Anime
Anime in YouTubeLand – This Week in Anime
Is it refreshingly new or very retro to stream anime on YouTube? Whatever side you land on, the fact is that there are legal releases there to explore, as Coop and Lucas discover.
Full Disclosure: Coop regularly works with Discotek Media and MediaOCD, having provided copy for the Blu-ray releases of Urusei Yatsura (1982) and Berserk (1997). His opinions given here are purely his own and do not reflect those of his employers.
Full Disclosure: Lucas DeRuyter is an employee of 33 USA, and has/is currently contracted to promote the KILL BLUE anime.
The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
YouTube streams KochiKame, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Boogiepop Phantom, Sonic X, Umamusume: Cinderella Gray, There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover… Unless, Tougen Anki, Kill Blue, and Akane-banashi.
Lucas, many great and terrible acts were committed on the internet twenty years ago. We’d gone back to the past to play the shitty games that suck ass, saw the evolution of dance, and most relevant to both of us, watched anime in three parts. Of course, I speak of the now-preeminent video platform, YouTube.
In some ways, we’ve come a long way since then, and not so much in others.
How do we go back, Coop? How do we go back to an age when YouTube was just one of several video hosting platforms on the internet instead of a moral and economic quagmire that nobody, least of all its owner Alphabet, seems to want to improve; but now it’s too much of a pillar of the digital media ecosystem to do away with outright???
But regardless of the moral and moderation failings of the now-old-enough-to-drink website, it’s undeniable that YouTube is an entertainment behemoth with viewership numbers and cultural cache on par with major streaming platforms! It’s no surprise, then, that anime distributors and owners of a series outright would choose to release their works on the platform when the conditions are right! Today, I’d love it if we chatted about the underlying circumstances that make YouTube so appealing for releasing anime today, as well as the new and old titles that now live on the platform!
© 76 OA / ©96-25 A
© 1992 Rumiko Takahashi/SHOGAKUKAN・Kitty Film・Fuji TV
Though rare these days, a “part 1/3” from that era can still be occasionally found on the site. However, it’s important to point out that none of these uploads were official—just fans circulating the tapes as always.
© INTV・VAP
I’m not ashamed to admit that I watched all of the Berserk (1997) dub on YouTube back in the day because, at the time, there really was no other means for me to watch what’s nothing short of a foundational work in the Western anime fandom. Thankfully, Discotek put out an official Blu-ray of the series a few years back, making it more broadly available now, but there used to be lots of glaring gaps in what anime was available to EN audiences, and old YouTube was great at meeting that demand.
You would think a TV like this have more than 2 hdmi ports. I mean come on. But looks pretty good, what do you think? Hehe 😜 #animelovers #anime #oldschoolanime
— media-blasters.com (@media-blasters.com) April 22, 2026 at 11:25 PM
But sometimes the kinks get worked out, and we’re thrown an official bone! For example, how about that stealth announcement for a new release of Phantom Quest Corp. from Media Blasters? I’m pretty sure that’ll look way better than an ancient VHS rip.
© 高橋留美子／小学館
Now that we’ve painted a picture of just how ubiquitous YouTube was with anime piracy as little as a decade ago, I hope our younger readers (young people read this, right?) understand just how bizarre it is for anime fans around our age to see numerous series airing legally, and sometimes exclusively, on YouTube!
© Teren Mikami, Eku Takeshima/SHUEISHA, Watanare Production Committee
© TriF/Mecha-Ude Production Committee
Setting that vast back catalog aside, the 2019 release of Mecha-Ude‘s pilot episode sticks out to me as one of the very first, brand-new titles to hit the platform. It’d be another five years before the proper series arrived on streaming, but this achievement is nothing to sneeze at. If anything, it almost feels like early proof that a high-budget independent animation could work on the platform. Unfortunately, this pilot has been set to private since then.
Though it’s worth noting that companies uploading series that they’re not really sure what to do with to YouTube is still happening today! As Chris and I discussed in a previous column, REMOW is uploading all of the classic shonen gag anime KochiKame to the It’s Anime YouTube channel!
© 76 OA / ©96-25 A
And while they have switched to uploading episodes in batches since Chris and I first talked about this surprise release, they seem to be keeping at it! Even if I don’t personally care for the show, it’s cool that a super influential anime is now hyper accessible to wide audiences and that this kind of distribution model has some kind of appeal to rights holders!
© K, S, I/S, UCP © Cygames, Inc
While that work is fantastic, I have to say, I’m even more impressed by REMOW‘s efforts with brand-new series. Tougen Anki, There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover, and The Hongry Hongry Honse— I mean Umamusume: Cinderella Gray have wowed me by taking advantage of YouTube‘s strengths. The company digs into subtitle features that only a handful of AMVs have touched, resulting in wonderfully styled subs (in multiple languages) that go beyond simple closed captioning, which REMOW does still use quite regularly as well. Not to mention that they’re posting full-season marathons of certain series—an old practice that exploded once the ten-minute upload limit was gone. Like you can go watch all of honse for free right now!
