Amazon Strike Discussion

[DaBawss]

*Hello, I just wanted to open up a thread discussing Sentai's big plan to go to Amazon. I have seen many people appear to be upset over this and wanted to share my thoughts and hear others.

Now I for one, I am not really that upset. When I look at it practically, it isn't that big of a deal. I keep hearing, "if only it wasn't a double pay wall." Channels on Prime is no new thing. They have had paid channels long before Anime Strike. I haven't really heard those consumers ever complain. I am genuinely curious that if Amazon allowed you to purchase an anime strike sub just by itself, would people still complain?

Now I look at it like this:

Prime membership for a month - $10.99
Anime Strike - $5.00

Crunchyroll monthly Sub - 6.99

If you don't already have amazon, Crunchyroll is the cheaper of the options for a monthly Sub.

The solution is pretty simple; wait til the end of the season and binge anime strike. If you are willing to pay monthly subs to places like cunchyroll, paying for one month shouldn't be that big a deal and is cheaper than 3 months at crunchy.

Would love to hear peoples thoughts! If my reasoning is flawed, or im just living in a bubble let me know too.

*Funny fact, my computer wants to auto-correct "Crunchyroll" to lunchroom and "Sentai's" to Sendai's

[KillaCam]

Amazon lost me as a customer once they started charging sales tax. The only time I ever order anything from them is when they have flash sales.

I don't stream anime because it usually looks horrible compared to the blu-ray release and I don't mind waiting for releases since my backlog is already so huge. As long as Sentai keeps releasing these sweet PE sets I'll be happy.

[gundamcero]

I will never support this service or Sentais dumbass decision to make their licensed series exclusive to it. This will actually hurt the industry if it gets more and more series cause I am reading that people would rather watch the series by other means than subscribe. I honestly can't blame them either.

[DaBawss]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

I am reading that people would rather watch the series by other means than subscribe. I honestly can't blame them either.

I can blame them. It is quite easy. I can't understand why someone would feel entitled enough to make that kind of justification. Purchasing amazon strike at the end of each season(summer,spring,fall,winter) for one month, is still cheaper than a yearly sub of crunchyroll.

[pikagreg]

Last I heard you need to be a yearly member for Prime and monthly didn't work for Anime Strike. Other than that, Amazon hasn't really made an effort to be a vocal member of the anime community. They came in randomly one day and spammed everyone's social media accounts. Their exclusives are also free with Prime in other regions outside of the US (not sentai titles).

If the solution is to "Wait until the end of the season to binge-watch" than people will just go back to pirating like they did with Little Witch Academia. CR and Funi have brought a lot of convenience to the industry and have helped ween a lot of people away from piracy.

They spend a ton of money making original shows for Amazon Video and it is already lackluster compared to Netflix and Hulu as a seperate streaming service (paying as a non-Prime member). Gimping their streaming library and locking most behind an extra paywall only makes it a lot less desirable.

[gundamcero]

Originally Posted by DaBawss

I can blame them. It is quite easy. I can't understand why someone would feel entitled enough to make that kind of justification. Purchasing amazon strike at the end of each season(summer,spring,fall,winter) for one month, is still cheaper than a yearly sub of crunchyroll.

Crunchyroll is $60 a year. If u were to do what ur suggesting. It would be $64 a year for Anime Strike. Not cheaper. Most people want everything on the least amount of services possible. Besides from what I have seen the quality and subs on Anime Strike is nowhere near as good as Crunchyroll. Ur not gonna convince people this is a service we should all support. Good for you if you can and want to pay twice as much a year to watch anime.

[DaBawss]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

Crunchyroll is $60 a year. If u were to do what ur suggesting. It would be $64 a year for Anime Strike. Not cheaper. Most people want everything on the least amount of services possible. Besides from what I have seen the quality and subs on Anime Strike is nowhere near as good as Crunchyroll. Ur not gonna convince people this is a service we should all support. Good for you if you can and want to pay twice as much a year to watch anime.

Oops, guess i should have actually went to crunchyroll. It would figure they offered a a discount on a yearly sub; I only multiplied the the monthly sub. I support neither streaming services. I would rather own and watch from a physical copy.

I also dont expect everyone to support this service, I am just trying to understand why some people hate it so much.

Originally Posted by pikagreg

Last I heard you need to be a yearly member for Prime and monthly didn't work for Anime Strike.

Everything I have found states $5 with a prime subscription. The month to month plan is a prime subscription, so by logic you should be able to purchase anime stirke.

