Anime Strike comes to an end

[SeijiSensei]

Forbes reports this morning that Amazon has discontinued its add-on "Strike" channel and is providing all Prime subscribers access to the shows like Made in Abyss and Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko once available only for an additional $5 monthly fee.

Anime Strike, Amazon's foray into the Japanese animation market, is no more. The closure comes just short of its 1st birthday, January 12.

Anime Strike was one of what Amazon calls “Channels,” add-on services that provide additional content to Prime Video for an additional $5 a month. But on Friday fans woke up to discover that anime previously behind an Anime Strike paywall was available with simply a Prime subscription.

A spokesperson for Amazon confirmed that Anime Strike, along with its sister channel Heera—another niche Amazon Channel that provides Bollywood content—have been added 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 spokesperson said.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laureno...-anime-strike/

I'm a subscriber, but I have yet to receive any notice about this from Amazon itself.

[LKK]

Hm. Interesting article.

Well, I can't says that I'll complain if they take away the double paywall.

[Cloudedmind]

So what they should have done from the get-go. Have they even picked up anything new this season?

[Guardian Enzo]

This was probably inevitable, since Strike was a fundamental misread of the market in the first place. But if it's an indication that Amazon intends to bail on anime production, I think that would be a bad thing for the industry.

[BPD Renegade]

Oh? Did they realize enough people in the US weren't desperate enough to clear the double paywall? Having shows revert back to Prime (like with the rest of the world) is fine. Strike was nothing but corporate greed in the first place. I'm curious about what the people who began to pirate Strike-exclusive shows -- and other shows as a result of that -- will do now. Habits are hard to break after all, and if Strike helped people fall into the habit of pirating, well...

Originally Posted by Cloudedmind

So what they should have done from the get-go. Have they even picked up anything new this season?

I heard Kokkoku and Hoshin Engi were supposed to be on Strike. Never found anything official, but it doesn't matter now.

[Guardian Enzo]

We can bitch about the double paywall all we like, and it was obviously a total misread of what the market would bear. But if you look at the list of stuff Amazon co-produced, 2017 would have been a much poorer year for anime without them.

[Random14]

Yay, good news. Prime isn't that bad a deal, but an extra $60 a year just to get their anime channel was too annoying. Being able to download anime episodes was a nice plus, but not enough to justify the double paywall.

I remember when it started Strike had relatively high profile stuff like... Re:Creators and Saekano? Something like that? Not sure if they've had much else after that, lost interest.

[BPD Renegade]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

We can bitch about the double paywall all we like, and it was obviously a total misread of what the market would bear. But if you look at the list of stuff Amazon co-produced, 2017 would have been a much poorer year for anime without them.

This is an honest question, but what do you mean by co-produced? Off the top of my head, I wasn't able to recall any such titles for Amazon. I don't know if this wiki page is accurate, but there are only four series listed as Amazon "originals" and the only one from 2017 is Scum's Wish.

[MCAL]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

This was probably inevitable, since Strike was a fundamental misread of the market in the first place. But if it's an indication that Amazon intends to bail on anime production, I think that would be a bad thing for the industry.

Seems not.


https://twitter.com/vdeviance/status/949320897084690432

[DarkJak2050]

I could listen to this all night...

Originally Posted by BPD Renegade

Oh? Did they realize enough people in the US weren't desperate enough to clear the double paywall? Having shows revert back to Prime (like with the rest of the world) is fine. Strike was nothing but corporate greed in the first place. I'm curious about what the people who began to pirate Strike-exclusive shows -- and other shows as a result of that -- will do now. Habits are hard to break after all, and if Strike helped people fall into the habit of pirating, well...

Not everyone's like that. Some anime that were on Strike are available on HiDive now. For starters, these 4:

- Hitorijime My Hero
- Kabukiku!
- Anonymous Noise
- Grimoire of Zero

Official Announcement.

Although, these belong to Sentai Filmworks, but it's a sign that they're moving their content to HiDive. So glad that I started my Subscription with them this past November.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Random14

I remember when it started Strike had relatively high profile stuff like... Re:Creators and Saekano? Something like that? Not sure if they've had much else after that, lost interest.

Then you missed out on their best shows. Made in Abyss, Princess Principal, and Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko ("Girls' Last Tour") all appeared exclusively on Strike in the US during 2017. Kabuki-bu was a much better show than I anticipated, and something any fan of Chihayafuru or Rakugo should take a look at.

Re:Creators joined Bahamut Virgin Soul in the class of shows that had promise but failed to capitalize on that promise down the stretch. I'd put Welcome to the Ballroom a notch below those.

I received my official cancellation notice by email after I made the original post. They are refunding subscriptions so I might be getting as much as $5 back!

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by MCAL

Seems not.


https://twitter.com/vdeviance/status/949320897084690432

I don't consider that definitive by any means, but I certainly hope that's how it works out.

[Marcus H.]

Strike was unnecessary. Amazon has already helped fund anime shows, and Prime exists to gain revenue from the projects they fund. Doing this under a double paywall—on a niche market, to add—is just a disappointment waiting to happen.

[Sides]

Amazon with its video and channels is confusing anyways.
Anime Strike is an oddball. Unlike other regions, it seems that they mixed their exclusive distribution material with material hold by third parties. Basically you had to pay double, if you wanted to watch any anime material on amazon video US.
Here is the thing, in other regions exclusive titles like Onihei, Dive, Inuyashiki, Yuki Yuna wa Yusha de Aru and others, are free for prime subscribers. You can subscribe to 3rd part channels for additional shows, however these channels, like viewster in the UK, are not owned by amazon, but by third party companies.
I assume Anime Strike was an experiment by amazon trying to get other distributors on board to create some kind of anime super channel, but looks like they failed.

