E-commerce behemoth Amazon has launched its first branded on-demand channel, Anime Strike, reports Variety.
Anime Strike is one of more than 100 offerings in Amazon Channels, the company’s add-on video subscription service. Amazon’s first branded VOD subscription service, Anime Strike offers more than 1,000 ad-free episodes of current and classic anime shows for $4.99 per month for Amazon Prime Members in the U.S.
Anime Strike will show recent series, including some same-day-as-Japanese-broadcast series such as Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga and Scum’s Wish, and older series such as Paprika and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS.
Scum’s Wish is among the exclusive streaming deals that Amazon has struck, which also include Onihei, The Great Passage, Vivid Strike!, Crayon-Shin Chan Gaiden: Alien vs. Shinnosuke, and Chi’s Sweet Adventure.
Amazon plans to refresh content on Anime Strike weekly. The company also announced plans to produce more branded VOD channels but didn’t specify the genres or formats that would be covered.
Anime Strike will ostensibly compete with existing streaming services from Crunchyroll and FUNimation. Subscription streaming on Crunchyroll starts at $6.95 per month for access to 25,000 anime episodes and Crunchyroll’s manga library. FUNimation’s subscription service has a library of 8,500 episodes at $5.99 a month. In September, the two companies announced a partnership to share titles across their platforms (see “Anime Market Re-Aligns - Crunchyroll and Funimation Partner”).
Streaming service Hulu also has a fairly extensive anime library, with 580 shows.