The platform had been producing it’s it’s original series since 2014
Anime started airing in Japan during the 1900s but it took until the early 1990s for it to reach the rest of the world. After that, they were here to stay. It was aimed at teenagers mostly since most titles were not fit for small children. Soon, various genres started coming in for adults as well. Now, there are conventions and expos dedicated to anime happening around the world, where people either dress up as their favourite character, or sell merchandise of them.
From watching anime on television, various streaming services have bought rights for them and have made it their exclusives. The sites include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and anime-only sites such as Crunchyroll, Viewster, and Funimation.
Netflix’s strategy
It didn’t take Netflix long to figure out that many of its subscribers are there for anime. As per John Derderian, Netflix’s director of content – Japan & Anime, they had been distributing anime DVDs before Netflix became a streaming service. Soon they started co-producing shows where they could show up as a pre-buyer or early investor and obtain global rights.
Netflix has released 60 original animes across the United States, some of them being Violet Evergreen, Great Pretender, Dorohedoro, Seven Deadly Sins, Devilman Crybaby, among others. On top of that, they are also adding classic animes such as Naruto, Haikyuu!, Hunter X Hunter, etc.
Derderian says that what they do is take money from their members and invest it on what they want. Thanks to their algorithm, Netflix can determine how many anime-only members are there. With new members joining every day, Netflix has been giving other sites a run for their money.