Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Is Daisuki Shutting Down?
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louis6578
 Posts: 1861 |
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I thought the answer was as simple as "Nobody uses it." I usually just go to Crunchyroll, buy DVDs off Funimation or Viz, or watch anime on Hulu, Netflix, or Funimation streaming services. I only ever heard of Daisuki by word of mouth alongside the other anime streaming services.
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Parsifal24
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I liked using it but between obscure shows that very few people watched, sometimes spotty subtitle translations and a sometimes "buggy" and crash prone video player I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.
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AksaraKishou
Posts: 1410 Location: End of the World |
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It's a shame tbh. I was sorta fond of it. Particularly when God Eater was airing.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5420 Location: Iscandar |
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To me the biggest reasons why Daisuki never went anywhere are apathy and incompetence. With the heavy hitters backing and owning Daisuki, couldn't they just cherry pick great shows without the need to pay for the licenses, like Funimation, Crunchyroll and Sentai? I suspect that I am wrong and Daisuki still had to compete for licenses.
To me it is absolutely moronic to compete for licenses when your service is owned by companies that produce anime. I never cared for Daisuki, but aren't some of these lazy and incompetent people from Daisuki going to run Sony Pictures-Funimation? I hope they don't run Funimation into the ground. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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And, as is so often the habit with Japanese corporations, Bandai, and Cool Japan...they had no clue how to market anime in the West-- And just went on their own hometown assumptions that either all the titles and corporate associations would sell themselves, or that they must be the "only" ones providing the US with anime on a platter.
I have tablet and PS4 apps for Crunchyroll and Funi.com, and I literally didn't even know Daisuki EXISTED, except for seeing its label on the anime that showed up on HuluPlus. FTM, I didn't even know the former ADV, now Sentai's, Anime Channel/Network was still a thing from the cable-on-demand late 90's. There's rarely a market for a Big Three, if it's a newly developing niche market for an audience that knows exactly what they want from it. The first two startups are usually from the inside, and by the time outsiders catch on and try to start their own competitors, the Big Two are usually too entrenched and too well-connected for product to be toppled, unless there's something they're doing wrong that can be fixed. And Crunchyroll isn't really doing very much wrong (in the US) at this point to make room for a competitor. Let alone one that doesn't really seem to be interested in telling us it exists. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Huh. I guess that goes some way to explaining the relationship with Anime Now. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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Ideas don't mean jack if you can't execute them well. Daisuke couldn't, and Funimation is struggling with their player as well (every change seems worse than the one before).
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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As far as I could observe during the times I was using Daisuki, I'd say their biggest problem was the assumption that viewers in other countries were like the Japanese viewers. That is, they didn't see online streaming as that big a deal (in a downplayed version of "it'll never catch on"), and at least when it began, they thought they would make their money back through merchandise sales. The service was free for everyone, no sign-ups required, and had no ad revenue, but they had a Daisuki Store where you could buy figures, posters, home video releases, and such. My guess was that they expected people to watch the shows, then go buy the merchandise (which were all quite expensive). Later on, they switched to a subscription service, then added paid subscriptions on top of that, and finally ads, but by then, it was too late (and gradually, the Daisuki Store got smaller and smaller--I think someone there realized that western anime fans just want to watch the shows and aren't too interested in the merch, which must annoy some people in these production committees). Daisuki had become a huge money sink, and there's nothing that could've been done to save it. It lasted for quite a long time though for something that was losing more and more money each year. I could tell they really wanted it to succeed. I think at this point, the lesson that the major anime studios had that participated with Daisuki is that they don't know how to appeal to non-Japanese audiences, and it seems what they've done is trust the localization companies where they're licensing their shows to, as they're the ones who know their audience and can present them in a way that's profitable. Bear in mind that this is all speculation I've made in regards to what I see myself. That is, I would observe Daisuki and the other anime streaming services and what changed over time. |
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AwaysAnnoyed
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Again, way out-there international person here.
