When most of us anime viewers were growing up—back in the early 90s to 2000s—we struggled to let the world know of our anime love. Often, we were bullied or treated poorly for a medium most didn’t understand. In recent years, anime has grown to be quite popular with even those who we consider “casual” fans. Streaming services—in this case Netflix—are largely to thank for this emergence of anime fans as people see a show pop up and go…why don’t we check this out? More fans means more anime love and more anime love means more anime being created. In our minds, Netflix scores a big win in helping spread the anime glory.

The problem with Netflix having rights to some anime is both a good thing but also a scary one. Back to our original statement about Evangelion. Netflix obtained the right to stream Evangelion on their service, but in the process, altered the show in some odd ways. While the visuals were bolstered quite a bit—Evangelion looks pretty good now for an older series—the removal of the original English cast was a rather annoying one. Add to that, music was removed/altered and even dialogue was changed in concerns to character’s sexuality/love. Netflix might not have altered many shows on their platform, but it worries us if they gain the rights to do this with other older shows. Fans would begin to have mobs ready if classics like Evangelion began to get changed for the worse.

If you had Netflix during its infancy then you know anime was scarce on the site. You could rarely find shows to watch and if you did, they seemed to only be around for a little while at best. Now in 2019, there are 30+ anime series on Netflix ranging from popular series to even indie anime titles! That amount means it’s rare for viewers to not find a new show to enjoy and Netflix seems to constantly add more anime as the months go on! Pretty soon we might even see shows from the early 90s in droves on Netflix for those who love the classics.

Anime enthusiasts know obtaining the rights for any series to be aired on a platform isn’t a cheap expense. Netflix might have a ton of assets at the moment with its 150+ million subscribers, but it also has a lot of expenses being paid out to creators of Netflix original movies and anime series. How often do you see an anime series you love only have a small run on Netflix before getting the boot? Quite often, right? Well folks, that probably will happen more and more as Anime becomes bigger on Netflix. Original shows might have a longer stay on the platform but shows that cost the company a pretty penny probably will only be on the streaming service for a limited time at best. Collecting anime via buying series on either download services or physical release still is the best way to make sure you can re-watch a classic over and over without worrying if it will be purged in a month or two.