Anime Limited announces partnership with Wakanim.tv

Joshawott

Joshawott

Monsieur Monster
AUKN Staff
Today, Anime Limited revealed that they have formed a partnership with the French online anime service Wakanim.tv, who will soon be offering simulcasts and streaming of older titles to the United Kingdom through a dedicated English language website. The new website will launch sometime in the middle of the month, with the first title to be offered being Studio Trigger's&nbsp;<em>Kill la Kill,&nbsp;</em>which will have its first episode shown on the Anime Limited website in the interim from later today, before the simulcast occurs as normal.

Wakamin will offer both&nbsp;free and premium &nbsp;high definition and standard definition services. When the service launches, episodes will be able to be watched for free for the first month and can be downloaded for free for a period of four days. Episodes will also be able to be rented via access to a premium stream&nbsp;for 30 days for 69p each, or can be downloaded to own for &pound;1.25 per episode. The company has also confirmed that its download-to-own titles will be free of unpopular DRM restrictions.

Source
 
You know, I'm not the biggest of download-to-own... but having it DRM free may yet change that opinion. That's a massive sweetener. Having the simulcast service free is excellent too. I'm still sceptical, but this actually sounds promising.
 
I like what Anime Limited are doing, but I can't help but feel a little sceptical at the prospect of another UK streaming site being propped up by a French service. Still, AL's customer service is a million times better than Kaze's, so hopefully this works out.
 
Ugh, I'm done with streaming. The last couple of seasons have been great, with Crunchyroll picking up everything I want and AoD effectively disappearing into a black hole. Now yet another service pops up, taking shows away from Crunchyroll so I have pay ANOTHER subscription if I want the shows they have in half decent quality. How is this good for the consumer? Thanks but no thanks.

EDIT: I understand shows are free for a month, with advertising (ick). Which is fair enough. But I doubt they have a PS3 app, the convenience of which is why I started subscribing to Crunchyroll in the first place. All I want is one site where I have access to the shows I want to watch for a reasonable fee with no limits.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Ugh, I'm done with streaming. The last couple of seasons have been great, with Crunchyroll picking up everything I want and AoD effectively disappearing into a black hole. Now yet another service pops up, taking shows away from Crunchyroll so I have pay ANOTHER subscription if I want the shows they have in half decent quality. How is this good for the consumer? Thanks but no thanks.
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I dunno, looks pretty reasonable to me...

When wakanim.co.uk itself is launched, it will simulcast new anime, and also offer older anime titles. It will be possible to watch episodes free on the site for a month. Customers will also be able to download them free for a period of four days. Premium customers will have the options of paying to rent episodes, or buying them permanently. The premium rental - access to an episode stream for 30 days from payment – will cost 69p per episode. Download to buy will cost £1.25 per episode.
...

Regarding the site's streaming, Cervantès says, “We are using Internap, a very strong Content Delivery Network partner in the UK, to provide the fastest stream possible. We will provide both SD and HD for the free content. For premium users, we are offering the best HD quality on the market.”
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Free for a month after broadcast to all, streaming and temp download, in SD and HD for free content. Looks like they'll probably go 720p for free and 1080 for premium.

Of course that's in print. Anime on Delay was a good idea in print. In execution it was total Khazi.
 
Yeah, see edit. I missed the part about SD and HD broadcasts being free for a month. But regardless, I liked things the way they were, the selection offered and the convenience afforded by CR. Now I'm probably not going to bother at all.
 
Personally, I'm not that much fussed about download to own (I like the 'monthly subscription to stream' model just fine), but the mention of older titles does intrigue me. With a few notable exceptions, much of CR's back catalogue seem like also-rans. I may well be in minority for saying that though; I'm sure the hip young gunslingers aren't exactly clamouring to watch Captain Harlock and GE999.

As for simulcasting, CR have certainly been good with getting big titles in recent times, but I don't find their record compelling enough that I wouldn't at least consider switching, assuming the lineup were reliably interesting.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Yeah, see edit. I missed the part about SD and HD broadcasts being free for a month. But regardless, I liked things the way they were, the selection offered and the convenience afforded by CR. Now I'm probably not going to bother at all.
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Hey Fabricatedlunatic,

Sorry you feel that way about the concept - we're actually big fans of what Crunchyroll do too and acknowledge that there's an interested market of users who just want one subscription so we're of course looking at what we can do to get content out there further too :).