[pikagreg]

Originally Posted by DaBawss

Everything I have found states $5 with a prime subscription. The month to month plan is a prime subscription, so by logic you should be able to purchase anime stirke.

Yeah I have been a prime member for years though I have seen people mention that before on other forums. Though looking at the channel service FAQS I don't see anything about needing an annual sub. I know not everyone subs for Prime and I can't see people justifying a monthly membership just for anime either.

[Naiera]

I don't know if blaming Sentai too much gets us anywhere. They probably figured they had to team up with a big player in the streaming world after their main competition did the same thing.

[omarchafa]

You need Prime plus another subscription to watch crappy shows? What kind of bull is that?

[Nothing371]

All signs point to Sentai being backed into a financial corner at this point.

I don't have a source. This is just speculation. But from the outside looking in it sure looks like they needed a cash infusion so they took one from Amazon. This won't be the last you hear about Sentai's business situation.

[DaveFi]

Eh. I just have Netflix and Amazon Prime (student discount) at this point. If I want to watch something that's not there I usually buy it.

[patch5129]

This is the first time I've been hearing about Amazon Strike, goes to show how far away my finger is from the pulse of Now.
I'm subscribed to Crunchy Roll, and Prime. To me it all comes down to which service has what.
If I see AS starting to have Gundam stuff and a decent library of old and new, I might switch over. I do wish that it was included with my Prime membership, but it's not a deal breaker.
As for Sentai, I'm sure they're just doing whatever they can to stay afloat.
As long as they can keep treading water till August, I'll be happy.

[One-Eye]

Originally Posted by DaBawss

*Hello, I just wanted to open up a thread discussing Sentai's big plan to go to Amazon. I have seen many people appear to be upset over this and wanted to share my thoughts and hear others.

If this is what Sentai has to do to survive as a company, then I find it hard to blame them. If they have a partnership with Amazon it might also give them more financial muscle to acquire anime properties which will let them compete with Funi and CR. It all of course depends on the kind of deal they have with Amazon. Part of my qualms is more with Amazon as a company. I feel that they are too big, not particularly responsive to customers, their Prime movie service is full of junk and I'm not sure they have a clue about the anime fandom.

Would love to hear peoples thoughts! If my reasoning is flawed, or im just living in a bubble let me know too.

You're living in a bubble.

1. As Amazon acquires more properties its going to be harder to binge watch so many shows in a month. I don't have a ton of spare time (work you know?), so it took me about 4 years to get my physical backlog down to something manageable (it was getting ridiculous).

2. I actually have other interests besides anime (I know heresy right?) and other responsibilities so binging isn't always convenient. Plus, not all shows work on a binge basis. Some are better experienced in smaller bites and others you can blow thru 12 episodes without a sweat. If you try to binge some older 50ep shows you may find your brain melting

3. If you actually participate on a site where you discuss the latest episodes, well then your plan cuts you out of the discussion and hoopla going on during the season. Since I enjoy that social aspect, your plan fails for me.

So leaving aside the financials your strategy is not going to work for everyone.

[neoz]

If Sentai have the money which it sounds like they don't then just need to drop Anime Network and Amazon Strike and just do their own streaming service like Funi had.
Call it Section 23 Streaming or Sentai Streaming or something.

Also I hate Amazon so not really liking the double pay wall.

[omarchafa]

Sentai should pull all their shows from CR and start their own streaming service. They do have the right to pull them out from CR right?

[neoz]

Originally Posted by omarchafa

Sentai should pull all their shows from CR and start their own streaming service. They do have the right to pull them out from CR right?

Probably not. I'm sure there are all these licensing deals we don't know about that goes on behind the scenes sadly.

[patch5129]

Originally Posted by neoz

just do their own streaming service like Funi had.
Call it Section 23 Streaming or Sentai Streaming or something.

That would make sense, a lot of networks do their own streaming. HBOand CW to name a few. If they ever went that route, I just hope that they don't do that "Connect through your local cable service provider" like Psych and The Fosters did/do.

[omarchafa]

I really hope Sentai doesn't go under in the near future. I buy more BDs from them than any other publisher.

[zrdb]

Originally Posted by KillaCam

Amazon lost me as a customer once they started charging sales tax. The only time I ever order anything from them is when they have flash sales.

I don't stream anime because it usually looks horrible compared to the blu-ray release and I don't mind waiting for releases since my backlog is already so huge. As long as Sentai keeps releasing these sweet PE sets I'll be happy.

Ditto for me-you could get some phenomenal deals on anime 3 or 4 years ago, alas but those days are gone forever and sales tax finished killing it for me.