Like the generalist streaming services Netflix, Amazon or Disney +, specialized platforms have also "taken advantage" of containment, not to say that they saved it. This is the case of Wakanim, Crunchyroll and Anime DigitalNetwork, the three references of Japanese animation in France. ADN even plans to save the festival season, following the cancellation of almost all events devoted to japanimation, Japan Expo in mind. The Cyber Festival of Animation is held from Friday to Sunday on the Internet (Twitch, YouTube, Twitter…), with meetings, projections, including Akira in virtual reality, or a concert on Jojo's Bizarre Adventure , live from Japan. It is also an opportunity for 20 Minutes , partner of the festival, to give an account of the role played today by these platforms on the SVOD market, and in the hearts of the fans.
D-1 ✨ The Cyber Festival of Animation is from 17/07 to 19/07 on Twitch, Periscope / Twitter and Facebook! ✨ https://t.co/vxjaNJzdoZ
On the program: visits to Japan, Giveways, live broadcasts, concerts, interviews and more! #AnimeTonWeekend pic.twitter.com/ZLQtA8hvFZ
The simulcast, the nerve of war
It seems far from the era of Club Dorothée , the Manga Video collection in bookstores, VHS subtitled by Evangelion at Dynamic Visions, the time when it was therefore necessary to wait several years to discover the latest successful animated films. Today, they are available an hour after their broadcast in Japan, these are the famous simulcasts to use the term used (contraction of "simultaneous broadcast ", for "simultaneous broadcast"). It is also the nerve of the war of streaming platforms.
“The first simulcasts date back to 2009 with Dybex on Dailymotion, KZPLAY from Kazé, and Wakanim, but it was already late, says Olivier Fallaix, specialist in japanime, former editor-in-chief of Anime Land magazine and now market director French Crunchyroll. Indeed, there was everything on the Internet, illegally of course, and the demand of the fans was so strong, that they managed by themselves, by pirating. The legal offer took ten years to structure with DNA, Crunchyroll, still Wakanim, and, we will not lie, the arrival of Netflix has boosted the market, democratized uses. Olivier Fallaix remembers, moreover, with a smile, how the media could rave about the H + 24 of an OCS or a Canal + on certain big American series, when the simulcasts were already offered for an hour after Japan.
Watch episode 156 of #Boruto - #Naruto Next Generations on DNA for free. Happy that the anime is coming back? 🌞 https://t.co/jDPr078jQf pic.twitter.com/FXUB1PCOiG
- DNA | Animation Cyber Festival from 17 to 19/07 (@ADNanime) July 13, 2020VOD with advertising or subscription
Why this rush, an hour after the broadcast? "The hard core of the community wants its episode right away, otherwise they will go and find it elsewhere," he explains. Simulcasts are often available first at H + 1 for paying subscribers and then free at D + 7, like Demon Slayer and L'Attaque des Titans on Wakanim, or Black Clover and Re: ZERO on Crunchyroll to quote the most popular series. ADN even offers some titles, "the biggest", direct for free, with advertising, for example My Hero Academia and One Punch Man . "The goal is to open to as many people as possible," comments Julien Lemoine, manager of Anime Digital Network.
You will understand, one of the specificities of japanime platforms is to be both a subscription VOD service (SVOD) and with advertising (AVOD), with an offer of nearly 8,000 episodes, between 10 and 20 simulcasts by season, exclusives for Premium subscribers ( One Piece on ADN and Crunchyroll), and also series available on several platforms at the same time. What is rarer between Netflix and Amazon ( South Park and…?). "Several scenarios are possible, details Julien Lemoine. A rights holder may not wish to assign the excluded from a license and thus distribute it more widely, two platforms may find an agreement on a series, or one sell rights to the other ... ”This is how we find Fire Force on ADN and Wakanim, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on ADN and Netflix, or Attack on Titan on Wakanim and Netflix.
New trailer! No vacation for the Fire Force, back on July 3 for a new season 2! New bows, new enemies, firing next Friday! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cARcB7r1Ob
- Wakanim (@Wakanim) June 24, 2020Netflix, my best enemy
"Netflix is the leading competitor and the best ally of anime platforms," said the DNA manager. If the first two seasons of JoJo are on Netflix, it is thanks to us, this offers a new exposure to the series, and brings us subscribers for the following seasons. "Matthias Jambon-Puillet, marketing manager for Europe at Wakanim, saw this during the confinement," the addition of seasons 1 and 2 of Attack on Titan on Netlix caused a peak in subscribers with us " Because Wakanim has season 3. But Netflix also has its own exclusives, like Knights of Sidonia , Seven Deadly Sins or the last Ghost in the Shell.
A market in full transformation
The French market itself is experiencing a behind-the-scenes redistribution of cards, since Crunchyroll bought half of DNA, and Wakanim now belongs to Funimation. Crunchyroll and Fumination are the two big American players in anime streaming, and subsidiaries of, respectively, Warner and Sony. The figures are not really comparable, because the territories concerned are not the same, but ADN, the number 1 in France, had more than 100,000 subscribers at the end of 2019, and Crunchyroll and Wakanim more than two million worldwide.
For the fan, this means above all different strategies, beyond the essential simulcast. DNA is thus betting on nostalgia and classics, with the recent addition of Yu Yu Hakusho and Escalflowne , also screened at the Cyber Festival. Julien Lemoine even announces all Rumiko Takahashi ( Ranma 1/2, Lamu, Juliette, je t'aime …) for soon.
LET'S GO! The God of High School is available on Crunchyroll 👊
🔥 Watch: https://t.co/G3EYjrES7V #GodOfHighSchool pic.twitter.com/Y84c80VLud
After having co-produced animated films, Crunchyroll has taken the next step with the Crunchyroll Originals, "born of a deal with the WEBTOON platform, to adapt their webcomics to animated films, such as Tower of God or The God of High School, broadcast from July 6, ”says Olivier Fallaix. Wakanim is the only one to offer the simuldub, that is episodes dubbed in French 15 days after the VOST version, for example on the novelty of the moment DECA-DENCE . Julien Lemoine of DNA confirms that VF is a real issue, for a different audience.
The other challenge that awaits ADN, Crunchyroll and Wakanim is the quota of French productions that France wants to impose on platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Disney and therefore on them, too, specialized in Japanese animation.
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