tbh, we kinda need more good ONA's like Crybaby and Castlevania (yes a well done show based on a video game! THEY DID THE IMPOSSIBLE). And Sword Gai looks pretty cool. well, those 3 ona, netfilx is part of production cimtee, while violet evergarden is kyoani, and you know how kyoani production comitee works... japan outdated business model is the problem as well, if you want get better streaming service... china has alwasy been struggle about this as well, and they are biggest streaming users.... Yh Japan's business model is still geared towards tv, not to streaming services. That forces them to follow tv Schedules first and makes it impossible for other streaming services to provide it with good subs and dubs because they only get it after the episode has aired. That is also why Netflix refuses to Simulcast, they want to be able to release it with Dub and all. And As its own production committee, they can release it worldwide without problem since they are boss over their own product. Kyoani is its own production committee but they only adapt their own product. And Netflix as a committee seems to focus more on ONA just like their own originals. They should gear the industry more towards streaming so that subbers and dubbers can be involved earlier on. What more differences are there between the business model of japan and the West? |
| I didn't know this even existed until seeing this....and I'm a prime member who's constantly buying anime. Way to go Amazon. |
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| I mean, I use amazon prime and tho I am glad strike is gone, the subtitle issue is still there. For one season, I have to stream it in a shady way because on amazon, the subs are out of sync with the voices. Its annoying |
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