At the moment though, we wanted to present the content we have for digital in an interesting way that we could manage the promotion with easily. As Wakanim run the same shows in France, we receive material on schedule there and prepare accordingly so the issues of Anime on Delay are not as likely here (of course things can go wrong or such, but regularity is key and as promptly after broadcast in Japan as possible).

The service costs nothing either in SD or 720 to use for a month after broadcast (more than enough for most to watch the show first time round at least) so we hope you'll give it a shot instead of throwing the towel in!

I understand the logic though and either way hope the system above will tempt you to give it a shot at least :).

Very best,

Andrew,
President Anime Limited, i.e. the ones who are partnering on this concept :).
 
I presume the language will be Japanese with english subs only? If that is the case this is a complete non-event for me as being an old git my eye's can't deal with subs anymore, so it's dubs only for me. Glad to see that this will [not] replace DVDs and BDs. :wink:
 
Kill la Kill episode 1 is up temporarily on Anime Limited's website. Streaming quality seems quite fine from here.

It'll be interesting to see what happens from here. I think competition is good and necessary to ensure we get the best services and companies are kept on their toes. Anime on Demand's problem was that it's level of service and communication were so poor that it just could not compete with Crunchyroll. It ended up being detrimental to us, by taking streaming rights to shows that had a better streaming service elsewhere. For better or for worse, Crunchyroll have set the minimum standard for simulcasting and streaming. Speaking just for myself, any new service has to prove to me that it's worth it.

Wakanim are taking an interesting approach here, going for a completely different financial model that's closer to Blinkbox or iTunes than Netflix or Lovefilm Instant. My preference is still for the latter approach for sure, but there's enough here that's worth giving a shot. I can't stress enough how the failure of Anime on Demand has made me sceptical, but I do really want to be proven wrong. Anime Limited have had a really strong start, both product wise and communication wise, so it's really only because of their involvement that I think this stands a chance.

I'm still surprised that the download-to-own episodes will be DRM free. Getting licensors to agree to that must have taken some voodoo magic.

Mohawk52 said:
I presume the language will be Japanese with english subs only? If that is the case this is a complete non-event for me as being an old git my eye's can't deal with subs anymore, so it's dubs only for me. Glad to see that this will [not] replace DVDs and BDs. :wink:
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That reminds me, weren't Anime on Demand looking to put up dubbed episodes at some point before the NHK conspiracy or whatever caused it to succumb to Kaze syndrome? That could be an interesting option here.
 
So, "Download to own" means I can take the file, slap it into my HTPC's video folder (That's curently home to my Wakfu/Kerub fansubs not to mention my legitimate stuff) and watch it though XBMC if that is what fancies me? The sans DRM part suggests that it'll be a clean MP4 (or similar) file.

I'm happy to pay, what would it be for a two cour, £35 or so? for all of Kill La Kill in a format that's usable by me. Hell at this point I'd be more than happy to utterly skip the physical media part of deal outside of God Level Dubs such as Bebop.

Oh and not for nothing but the KlK stream has a small gremiln at the end with the end preview.
 
I'm not that interested in DTO but this all sounds very worthy of some attention. If Anime Limited can get their stuff on both Crunchyroll AND this new service eventually, that would be even better - we'd get to taste some of the freedom of choice the lucky Americans take for granted!

Consider me avidly following developments on this partnership from this point on. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to check out that first episode of Kill la Kill :D

R
 
I don't care at all about streaming, and anime has been 'download to own'/DRM free for years, so I'll just be waiting on the sidelines for this to come crashing down. (Seriously? Teaming up with another FRENCH service. Were lessons not learned after AoD?)
The only thing I'm interested to know is whether AL are picking up home video rights to the shows they stream.
 
It's not fair to compare a legal service which supports the anime industry with the idea of just taking things for free without paying the creators and pretending it's comparable to 'download to own'.

Furthermore, just because Kaze suck and happen to be French doesn't mean all French things are bad. The Viz group have been responsible for a substantial number of failures to serve their own fans in every country they have a presence.

I find it very interesting that the legit streaming market in the US directly influences licensor decisions about DVD vs BD and sub vs bilingual. It's like giving fans the power to vote instead of just throwing darts at a board blindfolded (which seems to be how the decisions were made in the old days for certain titles).

