Amazon Anime Strike Interview: Best Prime Series Exclusives List, Manga For 2017


Amazon Anime Strike is the newest anime channel focused on capitalizing on the rising global interest interest in anime and manga. It’s a heady time for otaku and competition among the big anime streaming platforms is getting furious.

Hulu has long offered many anime series, and Netflix Originals now feature multiple anime. Widely known for its focus on anime, CrunchyRoll just announced that it had surpassed over one million paid subscribers. Crunchyroll’s fan base currently watches a whopping 1.5 billion minutes of anime per month, and each user watches for more than 30 minutes a day. To put anime watching into context, Facebook users are spending an average of around 22 minutes a day on its platform.

Anime and manga-focused CrunchyRoll may be slowly catching up in paid subscribers worldwide, but Amazon Prime has quite the advantage. However, the number of paid subscribers for Amazon Prime was over 65 million in just the United States alone this past fall. As a comparison, the worldwide Netflix subscribers are listed as 93.8 million by Statista.

So how will Amazon Prime’s anime channel hope to compete? Representatives from Amazon Anime Strike reached out to discuss their future plans.

[Image by Kohei Horikoshi]

How does Amazon Anime Strike plan to compete with the current streaming platforms that offer Anime? (CrunchyRoll, Hulu, Netflix, etc.) Will there be any extra features?

“Amazon Anime Strike has over 1,200 titles spread over a curated, ad-free selection of over 70 new and classic anime movies and series – with new titles added each week. It’s a place where new and dedicated Anime fans can come to discover new and popular Anime content. In addition, Amazon Channels offers numerous user benefits such as free trials on all subscriptions, the ability to watch anywhere, anytime on over 650 compatible devices, and the convenience of one account (your single Amazon login), no additional passwords to remember.”

What will be the best anime on Amazon? Is Amazon hoping to offer exclusive Anime similar to the shows being offered by Netflix Originals? If so, what sub-genres of Anime would be the focus?

We offer a handful of exclusive options including:

  • Scum’s Wish — “Hopeless love… Painful love… Unrequited love… Are they really all that beautiful? In her second year in high school, Hanabi Yasuraoka is hopelessly in love with the wrong person. Someone she’s willing to do anything to be with, even if it means hurting the people she cares about. This is a love story both pure and disturbed.”
  • Onihei— “It’s the latter half of the Edo period when cruel thieves feared Heizo Hasegawa, known as “Heizo the Oni”. He is the head of Arson Theft Control. He never tolerates injustice and punishes criminals who violate the three articles of a thief.Surrounded by quirky characters, Heizo rids the injustice that infests the city of Edo.”
  • The Great Passage — “‘I’m just saying ‘read the air’ a little more.”‘You are using ‘air’ to mean situation.” Mitsuya Majime, an awkward salesman, and Masashi Nishioka, an easy-going dictionary editor meet by coincidence. Genbu Book’s veteran dictionary editor Araki is looking for a successor. He hears about Majime from Nishioka and decides to meet him.This is a story about the clumsy people who live for words.”
  • Vivid Strike!— “Fuuka and Rinne lived in an orphanage. Together, as childhood friends who were like sisters, they endured a poor life as they dreamed of a bright future. However, the coming of the “second separation” was about to drastically change the fate of both Fuuka and Rinne…”
  • Crayon-Shin Chan Gaiden: Alien vs. Shinnosuke— “On the 25th anniversary of the start of the animated series, Shin chan will be presented in a new style! ‘What if Shinnosuke encountered aliens in a drifting spaceship?'”
  • Chi’s Sweet Adventure— “Chi is a sweet playful kitten who’s always full of energy. She lives with the loving Yamada family. Her daily routine is to drink milk, take naps, and go walk in the park.”
[Image by Kazue Kato/Blue Exorcist/Shueisha]

How is the Anime genre different than other genres that Amazon Prime offers?

“Amazon Channels offers Prime members the ability to select from a wide variety of video, including traditional pay TV channels (HBO, SHOWTIME, Starz, etc.), cooking, independent film, comedy, horror, kids and fitness – no cable needed, no long-term contracts and no additional apps to download. Amazon Anime Strike is Amazon Channels’ only Anime specific channel offering and is also our first curated on-demand channel on the service.”

How well has the Amazon Anime Strike channel been received / appreciated by anime fans?

“Amazon Anime Strike has been very well received – we are getting great feedback from our customers.”

Have fans made any requests for the current year? (i.e. requests for additional shows/movies)

“Fans are excited about Amazon Anime Strike and are looking forward to watching more titles.”

Thank you for your time!


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Amazon’s manga offerings have also been very popular in recent years. In fact, Amazon Japan recently treated the Japanese to the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, which some have nicknamed the Amazon Kindle ‘Manga Model’ since its intended audience would be regular manga readers.

Since Amazon currently sells many manga volumes, it would also make sense to compete with the CrunchyRoll Manga viewer service, which allows subscribers to access whole manga series. Amazon was asked if they have any plans for introducing an Amazon Manga Viewer or an international version of the Amazon Kindle Manga Model. Unfortunately, at this time there’s no indication that Amazon has any plans to add such products or services to their product roadmap. But hopefully, Amazon Anime Strike is an indication that Amazon will eventually start adding even more Amazon Prime features that otaku across the globe will love.

[Featured Image by Amazon]

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