It was quite hard to watch your favourite anime or animation in India because most of it was not available legally in the country for a long time. All we had was the television channel Animax, which was admittedly, still brilliant. But finally after years of waiting (some) giant OTT streaming platforms started to understand the ‘niche’ fan following’s presence in the country. They have opted to stream as well as release original anime content on their platforms. Here are the platforms where you can legally stream your favourite anime:
Anime Amaze:
Starting off with a relatively new app, Anime Amaze contains anime for the niche viewer. Although it doesn’t contain the big heavyweights, the app is still free and will help the “unenlightened” to get “initiated”. It is available to download on Android and iOS.
Amazon Prime Video:
Another one for niche anime viewers, Amazon has only a few titles available for viewing on OTTs, but it has a couple of crowd favourites in ‘Psycho-Pass’ and ‘Welcome to the Ballroom’. Amazon might be sparse with anime at the moment although it looks like they are planning to release a few originals of their own.
YouTube:
YoutubeTV and Youtube is a home for both budding anime artists and well established ones as well. ‘Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious’ has been one of the recent releases on Youtube Channel Muse Asia and it has been a huge success all over the country.
Netflix:
The only OTT platform that has truly embraced anime and it’s potential, Netflix owns the broadcasting rights to all the major anime in Naruto, DeathNote, Bleach, etc. just to name a few. They have gone to create their own adaptations as well as collaborate with Japanese studios to create monumental pieces. If there was any anime related OTT competition, Netflix would win it all by a landslide.
Crunchyroll:
The OG of anime streaming websites. That should be enough of a description. In a time where anime wasn’t available anywhere, one company decided to create an anime-only streaming platform which has stood the test of time (maybe 10-15 years or so), so us lowly people will have access to some of the best creations Japan has to offer – that company is Crunchyroll. Netflix is an icon in the streaming world, Crunchyroll is a superstar in the anime one. Crunchyroll also produces their own originals such as the recently released Japanese adaptation of the Korean ‘Tower of God’ and a fan favourite ‘The God of High School’.
Many people might be disappointed that Disney+Hotstar didn’t make the list but they make animations, not anime – Japanese animations to be precise. But check out Disney+Hotstar if you lik classic American animations such as Mickey Mouse and Snow White.
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