RIP Amazon’s Anime Strike

No one was sad to see this go.

Courtesy: Amazon

It comes as no surprise to anyone on Planet Earth that a streaming service that had two paywalls wouldn’t survive and that’s exactly what happened as Amazon has officially shuttered its Anime Strike service.

That said, it’s not like Amazon put much effort into it.The little anime they had on there was typically already available via home release and was seldom dubbed for English audiences…a feature that is almost becoming a standard now in anime streaming distribution. Other services like Netflix and Funimation do a great job of providing bilingual releases with a bevy of content every quarter and they do so at a fraction of the cost of what Anime Strike was charging.

Aside from children’s animation, animation in general for Amazon has been a struggle as it pertains to the company wanting to invest in original content despite the fact that Amazon has ordered some solid pilots over the last couple of years. Competitors like Netflix and soon Youtube Red are growing in stature in the animated sector, Amazon needs to do more if it wants to compete.