Amazon's ANIME STRIKE Reveals New Download Option And Partnership With Comixology
Subscribers to Amazon's Anime Strike will now be able to download the latest anime episodes and watch them on their smartphone, tablet or laptop even when there's no internet connection.
Just when it seemed like anime streaming in North American was going to get consolidated under the new Funi x Crunchyroll agreement, Amazon launched its Anime Strike streaming service and now, anime viewing is more divided than ever. However, Anime Strike just took a pretty significant step forward by announcing that they'll now offer a download service which allows its users to download the latest shows to their PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet and take it with them on the go. Stuck shopping with your girlfriend in the mall, with no service? No problem. Delayed on your commuter train and underground to boot? No problem. This offering will definitely be enticing for the anime fan that has an active, on-the-go lifestyle.
Further sweetening the deal is the added bonus that Anime Strike subscribers will also be allowed to download and read one full manga volume per month, at no additional cost. This agreement with Comixology (who Amazon purchased in 2014) runs now until the end of 2017- meaning you could read 8 volumes of your favorite manga title for free if you sign up before the end of May.
While CrunchyrollxFunimation snagged the two big titles of the Spring season- My Hero Academia season 2 and Attack on Titan season 2, many new titles such as Sagrada Reset, Re:CREATORS and Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul are Anime Strike exclusives. However, what's stopping many fans from signing up for the service is the double pay-wall that requires an Amazon Prime ($99/year) subscription before someone can gain access to Anime Strike ($4.99/month). In reality, that's $160/yr for the service which is almost double Crunchyroll ($6.95/month) and 2.5x the cost of Funimation ($4.99/month). Yet, if Amazon Strike keeps offering additional benefits like downloadable content and free manga (and Crunchyroll's servers keep going down every Saturday under the burden of new Dragon Ball Super episodes) a shift in the market is likely to occur sooner rather than later.