Well, for a limited time that is. REMOW‘s titles (and most shows that officially hit YouTube these days) come with a two-to-three-week availability window. If a viewer misses that window, they have to catch up on a paid platform. The said platform is Prime Video in the case of REMOW‘s titles. While it’s a frustrating practice for viewers, I get why it’s done on the business side. These new titles need to make their money back somehow—be it merch, a sliver of the streaming bucks, or home video deals. Though I feel a little bit different about older titles because they’re often not the focus when you’re selling the latest and greatest.
© Tadatoshi Fujimaki / Shueisha, KILL BLUE Production Committee
But until that window closes, I can savor your name on the big screen as much as I want, Lucas!
© Tadatoshi Fujimaki / Shueisha, KILL BLUE Production Committee
If we had an alternate title for this column, it would be “Dueling Disclosures” lol.
© Cygames, Inc
While we could debate until the cows come home over whether the Umamusume anime is a glorified commercial or an artistic work in its own right, the fact of the matter is that a part of the reason the show was made was to get folks into the game, and hopefully spend money once they’re in that ecosystem. If Cygames can make direct revenue via the game, they don’t really need to get a cut of a subscription fee or flat payment from a distributor, and are incentivized to make the anime as accessible as possible. TLDR, YouTube is the perfect fit for this kind of anime, and I think we’ll see more titles based on ongoing games come to the platform soon.
© Teren Mikami, Eku Takeshima/SHUEISHA, Watanare Production Committee
And while I personally loved There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… and its shockingly frank exploration of how a need for connection can spiral into borderline toxic intimacy, we probably wouldn’t be talking about it as much today if it had been released on Crunchyroll and gotten buried under a mountain of seasonal RomComs. This novel release model helped the anime to do well enough to inspire a five episode second season, and apparently caused REMOW to rethink that limited availability policy as the entire show is still up on their YouTube channel!
© Teren Mikami, Eku Takeshima/SHUEISHA, Watanare Production Committee
We’re never going to live in a world where every new anime lives on YouTube in an official capacity, but it’s clear that the economics of this industry are trending in a direction that has a smattering of titles that benefit from a free release model premiering on the platform every season.
And as you’ve already pointed out, Lucas, this strategy works well for Akane-banashi as Western audiences are likely unfamiliar with the storytelling art. Marcille Donato wrote a wonderful primer on Rakugo that I’d recommend looking if you’d like to learn more about it. But more than the unfamiliarity, the series also has to contend with the kind of disinterest that’s plagued down-to-earth sports and yanki titles for ages. These titles are “battles of wills” more than “battles of people with superpowers”, and most viewers err toward the latter.
© Zexcks
To return to a previous point, while we’re used to seeing anime release exclusively on one or two streaming platforms, I think a title releasing on as many platforms as possible is about to become a lot more common. If a work isn’t anticipated enough to score a sweet exclusivity deal from one of the bigger streamers, then it makes sense for the rights holders to instead go as wide as possible and hope they build up enough of a broad fanbase to make up for this release structure on the backend. This is doubly true for sports series, or other kinds of anime that stand a better chance of popping off with folks who don’t traditionally watch the media type.
The perception of anime in the West has been reset to a degree since the pandemic. It’s fantastic to have so many new eyes on the medium, but that’s also re-calcified the old “shonen defines the whole bag” perception in a big way. I’m speaking more about the large silent majority of viewers and those on the general mainstream than your average longtime fan or ANN reader. Those renewed and silent perceptions are a big element to consider when looking at titles that don’t exactly fit into the current mainstream mold.
Looking back toward the more experimental, ambitious end of anime on YouTube for a moment, Studio Pierrot‘s using that aforementioned wriggle room to debut the grand return of their magical girls—Magical Sisters Lulutto Lilly. For reference, Pierrot kicked off this storied series with 1983’s Creamy Mami and had concluded it with 1998’s Fancy Lala… “had concluded” being the part to focus on now. The studio’s bold move to stream the Lulutto Lilly on YouTube (on a slight delay) might go back to what we’ve talked about when it comes serving audiences that normally wouldn’t be by the larger streamers. In this case, it’s shoujo and magical girl fans. At the same time, this move could be read as push back on the modern version of that aforementioned perception. By the way, if you parlez-vous français, the entirety of Magical Emi‘s up on Pierrot‘s YouTube channel as well.
© 2026 Hulu
It’s cool that anime is big enough now to be treated like any other media type, and in 2026, that means going wide or even free with a distribution model when you aren’t sure what kind of baked-in audience an IP has. Especially with Japanese entertainment properties steadily earning more globally than domestically, the age of production committees throwing a work up on Crunchyroll and then treating the interest and revenue from global distribution as a windfall is winding down.
