Why Netflix is betting on anime: the real secret behind its success

No one is born knowing. And Netflix certainly isn’t, of course. That’s why its learning about what its audience wants to watch has always varied, trying to reach them not only with original series and movies but also with reality shows, talk shows, cooking programs, and even video games. If you want to compete one hundred percent against traditional television, you’d better resemble it.

And, of course, what does linear television have? Cartoons. More specifically, anime: many of us grew up with Dragon Ball Z, Ranma 1/2, Inu Yasha, Neon Genesis Evangelion, One Piece, Bleach, or Full Metal Alchemist. At first dubbed, then in Japanese, so we wouldn’t have to wait for some channel to decide to do us the favor of airing it. Netflix has taken good note: it knows that its fans want anime, both original and licensed, and, seeing the success of Crunchyroll, it has decided to tie its hachimaki and shout “Banzai!” to an otaku audience that this flood of Japanese animation has caught off guard.

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Gathering All Dreams

After licensing several anime series and seeing their results, the algorithm of Netflix predicted that the audience indeed wanted more Japanese animation, but filtered through the lens of the Big N. And what is that filter? Slightly Americanizing them, but still dubbing them in Japanese to maintain the illusion that it is original, created by Japanese for Japanese, and we are the privileged ones who have a little window to see what is being done there.

The first attempt was timid, with the fabulous adaptation of Castlevania, in anime style but created entirely by Americans, which was praised but made it clear that viewers were actually looking for something more real. Or apparently real, at least. And they understood it: in 2018 Devilman Crybaby became a small great international phenomenon and Aggretsuko, practically its creative opposite, did the same. In between, Netflix released four more animes, trying to learn how to hit the exact note.

In fact, they started to excessively play with CGI anime and there were many who began to laugh at things like Saint Seiya or Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, who did not understand at all what had made their sagas famous and tried to reinvent the wheel. The time came to sit down again and rethink what the audience wanted: Original anime? Licenses? Continuations of series? Updated remakes? The solution was much simpler: all at once.

I rested on the branch of a tree

And this is what we have now: a maelstrom of anime impossible to encompass so that everyone has something to choose from. South Korean anime created in English (Blood of Zeus), remakes of the series from our childhood (Ranma 1/2), successful licenses (Spy X Family, One Piece), adaptations of other franchises (Terminator Zero, The Pokémon Janitor), and, in addition, hits like Sakamoto Days, DanDaDan or animations halfway between east and west (Blue-Eyed Samurai). But why this obsession with betting on the genre?

It has a trick: in Japan, 300 to 400 anime series can premiere each year, many of them niche, from which thanks to Crunchyroll, Netflix, and other platforms that are also betting on it, like Prime Video, we can receive about a hundred. But success is very relative: in the United States, the audience focuses on five or six very well-known series, leaving the rest for the more otaku. Demon Slayer, One Piece, Attack on Titan, Spy X Family, and Kaiju no. 8, while the Japanese deal with hundreds of interests and series, among isekai, shonen, shojo, and of course, the dozens of sports anime that appear every year.

Obviously, Netflix knows it has to try to create these kinds of sensations, competing with Crunchyroll. It’s not just talk: Netflix subscribers watch an average of 62 minutes daily. Those of Crunchyroll watch 85. Obviously, and although they paint themselves as an alternative, for the Big N they are competition, and with more and more people becoming fans of anime in the West, they have wanted to attack and win in their own field. Moreover, trying to create a new one, the fusion between two types of animation at a time when both are growing (on platforms, mind you, not on traditional television).

Why does Netflix invest in anime? Because it makes money. Why don’t other streamers invest? Because they arrived late. And in the end, it all comes down to this: understand what your audience wants and give it to them before anyone else, make mistakes along the way and don’t stop, if you can, until you succeed. I don’t know much about starting businesses, but this seems to be the key to everything, right? Think twice before dismissing a good opening again.

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