Netflix is making a big pitch for the Asian market and taking on Sony with the addition of 40 new anime titles this year.
The streaming giant is looking to build on its success with original Japanese animation, including Devilman Crybaby, Blood of Zeus, and Aggretsuko.
The 40 new titles set to release this year represent twice as many new original anime as 2020, and include series such as Record of Ragnarok, based on the manga of the same name, samurai story Yasuke, and yakuza comedy The Way of the Househusband; Netflix is also set to release Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, adapted from the video game series by Capcom.
In an interview, Taiki Sakurai, Netflix’s chief anime producer, said global viewing of anime titles was growing by around fifty per cent every year, and more than half of the service’s 200 million global subscribers had watched an anime title in the past six months.
“We want to be able to pride ourselves as being the top entertainment destination with good quality content.
“The growth of our business is directly connected to the growth of our anime,” he said.
Netflix’s growth in anime pits it against Sony, whose Funimation subsidiary bought anime streaming giant Crunchyroll – which offers more than 1000 anime titles, and has three million subscribers and 90 million registered users worldwide – for $1.175 billion USD, or $1.58 billion AUD.
In Australia, Sony (through its subsidiary Aniplex) already owns local anime distribution company Madman Anime Group, including its AnimeLab streaming platform.