For me, Daisuki was a good thing, too bad I started using it too late (never subscribed though). For the record: Aniplex does not give international streaming rights to their shows on CR. That is why Daisuki was so great - I could watch Tales of Zestiria, Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga and Granblue Fantasy on it. Was hoping I could watch Katsugeki / Touken Ranbu on it but it was never added. Now makes sense why... It's catalog was also pretty nice, with Starmyu (Funimation streamed season one, and ofc at the time only US/Canada, probably Europe, idk) and One Punch Man (viz exclusive?) Anyway, Daisuki had some interesting things like Anisong matsuri and Seiyuu awards. I'll miss it ;( |
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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Daisuki really wasn't a bad idea. It was just executed wrong. There's so much exclusive content they could've had that people have been forced to resort to fansubs to. Some things I remember from their surveys that I would have liked to see/I think would've drawn eyeballs in:
Aikatsu! (All of the series...they only streamed the first one for a couple of months then pulled it for unknown reasons.) Dr. Slump Gash Bell!/Zatch Bell! (there's still no legal way to get the uncut/subbed version of the show) Katanagatari (for people who didn't have $150 up their ass for a premium box set of a show they'd never seen before) Magical DoReMi (again, there's no way to see this legally uncut/subbed) Pretty Cure (all of them...seriously, people have been clamoring for a legal streaming option for years) |
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JMmelegrito
 Posts: 47 Location: Philippines |
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I'm from the Philippines. I know a lot of people who use Daisuki because Crunchyroll never offer good titles in the whole Southeast Asia, aside from Naruto shows. It was a miracle that they actually streamed Yuri on Ice in SEA! Daisuki really offered some good shows, like One Punch Man, God Eater, iM@S Cinderella and others. Really disappointed and sad to see it go. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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From the sound of it, looks like the theories of "What Japan subjectively thinks a US anime streaming service is" were spot-on. Most US anime fans (some...  ) don't have "Bedroom shrines of plastic anime figures", as Japan literally believes all anime otaku to have, and even for those who do buy hard merchandise, RightStuf, CR, ThinkGeek and Funi already had the market sewn up.
And that's leaving aside their 00's-Bubble ideas that a Japanese hit title would have the EXACT same fan-popularity in the states as it had at home, for exactly the same reasons, so it was just a matter of marketing it with the same presumptions and expecting the same TV ratings. Also, the "Streaming service from a country where streaming hasn't caught on yet and they don't have a clue" starts to bring up old flashbacks of Japanese studios like Toho and Ghibli holding out on US DVD in '99-'00 when it hadn't saturated over there yet, and they didn't yet know the issues of its place in the industry. We'd already seen a few clueless big-backed Hollywood digital-streaming services (CinemaNow? Target Ticket?) drop like flies in the first early-10's wake of the digital-movie gold rush, now it's streaming anime's turn to attract New-Thing corporate investors who didn't know what they were doing from the beginning. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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I think that even if Daisuki had showstopping titles in their possession, they still would be fighting hard to stay afloat due to extreme competition with other streaming services. Plus, the detectable bugs crawling around in Daisuki's streams make watching their shows their an irritating experience, further contributing to their slow, but steady sinking.
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1175 |
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When they put up Heavy Metal L-Gaim a few months ago, its first official English release, I had kind of a sinking feeling - "This is great news, which surely means it will be followed by disaster." Well then!
I didn't use their service much, but I will never say a bad word about Daisuki, because I won an RG Zeta Gundam model kit from their opening prize giveaway. RIP. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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I actually got my first figures and a Gunpla from Daisuki (two from their opening contests), though I quickly went to other places that had more stuff at better prices. I did use the service to watch some shows and was briefly subscribed but two seasons ago or so they didn't really get any exclusives so I dropped it. I didn't really have many problems with it, though a Roku app would have been nice, so it shutting down is unfortunate.
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