why did precure get renamed glitter force and more netflix hatemail

Netflix faces its rival companies Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc. in an online streaming battle, hoping that its Japanese anime offerings will appeal to more subscribers. In addition to bidding for exclusive streaming rights for Japanese anime, Netflix has been partnering with anime studios to exclusively distribute some episodic anime shows and films. However, it is not the only player in the Japanese anime distribution game, although its partnerships with anime studios such as Production I.G. may help it ride out the competition.

One of the problems with Netflix distributions, particularly anime distributions, that the article does not mention is that Netflix tends to release the show all at once, sometimes long after the show has stopped airing in Japan. When compared to streaming services such as Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime, both of which release subbed version of new episodes every week alongside the anime’s weekly broadcast, Netflix is not as appealing. For instance, the anime Kakegurui was aired in Japan during the summer of 2017, although it was not put on Netflix until sometime in 2018. Because when Netflix picked up Kakegurui, the anime could not be legally be picked up by other services which sub weekly, many people turn to (not uncommon) streaming sites and torrenting sites which host fan-subbed versions of each episode. Despite other streaming services (especially Crunchyroll) working to combat anime piracy internationally, Netflix’s distribution schedule, at least in my past experience, tends to discourage users from streaming anime from legal distributors. This schedule seemed to have been fixed somewhat for the more recent release of Carole & Tuesday, which was released in a timelier manner in two parts corresponding with the shows two-season run. In some circles, Netflix is not the preferred streaming site for anime, although the company seems to be certain that its anime selection can help keep it ahead of its competitors outside of Japan.

However, Netflix is working to legally distribute some older shows that did not have a distributor for a long time. One of the more recent examples is Neon Genesis Evangelion, which did not have a legal distributor in the United States for a long time, meaning that if one would like to watch the show, one would have to pay a lot of money to buy a VHS/DVD set (the latest of which was released in 2005) or stream it illegally online. However, because it was resubbed from the original home release, some fans on twitter.com were angered that classically quotable terms from the original ADV translation were not kept. Additionally, the ending song “Fly Me to the Moon” was not kept in some areas (including the United States) due to licensing issues, which also led to fan dissent. Overall, even though die-hard fans of the series were unsatisfied by the release on Netflix, the fact that Netflix is making these older series more accessible to a modern audience is commendable.

That being said, Netflix’s anime selection is rather slim and not as popular (or as good) compared to the selection on some other sites. Shows distributed exclusively on Netflix are not well known, even though some are produced by more famous studios. Although there are many “mainstream” shows on Netflix, e.g. Naruto, Netflix has a smaller distribution compared to anime streaming site Crunchyroll and other streaming site Hulu.

Another point is that in the United States, Netflix used to (misleadingly) label some of its anime showings as “Netflix original anime,” despite only holding streaming rights to the show. Examples of this include Violet Evergarden, DokiDoki! Precure (which Netflix has also rebranded as Glitter Force: Doki-Doki), and Carole & Tuesday. Such labelling undermines the work of the studio who created the anime—in some cases, I’ve had friends tell me that Netflix created the shows in question, although this is absolutely not the case. Although Netflix is partnered with some of the series who created the shows, there is no transparency as to how much of a part Netflix has had in the creation of the shows that it has streaming rights to. Recently, Netflix has stopped labelling these shows as “Netflix original anime,” instead simply calling them “Netflix series.”