[BPD Renegade]

Originally Posted by DarkJak2050

Not everyone's like that. Some anime that were on Strike are available on HiDive now.

I know about HiDive. I meant people who didn't wait and instead pirated while the series were being simulcasted.


And people keep bringing up good series licensed by Amazon, but no one has mentioned any "co-produced" titles. Or are you saying that all these Strike-exclusive shows like Made in Abyss, The Great Passage, etc. would not have been produced without Amazon's money? Again, honest question, because from what I'm seeing from some of these posts, the implication is that these "Amazon" titles would not have existed, and that strikes me as odd, since I assumed they would have been distributed by other companies.

[Sides]

Originally Posted by BPD Renegade

And people keep bringing up good series licensed by Amazon, but no one has mentioned any "co-produced" titles. Or are you saying that all these Strike-exclusive shows like Made in Abyss, The Great Passage, etc. would not have been produced without Amazon's money? Again, honest question, because from what I'm seeing from some of these posts, the implication is that these "Amazon" titles would not have existed, and that strikes me as odd, since I assumed they would have been distributed by other companies.

Hmm..
Made in Abyss was never co-produced or licensed by amazon, but the great passage was. Anime Strike had a content from Sentai filmworks, and probably others, plus amazon themselves.
Amazon exclusive distributed titles were always free to prime subscribers, except in the US last year. So titles like battery, the great passage, scum's wish, inuyashiki, welcome to the ballroom, re:creators, saekano flat, onihei, kabaneri, dive, and a few others would have existed anyways. Sames applies to other shows like made in abyss, himouto umaru-chan r, classicaloid aso. Only difference is that Sentai has its own stream services now, but nothing has really changed. You still have to (can) subscribe to an additional services, if you want to watch titles managed by Sentai. So people who want to pirate Sentai material will do it from HiDrive and people wanting amazon shows will do it from prime video.

[Random14]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Then you missed out on their best shows. Made in Abyss, Princess Principal, and Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko ("Girls' Last Tour") all appeared exclusively on Strike in the US during 2017. Kabuki-bu was a much better show than I anticipated, and something any fan of Chihayafuru or Rakugo should take a look at.

Re:Creators joined Bahamut Virgin Soul in the class of shows that had promise but failed to capitalize on that promise down the stretch. I'd put Welcome to the Ballroom a notch below those.

I received my official cancellation notice by email after I made the original post. They are refunding subscriptions so I might be getting as much as $5 back!

Ah, that's right, I had been thinking about subbing for a month once Made in Abyss was finished and then binge-watching it. Even better that its now included in the regular Prime streaming now. Which reminds me, I've got to go watch Great Passage too, never know when these shows will go.

[BPD Renegade]

Originally Posted by Sides

Hmm..
Made in Abyss was never co-produced or licensed by amazon, but the great passage was. Anime Strike had a content from Sentai filmworks, and probably others, plus amazon themselves.
Amazon exclusive distributed titles were always free to prime subscribers, except in the US last year. So titles like battery, the great passage, scum's wish, inuyashiki, welcome to the ballroom, re:creators, saekano flat, onihei, kabaneri, dive, and a few others would have existed anyways. Sames applies to other shows like made in abyss, himouto umaru-chan r, classicaloid aso. Only difference is that Sentai has its own stream services now, but nothing has really changed. You still have to (can) subscribe to an additional services, if you want to watch titles managed by Sentai. So people who want to pirate Sentai material will do it from HiDrive and people wanting amazon shows will do it from prime video.

Okay, but assuming Sentai/Amazon didn't license most of these shows, other companies like Netflix or Crunchyroll could and probably would have licensed them, right? Because comments like Guardian Enzo's below were throwing me off.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

-snip- But if you look at the list of stuff Amazon co-produced, 2017 would have been a much poorer year for anime without them.

If the majority of the shows listed still would have existed, I don't see how Amazon not licensing them would have affected the state of last year's anime.

[Sides]

Originally Posted by BPD Renegade

Okay, but assuming Sentai/Amazon didn't license most of these shows, other companies like Netflix or Crunchyroll could and probably would have licensed them, right? Because comments like Guardian Enzo's below were throwing me off.
If the majority of the shows listed still would have existed, I don't see how Amazon not licensing them would have affected the state of last year's anime.

It is not that straight forward.
Sentai titles, would have existed anyways, because I think they operate like a tradition or close to traditional licensee.
Amazon shows are actually co-produced, and they have the distribution rights for the shows outside japan, as part of the deal. It is similar to netflix produced material, but not quite.
Basically amazon and netflix invests in these shows, where as Sentai pays money afterwards. So amazon never actually licensed their shows, they owned them, well a fraction of them. Interesting thing is a lot of amazon sponsored shows are, they are noitamina shows. Not sure about noitamina ratings these days, but I can see some projects failing at their development phase without some big investment.

[Guardian Enzo]

Yes, this is the crux of the matter. All of these Amazon exclusive shows received a big influx of money from them. At the very least, the production budgets (both time and money) are far more liberal for shows where Amazon is providing funding (can you imagine Made in Abyss would have been the show at was otherwise, for example?). But even more, it's almost certain that some of these series would never have been greenlit for production at all without Amazon's involvement. We can't know for certain which ones of course, but could make some educated guesses.