Amazon Anime Strike Discontinued; Exclusive Titles Now Available on Prime Video
Barely a year after it was launched, Anime Strike, Amazon's anime-focused subscription-based video on demand service, has shut down.
The discontinuation of the service has been confirmed by a spokesperson for Amazon, who also said that the Anime Strike's "curated catalogs" have been moved into Prime Video, along with contents from Heera, another add-on service that offered Bollywood content.
According to Forbes, Amazon has notified subscribers about the changes as well, further saying that the exclusive titles offered on the defunct services have now been made available to Prime members. Subscriptions have also been canceled automatically, with a refund being given for portions of the monthly payment that went beyond Jan. 5, which was the day of the services' closure.
Anime fans have sensed that something may not be right with the anime-focused service when Amazon did not announce exclusive titles for the 2018 winter anime season. It is not yet clear whether they will be offering exclusive titles on Prime. However, all anime shows that were previously labeled "Anime Strike exclusives" have been moved over to Prime Video, with a Prime Banner to indicate viewers that to view these titles, they will only be needing an Amazon Prime account.
Anime Strike was one of Prime Video's add-on services that provided additional content to subscribers for $5 a month, which equaled to $60 a yeard added to the $100 base Prime Video subscription.
One of the speculated reasons for the service's rather unpopular run was this double paywall that brought the subscription fee up to $160 for non-Prime Video subscribers. This seemed like a steep price to pay as compared to more reasonably priced subscriptions for other anime-streaming services like Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Daisuki, which also offered ad-supported, free options.
Additionally, this has also caused fans problems when Anime Strike got exclusive rights to popular titles in the previous anime season, which has driven some to subscribe to this while also paying for subscriptions in other services.
Among the exclusive titles offered by Anime Strike, which are now available on Prime Video, include "Rage of Bahamut Virgin Soul," "Welcome to the Ballroom," "Made in Abyss," and "Inuyashiki."
