Greetings! Here I am again trying a new recurring series of posts. I know that have failed to maintain this type of thing quite a bit in the past as my site will attest to but I think that I found something that I can sustain and would be fun for everyone. So welcome to Otaku Opinions where each week we can debate an anime/manga themed topic. Every Thursday I will post my question of a debated topic on my blog and on Twitter. The next week I will share my results and discuss briefly my opinion on the topic. Hopefully this will be a fun way to engage the blogging and anime community. I am excited to see if this will take off and what you all have to say. Of course I intend to keep any discussions civil and non-judgmental as I not looking to sew anger, I was just want to know what you all think.
For the first poll, I wanted to get feedback on how we all consume anime. Netflix becoming a strong force in the anime industry has sparked some debate as to whether their formula of presenting anime is good or not. For this weeks question I wanted to get an idea as to how everyone watches anime and whether the debate is really that big of an issue. So without any further delay, here is the question.
I will present the results next week based on the results I receive here and on Twitter. And next week will be a new question. I am open to suggestions on poll ideas so feel free to comment below with those. If you have a comment about the topic I would also be happy to hear that as well. I hope we get a bunch of participation. The poll will be posted on my Twitter account (@railgunfan75) shortly after publication of this post if you prefer to answer that way. So that’s all I have for you for now. See you next week and stay geeky my friends!
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Not sure exactly what angle you’re going for, but I think the introduction of streaming services like Netflix has been the best thing for making watching anime affordable and available.
Before their arrival you were forced to watch bad YouTube copies or buy the VHS/DVD which costs way more than any of the streaming platforms.
The other way of looking at this is whether Netflix dropping the whole series at once compared to other services that simulcast the episodes. It can be frustrating if a show you wanted to watch is held back until all the episodes have aired. That will lead to increased piracy of said show as viewers try to avoid spoilers and keep up with the current releases. I think that’s the main flaw with the Netflix approach compared to services like Crunchyroll and Funimation.
On the whole, I love my streaming platforms and would hate to go back to the old way of watching anime, as much as I love to collect things.
Once Netflix got into the game, there was a huge debate in the community as to whether Netflix’s model of releasing whole series at once dropped at once upset a lot of people especially in the age of weekly streaming. I think with the question I was just curious as to how people consume anime. Based on that one could make the argument as to whether the debate really matters. Apologies if I made this seem confusing.
I was fortunate to discover anime at the genesis of the streaming platforms so I don’t have the context (in terms of anime) from before hand but i have heard stories. I did experience a similar thing with other TV shows that I liked so the streaming model is great in my opinion. Tracking down DVD or VHS of shows was a pain. I’ll dive in to my thoughts on the topic with next weeks post
No worries. I used to spend my earnings from my paper round when I was younger to buy VHS copies from the only store in town that sold them and was limited to whatever they had in stock. I remember buying the original Guyver series an episode at a time for £5 an episode. That would get me a month of Funimation nowadays.
I tend to keep up with the episodic releases but mostly because of the blog. I much rather binge a show and often find that the stories themselves lend themselves towards watching them that way. Obviously, it’s annoying to have to wait for the regular release schedule to finish, but there’s no real way around it unless it was made to be released in one dump.
It’s a good idea for a series of posts.
Couldn’t answer the poll because it lacks an option, and it differs between class of show…
– Current season, individual episode weekly.
– Rewatch or backlog, sometimes bulk, sometimes small amounts, sometimes single episodes. It just depends.
As far as Netflix goes, no, it’s not a strong force. Other than the one (and rarely two) series it picks up a season… it’s irrelevant. And even so, it’s relevancy (from practically none to slight) depends on the amount of hype and interest there is for the show. Seriously, the amount of noise generated over Netflix is all out of proportion to it’s actual impact.
If you’re talking about their exclusive originals (shows that did not broadcast in Japan), those are cartoons – not anime.
Well I didn’t consider that as a poll option so I’ll mention the response with the results post later this week.
I will agree the Netflix is not the top dog in terms of anime. However, I think that the influence that a company like Netflix could have can not be ignored. I agree in terms of number of new series Netflix puts up far fewer series than other platforms, the fact that they have a growing backlog of series on a platform that millions are already subscribed to makes them at least somewhat relevant in the discussion. I know plenty of people who got into anime because of Netflix and then branched out to other platforms. And while they are not the central force in the industry they could have an impact in the future as to how anime and other media are delivered to us. Netflix is a huge company that is making an impact on media and I think that could happen with anime in the future. I think the fact that Netflix provides an easy gateway into anime means they can’t be ignored.
“the fact that they have a growing backlog of series on a platform that millions are already subscribed to makes them at least somewhat relevant in the discussion”
“I think the fact that Netflix provides an easy gateway into anime means they can’t be ignored.”
Absolutely agreed! But to me there’s a stark difference between a mostly-backlog service (Netflix) and a seasonal service (Crunchyroll). You can’t really treat them as the same thing… Impact on the wider public (mostly backlog) and on anime fandom (almost exclusively current season) don’t really overlap. They’re powerful, and have the capability to alter the landscape if they choose to exercise it – but it seems to me that the discussion centers on where they’re currently having the _least_ (IMO) impact on anime fandom (seasonals).
Meanwhile… Amazon and Hulu (both semi-regular players in the seasonal game) go unnoticed.
First, I agree that Amazon and Hulu being ignored is a travesty. Both have great lineups of shows. If Amazon hadn’t bungled things in the beginning with the Anime Strike fiasco they could be bigger players in all this. Hulu has a solid lineup of series which they don’t advertise well and that hurts them a bit.
Can’t argue with the fact that Crunchyroll and Netflix serve really two different niches of the community. I think because the two are so different in their philosophies is what makes for an interesting discussion. Yeah on the seasonal front they do have the least impact. But it is a counterpoint to how the other services do things and another service could come around focused on anime and do the same thing.
I just wanted to get a sense of where people stood on the conflicting philosophies. That it where I was trying to go with the poll- I wanted to get a better idea as to whether any philosophy prevailed over the other. I figured the best way to do that was to poll on viewing habits as it is the best indicator as to whether one philosophy is preferred over another.