If any story has recently been shaking up the world of entertainment business in recent days, it’s been the recent Netflix stock tumble. The considerable loss of value for the company has led to some major discussions regarding the future of the platform’s offerings, as well as starting more than a few conversations about the nature ofstreaming content going forward in general.
While the inner workings of a company’s finances can feel very distant from the content its users know and love, the changes brought about by these developments have already begun to play a role in the platform’s strategic restructuring for both live-action and animated content. By looking at the latest developments, there are some broad strokes that can paint a picture of what things might look like going forward for anime on Netflix.
RELATED:3 Anime Titles Leaving Netflix Next Month
What the Netflix Stock Tumble Means for Audiences
RELATED:Netflix Scales Down Animation Department Following Subscriber Dip
The stock tumble has yet to show any clear signs of slashing in-development projects at Netflix, and recent news has shown the companystriking development deals with Studio Coloridoand maintaining strong ties with its various other studios that have previously produced titles with the platform, including Studio Trigger (Brand New Animal) and Science Saru (Japan Sinks 2020).
Netflix’s Possible Approaches to Anime Going Forward
Anime’s market is considerably different than the market for Western animation. The traditional market of general-kids’ animation has in recent years shifted towards younger audiences as older kids tend to focus on anime, video games, and social gaming platforms like Twitch as seemingly more mature alternatives. In needing to adjust to these trends, there are a few plausible approaches that the company might take going forward: shifting the focus towards IPs, shifting the focus towards autonomous studio creations, and licensing the rights to autonomous productions.
Netflix has already made strong use of licensing and adapting new properties, such as its CG-animated adaptations ofGhost in the ShellandUltraman. Likewise, the original projects greenlit by the company may be strongly linked to studios’ brand identity. While Netflix has often bet heavily on individual creators for its western animation, the anime industry has a stronger relationship to studios’ identity that will impact the direction of what they want to make (the intense action-comedy of Trigger’s brand, or themindfully gorgeous style of Studio Ghibli.) The importance of studio brand has been recognized by other streaming services as well; Disney has sought strong relationships with various studios through itsStar WarsanthologyStar Wars: Visionsin which each short film was animated by a different studio as a selling point.
Thirdly and finally, it’s common for die-hard anime fans to want a strong degree of autonomy in their work, and excessive input from Netflix is seen to produce mixed results, as seen in the less-than-stellar reception of the company’s heavily-marketed 2021 live-actionCowboy Bebopadaptation. Likewise, licensing premade content (which the company still usually brands as a “Netflix Original” all the same) is a stronger way of earning the good will of that die-hard fanbase.
Ultimately, with a company as large as Netflix it can be hard to pinpoint hard rules onto the variety and styles of content it produces. There are still likely going to be plenty of projects going forward that highlight the depth and breadth of Japanese animation, although the specifics of that content will likely shift in the threefold directions of established IP, established studios, and licensing deals over premade content. The company has continued to foster an unprecedented interest in growing its anime offerings, and it has certainly introduced the medium to tens of millions of fans around the world. The specific long-term effects of its recent business developments remain to be seen, but there are good signs to see that fans will continue to get more of the content they love.
