The Future – Same Day Anime Streaming on Hulu?

While you are probably aware that Hulu hosts a small selection of anime, both in English dubbing or subbed, Funimation seems to have the right idea of streaming a subbed version of the latest episode (currently airing in Japan) on its website within 24 hours of release. Is this the future of anime distribution to the public?

I have been catching up on the latest episodes of One Piece using this service since Funimation is faster than every other One Piece fansubbing group asides from one, but hey, that’s pretty good nonetheless. The idea seems great to me and I would hope other companies would follow suit in Funimation’s footsteps in the near future.

The online streaming model for American television has been working very well for Hulu, a service most people didn’t think would even be possible during its early conception (lack of big network support) nor succeed to the level it has. These days I usually can’t watch my favorite shows during their prime-time release due to studies, but thanks to video streaming either from Hulu or the networks themselves I can sit back and enjoy shows at my own comfort whenever I have the time. I can’t wait for the day I can to do the same thing with anime.

While I understand you could do the same thing if you download anime on a daily basis, I’m sure you know plenty of people who are anime fans who simply are not tech savy enough to get the latest releases within a single command (cough IRC cough) or a click of a button. That and the download in itself may take a while dependent on the user’s connection and the size of the video. It’s not exactly on demand video. These services would provide just that, as it does with American television.

At least the service would remove the hassle of trying to find fansubbing groups willing to release mid-season licensed shows, giving me an easy and legal alternative access to shows I am intent on completing.

Remember that writer strike long ago? Yes? Part of the complaint was that the writers weren’t being compensated for the ad revenue generated from advertisement from streaming content. So clearly streaming video is a great source of income from advertisements; if anything exposure and marketing.

It allows the company to reap in the profits earlier (through advertisement) than waiting for a whole slew of episodes to come out, slap some half-ass dubbing no one even cares about (I died inside hearing the One Piece dub for the first time — I really did), and selling the box set for however so much. What an arduous process, meanwhile hungry anime fans download their 1080i or 720p resolution anime videos for absolutely free and burn it onto DVDs. You tell me who just lost out in this picture.

Of course there are limitations. I don’t expect current season episodes to last very long, 3 weeks at most as with most Hulu videos. So get it while its hot as companies do have to remove the videos to promote consumers into buying box sets eventually for those that either missed out on the videos on Hulu or simply want to have a real copy with bonus content/features.

While I don’t expect companies to beat the fansubs in terms of speed (as long as it comes out within 24-48 hours, the average wait time anyway), I wouldn’t mind sitting through advertisement if it very well meant supporting a company that in turn would acquire even more anime knowing they would do same day release streaming with whatever they license. That’s actually something most of us are capable of doing instead of asking us to drop however much a box set costs these days.

Just as Apple adapted to a market rich in music piracy by releasing the iTunes platform which provides cheap and accessible content, so must anime companies. Hulu has proven that the streaming model works, now its up to the anime companies to decide if they want to be left behind on the store shelves or go mass market.

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