Amazon has killed Anime Strike and added all of its shows to Amazon Prime. This means fans of anime will no longer have to pay the $5/month asking price for Anime Strike's curated collection of anime shows, getting them for free (excluding the Prime subscription) instead.
Amazon launched Anime Strike in January 2017. This was to be a standalone streaming service full of anime, including old shows, new shows, and even exclusive shows. Anime Strike was one of those Prime TV channels costing $5/month on top of the $99/year Amazon Prime subscription.
Amazon's Great Anime Strike Adventure
Anime Strike launched with over 1,000 pieces of content, covering shows and even movies. This included shows such as Scum’s Wish, The Great Passage, and Chi’s Sweet Adventure, all of which were exclusively available on Amazon in the U.S. And Anime Strike was only available in the U.S.
However, just 12 months on, and Anime Strike is no more. Subscriptions have been discontinued, with all Anime Strike content now available to everyone (in the U.S.) with an active Amazon Prime membership. Which is obviously good news for anime fans with Amazon Prime subscriptions.
An Amazon spokesperson gave Kotaku, which first reported the news, a statement saying, "We have decided to move the curated catalogs of Anime Strike and [Bollywood channel] Heera into Prime Video so that more customers can enjoy this content as part of their Prime membership.”
There were two problems with Anime Strike. 1. Getting access to it effectively meant paying twice; once for Prime, and once for Strike. 2. There is also robust competition in the form of Funimation, and Netflix, which is producing anime originals, and Amazon can't compete.
Just Another Reason to Get Amazon Prime
Amazon clearly isn't going to disclose why it has shuttered Anime Strike. However, we can only assume the number of subscribers didn't justify keeping it around. So Amazon might as well make these anime shows and movies another of the many reasons to subscribe to Amazon Prime.
And while having all of these shows on Amazon Prime is great for already subscribers, you should also know there are several legal ways to watch anime online for free.
Were you subscribed to Anime Strike? Are you sorry to see this dedicated service being shuttered? Are you pleased Amazon is bringing the shows to Prime instead? Do you subscribe to any other anime-centric streaming service? Please let us know in the comments below!