Forum - View topicNEWS: Sentai Filmworks Licenses Sword Oratoria Anime, Plans Simulcast on Anime Strike
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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I find it somewhat amusing that when Sentai was license 8+ shows a season, we had people panicking because they were licensing too much and could be placing themselves in danger. Now that they are licensing fewer shows per season, we now have a different group of people worrying because they aren't licensing enough new shows...lol Even if the Amazon deal only lasts a few seasons, it will give them capital and new shows to expand their catalogue, which is really only surpassed by Funi's in size. Maybe we will get lucky and they will pick up home video rights to the shows that Amazon licenses directly, like Nanaho and Scrum's, which will also help them. There are also still shows from previous seasons that don't have confirmed distributors yet, and plenty of older shows still waiting to be picked up. Not to mention, they still have many shows that haven't been solicited yet, like LoGH, Squid Girl, the rest of their Sunrise shows, and others. It's not like they're in any danger of running out of content to release anytime soon. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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But both worries were/are valid. And I don't think we're on the same page entirely. I don't think that, if this "deal" with Amazon ends after a few seasons, that Sentai will be in a better place for having gone through it. Unless they can get some level of stability, as in a long term partnership with them, they will have gained nothing. Except for a bad reputation from fans who couldn't watch their show because $160 for a streaming service is absurd, and lower brand recognition because fewer people will have likely seen their shows given their lack of accessibility where anime fans are usually watching anime. And I'm skeptical that the "capital" they get from Amazon would be better than the capital they could get from a different streaming platform. I'm not saying they are entirely screwed, like maybe my past comments have suggested, I'm just expressing the worst case scenario. For the record, I don't think working with Amazon is a bad idea. I did mention that in an earlier comment as well, I just think that IF they are going to work with Amazon, it needs to be a long term, stable partnership that they can count on, rather than quick money at the expense of everything else. Either way, we don't really know what this deal entails. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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^If you are only using it to stream video and anime specifically, $160 is high. But you can certainly get more out of it than just that if you so choose. I'm certainly getting my money's worth for the Prime membership outside streaming anime, and I got Prime to stream anime in the first place. It isn't much more than an ad free Hulu subscription at $11.99 a month or $143.88 a year, which only gets you streaming video. If Hulu gets out of the simulcast game because of Sentai shifting to Amazon (or perhaps vice versa), that'll save me money actually. I'll pay Amazon an additional $5 a month on top of the Prime subscription to not pay Hulu $7.99 a month and still have commercials. I think they should have just included the stuff on Anime Strike in Prime and/or made Anime Strike available for non-Prime members but people will still and did complain when it was just $99 a year, which would effectively be $8.25 per month or only a little more than Netflix and the lower tier of Hulu (Note that the monthly subscription is more at 10.99 or 8.99 for just Prime Video, though you can cut costs by just getting it every three months and binging their simulcasts). And no matter where they would put their stuff, I'm glad it isn't TAN from what I've heard about that site.
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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The thing is, their only other option is TAN. That's really about it. Hulu has drastically cut back on anime and hardly does anymore simulcasts. It makes no sense financially or for the sake of their company to use CR. So they could get less money from TAN and license fewer shows this season and going forward. That's not really going to help them grow. It just keeps their current status quo. At least with Amazon, even if does only last a few seasons, those are a few seasons where they were able to acquire more shows and build up their catalog. While they may not get as many online views, that doesn't really matter as long as they are still getting more revenue. It could somewhat negatively impact their physical home video sales, but we don't know if that will actually happen or not, or whether any drop in home video revenue won't be offset by the increase in streaming revenue. For many, if not most titles, the streaming revenue is more important than the home video sales, hence why the changes at Hulu were so damaging for the R1 companies. And as so many here like to point, these streams will still be available elsewhere, albeit not from legal means (at least not yet.). There are plenty of people that will still watch them without paying for Anime Strike. Believe it or not, people still learned about shoes long before Crunchyroll started streaming, and a pretty large chunk of anime fans don't utilize it. A long term partnership would be the best, but other than Amazon, who else is out there? Viewster and TubiTV are relatively small and have limited reach. Not to mention they have far less money than Amazon to spend. Netflix's offerings are much more limited and they tend to wait until the season is over and add all the episodes at once. Amazon might not be the ideal solution, but they're really the best option that Sentai has at the moment. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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^I particularly agree with your last sentence.
Yeah, I have TAN, and it sucks. I got it for one show, and I don't think I'm going to keep up that subscription because it is incredibly difficult to use their site(the queue system alone is beyond comprehension). I also have Prime, and have had it since 2008, and use it regularly. It's definitely worth the money for me, but it seems like a surprising number of fans don't have Prime, and don't have any need for it, which prices this well out of their range. The complaints about Prime before mostly seemed to be related to how you were forced into paying for the service yearly, rather than having a monthly option. That seemed to simmer down a bit when the monthly option became available. Hulu is too expensive as well, but being able to pay monthly is a big enough deal to some people, that they don't get as much flack it seems. And having the commercial supported option helped mitigate some of the backlash too, I think. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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Nope, us Amazon Prime members have to pay an extra $5/month for Anime Strike. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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@configspace I don't know about Canada, but Anime Strike isn't even available in the UK. Amazon-licensed titles are available with a regular Prime subscription over here (however anything else available through Strike, like Urara Meirocho, it not available here full stop).
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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That was also anime Anime Network simulcast. I wonder if it was available there for the U.K.? Edit: Just checked, and yes, TAN handled streaming for that in the U.K. |
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TheAncientOne
 Posts: 1875 Location: USA (mid-south) |
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I know it was originally announced as a simulcast there, but anyone trying to look it up might wonder where it is hiding: http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Watch-Anime/Alphabet/U It wasn't even listed under the "New Releases" section (many of which weren't that new) or "Featured" or "Popular" sections where one would expect one of their most recent simulcasts to be. I finally found only via their "Now Playing" page: http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Watch-Anime/Urara-Meirocho |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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You could also use the search function. 
http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Watch-Anime/Search?query=Urara |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Yes, Urara was on TAN in the UK . The problem last season is there isn't wasn't enough unique content on TAN for me to consider a subscription and even then, there's no apps for anything I own and if I have to go the hassle of queuing something up on my PC I probably won't bother. The problem this season is that TAN isn't even an option as these shows are completely exclusive to Strike. |
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