R
 
Rui said:
It's not fair to compare a legal service which supports the anime industry with the idea of just taking things for free without paying the creators and pretending it's comparable to 'download to own'.
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I'd much prefer for the Japanese creators to include English Subtitles on their Blurays so I can support them that way, and chuck a lot more money at them at the same time. It's a win-win situation then - Creators get more money from me, and I get the best quality available. From the first two episodes of each, I'd import Kyoukai no Kanata and Kill La Kill if the BDs are subbed. Trigger did say they'd like to do it if Aniplex lets them.

Rui said:
Furthermore, just because Kaze suck and happen to be French doesn't mean all French things are bad. The Viz group have been responsible for a substantial number of failures to serve their own fans in every country they have a presence.
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Okay, maybe I'm overreacting here. Kaze have just been so insultingly bad that I don't trust a service/company which is primarily for one country/Language with the UK just tacked on.
 
Mangaranga said:
Rui said:
It's not fair to compare a legal service which supports the anime industry with the idea of just taking things for free without paying the creators and pretending it's comparable to 'download to own'.
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I'd much prefer for the Japanese creators to include English Subtitles on their Blurays so I can support them that way, and chuck a lot more money at them at the same time. It's a win-win situation then - Creators get more money from me, and I get the best quality available. From the first two episodes of each, I'd import Kyoukai no Kanata and Kill La Kill if the BDs are subbed. Trigger did say they'd like to do it if Aniplex lets them..
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Speak for yourself. I'm quite happy with not having to sell my organs for my japanese cartoons, thank you very much.
 
Rui said:
I'm not that interested in DTO but this all sounds very worthy of some attention. If Anime Limited can get their stuff on both Crunchyroll AND this new service eventually, that would be even better - we'd get to taste some of the freedom of choice the lucky Americans take for granted!

Consider me avidly following developments on this partnership from this point on. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to check out that first episode of Kill la Kill :D

R
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This is a balanced view - a lot of people are asking right now how this competes with Crunchyroll - but the truth of the matter is they are different models. The reason we're helping this one so closely just now as they are the only company to efficiently do DTO in this way and in an attractive fashion to me personally when in France. So it deserves some special attention.

We're not blinkered to this as "the only way" though and are intent on working out the best way forward with subscription services too so they are not left out of the loop. I think there is a lot of wisdom to Aniplex of America's multi-platform management of simulcast in the USA and with a service like Wakanim in the UK too - I'd like to see a time in the very near future where at least one subscription service AND Wakanim can co-exist :). So watch this space and let me see what I can do!

Andrew
 
Mangaranga said:
I don't care at all about streaming, and anime has been 'download to own'/DRM free for years, so I'll just be waiting on the sidelines for this to come crashing down. (Seriously? Teaming up with another FRENCH service. Were lessons not learned after AoD?)
The only thing I'm interested to know is whether AL are picking up home video rights to the shows they stream.
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To be fair - Viz / KAZE have done a lot of things right in France as well - it's just their UK track record has been less spectacular, but it's not really my business to discuss.

Wakanim may be French, but it was built by fans, for fans - which is a huuuuge difference. And by working with UK people directly it allows for better reach, communication and management too. So hey, could be worse and watch this space - lots of room to converse and improve anyway too as needed!

Andrew
 
Just out of interest Andrew, how much of this is actually overseen by you guys over at Anime Limited?
I believe that you mentioned before that you receive the material "On Schedule" (Which I assume is when the FR side does too). Will you be using your own translation for the new shows, are you allowed to sub the OP/ED, and will you have full control over the English content on the site when it launches?

From what I'm seeing and hearing I love what you are doing with the Physical side of things, but I'm still sceptical about the digital side.
I have NEVER used streaming sites for many reasons, mainly Geolocking BS and Downloads just being far more convenient - especially considering I now download and watch most of the TV Broadcasts on a 7 inch Tablet in breaks/on the train due to lack of time. Your download to own may be something to consider, but honestly, I'd have see the nice little things like this included before I can 100% say I'd commit to transitioning to that sort of thing, but I'm not sure what you can and can't do though. I also assume that files would come as Hardsubbed MP4s rather than MKVs with removable subs?
 
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