Summer 2021 Streaming Guide

By Chris Perkins.

Anime Limited’s year-long rolling “film festival” Screen Anime might have come to an end as we (hopefully) come out of the pandemic doldrums, but there are still plenty of other online services offering legal anime fixes. We usually give a rundown at the beginning of each year, but change comes so fast these days, we’re running with a summer streaming update.

The seismic shift we were anticipating in the anime streaming world has yet to occur as Funimation’s intended $1 billion acquisition of Crunchyroll took a while to limp through antitrust investigation in the US. Had investigators concluded that the sale would give the Sony-backed distributor too much power in the anime industry, they could have blocked it, but it seems that the sale has gone through. Crunchyroll’s previous owner WarnerMedia is also in the midst of change, as it has consciously uncoupled from AT&T and is now merging with Discovery. What top brass at the newly formed company will want to do with Crunchyroll remains to be seen. In the meantime, it has been business as usual.

The following information is accurate to the best of our knowledge but as ever in the fast-moving world of streaming video, is subject to change at any time.

Crunchyroll has welcomed a slate of brand-new series such as Girlfriend Girlfriend, Battle Game in 5 Seconds, To Your Eternity, Peach Boy Riverside, Night Head 2041 and Remake Our Life. Several popular shows have also returned for more seasons such as My Hero Academia, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, My Next Life as a Villainess and Zombie Land Saga Revenge (pictured) Big name simulcasts such as Boruto, One Piece and Case Closed are all still ongoing.

In 2021 Crunchyroll’s biggest co-productions to date are also joining their growing Crunchyroll Originals line-up. Produced in association with Adult Swim/Toonami and animated by SOLA Digital, Blade Runner: Black Lotus is an anime spin-off set between the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner and its belated sequel Blade Runner 2049. Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045’s creative team of Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are directing the series.

Crunchyroll and Adult Swim are also teaming up with the legendary studio Production I.G on the original anime Fena: Pirate Princess. Director Kazuto Nakazawa describes this swashbuckling romp as heavily influenced by shojo manga and anime and “basically a romance.” Plus, it has pirates and ninja, so it should offer something for everyone as it sets sail.

Crunchyroll continues to diversify by adding more English dubs (as well as dubs in several other languages) for select shows. Titles receiving dubs include Battle Game in 5 Seconds, I’m Standing on a Million Lives and My Next Life as a Villainess. Subs are still very much their main business, though, so Funimation Now is still the place to be if you have a preference for dubs.

Funimation’s current selection of exclusives include Scarlet Nexus, Re-Main, The Detective is Already Dead, Kingdom and Blue Reflection Ray. Newly added Simuldubs include Megalobox, Dragon Goes Househunting, Vivy-Fluorite Eye’s Song, Pretty Boy Detective Club and Kemono Jihen, while ongoing dubs include Black Clover and My Hero Academia.

Funimation is the only place to watch the English dubbed version of current breakout hit Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, which has now been joined by its record-breaking movie outing Mugen Train. Demon Slayer’s second season, subtitled Entertainment District Arc is also coming to Funimation later in 2021. Subtitled versions of the series are also available on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

Funimation has partnered with US distributor Nozomi to add titles such as Revolutionary Girl Utena, Gravitation, Astro Boy (the original 1960s black and white version), Kimba the White Lion and Princess Knight to their library.

The often-overlooked Hi-Dive is also still in the game, the only of the three anime streaming sites available in the UK not to be owned by a massive multi-national corporation (they are part of Section 23, who also operate US distributor Sentai Filmworks, vestiges of the company formerly known as ADV Films). They pick up a small number of shows each season. Recent simulcasts include Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress, Getter Robo Arc, Is It Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon III, and Mother of The Goddess’ Dormitory. Hi-Dive is also home to a number of recent anime features including Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul, Laibackers, Twittering Birds Never Fly and BanG Dream! Film Live.

Even Disney is getting into the anime game, with the arrival of Disney+’s first original anime this September. Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Visions is an anthology series, featuring some of anime’s foremost established and upcoming talents – it isn’t quite the first anime to hit Disney+ – that honour goes to Marvel Future Avengers, Madhouse’s 2017 series featuring “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” The Visions project is similar in concept to Warner Bros’ Animatrix, Batman Gotham Knight, and Halo Legends, with various Japanese studios invited to make a short film set in the Star Wars Universe. The creators of the films were given considerable freedom by Lucasfilm, not bound to any one strict timeline and free to use original or existing characters. The ten episodes feature an impressive line-up. Production I.G contributes The Ninth Jedi, directed by Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex’s Kenji Kamiyama. Studio Trigger contributes two shorts: The Twins from Promare’s Hiroyuki Imaishi and The Elder from veteran animator Masahiko Otsuka. The Masaaki Yuasa co-founded Science Saru is also responsible for two films: Eunyoung Choi (studio co-founder and CEO) helms Akakiri and Abel Gongora takes the reins on the Osamu Tezuka-inspired T0-B1. Penguin Highway’s Studio Colorido’s contribution is the wonderfully named Tatooine Rhapsody from director Taku Kimura.  Rounding out the line-up are a trio of lesser-known studios. From Kamikaze Douga (Batman Ninja, Pop Team Epic) and Takanobo Mizuno is The Duel;Geno Studios (Golden Kamuy) and Yuuki Igarashi present the cute-looking Lop and Ocho and Kinema Citrus contributes The Village Bride from director Hitoshi Haga.

Netflix continues to be mainstream streaming’s biggest investor in anime. Recent and upcoming additions include Studio Bones’s Godzilla: Singular Point, Record of Ragnarok, Eden’s Zero from Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima, the new Shaman King adaptation, Sailor Moon Crystal’s Eternal Movies and the CG video-game adaptation Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, the first TV series based on Capcom’s iconic series. The streamer has continually boosted their catalogue of originals throughout the year with varied titles such as High-Rise Invasion, BEASTARS season 2, Way of the Househusband and co-productions Yasuke and Pacific Rim: The Black.

Outside Netflix-produced anime, the provider also has titles licenced from other distributors, recently adding Funimation-owned titles Akira, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, and One Piece Stampede. Not to forget that Netflix also remains the exclusive streaming home in the UK for the entire Studio Ghibli collection (Grave of the Fireflies and Earwig and the Witch excluded). Netflix has also got into the Gundam game, not only snagging the international rights to the newest movie outing Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway, but also the trilogy of recap movies from the original Mobile Suit Gundam 1979 series and its 1982 sequel Char’s Counter Attack.

Closest rival Amazon Prime Video pulled off their biggest anime coup to date by picking up global streaming rights for the final Neon Genesis Evangelion movie Evangelion 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, as well as the preceding three Rebuild of Evangelion movies.

Additionally Amazon’s selection of anime has been boosted by some favourites from the catalogues of Anime Limited and MVM.  These include Wolf’s Rain, Samurai Champloo, Love Live!, Erased, Outlaw Star, Eureka Seven and more.

Chris Perkins is the editor of Animation for Adults.