Yeah, I think we’re heading into a new era where the licensors are more freely able to custom-build a release strategy to best suit their titles. It’s veering away from “we can only take the Crunchyroll deal, or it’s not going up at all.” That’s provided for a healthy ecosystem for competition in the process. And I know viewers like having their one-stop anime streaming shop, but if a title’s up for free on YouTube or on a service they’re already paying for, they’ll go for that nine times out of ten. It also bears repeating that if a series you love gets a home video release, I’d snatch it up ASAP. It’s been proven time and time again that streaming in any form is ephemeral.
© 福田晋一/SQUARE ENIX・アニメ「着せ恋」製作委員会
I know I’m raising this point at a time when the average American is perhaps more price-conscious than ever, but we’ve gotta accept that the media we consume is worth some amount of money. If nothing else, this column shows that anime companies are doing all they can to make a work as accessible as possible when it makes sense, and the only way any of this continues is if some of everyone’s little treat budget goes towards these projects one way or another.
I hate to bring out the old “this is a business” adage, but at the very least, it’s not an essential good or service that’s been horrifically commodified.
Nope! It’s just anime, but if nothing else, these new distribution avenues feel like an actual, tangible step forward in the medium’s growth and popularity, rather than the anecdotal headlines that seem to drop every fiscal quarter. While fans have long brought anime to YouTube unofficially, anime is officially everywhere now, and that should be exciting to everyone working or emotionally invested in this space!
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Manga UP! Global added the following manga in English over the past two weeks:
Title: 25 Years in a Dungeon: A Suspicious Man Returns as a Dungeon Streamer! (Dungeon ni Tojikamerarete 25-Nen. Kyūshutsu Sareta Toki ni wa Rippana Fushinsha ni Natteita)
Creator: Nameko Hoshitake (author), Shiba (character designer), Taiyou Mitarai (manga artist)
Release date: September 19
Summary: The year is 2025—dungeons suddenly started popping up all over the world. A young man, Hiroshi Nagano, ventures into one of them, but ends up trapped in the dungeon’s uncharted depths…for 25 years! By devouring ferocious monsters, he not only survives, but builds a legendary physique. When he finally makes it back to the surface, he’s greeted to a Japan of the future, where streaming your dungeon exploration is mandatory. His overwhelming power is broadcast to the nation, propelling him straight into the ranks of top dungeon explorers! Using a quarter-century of brutal survival instincts, a shady-looking veteran is about to dominate the algorithm in this thrilling, over-the-top heroic dungeon tale!
Title: A Defeated Saint’s Gonna Topple a Kingdom! (Haiboku Seijo wa, Hitamuki ni Kuni o Horoboshimasu!)
Creator: Toriko Ono
Release date: September 21
Summary: Reincarnated as the Saint in an otome game, Akari Kizaki completely ignores romance in favor of her true passion: potion making! However, her neglect comes at a steep price when her intended target, the First Prince, teams up with the villainess to frame her for a crime, leaving Akari stripped of her title and banished. Undeterred, Akari gets right back to brewing potions in her new location. That’s when she’s approached by the Second Prince, Roy—a man feared as the “Atrocious Prince.” He makes her a direct proposition: “Let’s rule this country together.” And just like that, Akari becomes an accomplice in the nation’s downfall! The curtain rises on a story of rebellion and overturning fate, starring a defeated Saint and a ruthless prince!
Title: Bloody Cross
Creator: Shiwo Komeyama
Release date: September 23
Summary: Half angel, half demon, Tsukimiya must drink pure demon blood to stave off the curse that will eventually claim her life. When she meets an angel named Hinata, he’s eager to team up with the half-blood to take down a vampire that has been attacking humans. Tsukimiya is surprised to find that Hinata is a capable partner, but when the vampire is slain, it is Hinata who claims its demon blood, leaving Tsukimiya to be taken by the curse. In a last-ditch effort to save herself, Tsukimiya tries to drink Hinata’s blood, now mixed with the vampire’s pure demon blood. But in taking the blood that will save her, Tsukimiya has also transmitted the curse that will kill her. Hinata and Tsukimiya now share the curse…and they’re running out of time.
Yen Press published the manga in English in 2013-2016.
Title: The After-School Bullying Trial is Now in Session! (Kaeri no Kai o Hajimemasu. Ijime Saiban Kaitei)
Creator: Chikara Kimizuka (author), Yen Hioka (manga artist)
Release date: September 24
Summary: All class president Shinya Kitami wanted was to help transfer student Himari Tojo fit in. Instead, his efforts turns the whole class against them both. Now, two outcast students face a gauntlet of relentless bullying every single day. From the author of “Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?“, another hellish after-school “class debrief” is now in session!
Title: Wolf Boy’s Secret (Ōkami-kun no Kakushigoto)
Creator: Natsuta Futatsuno
Release date: September 25
Summary: In a world where humans have evolved to be born with animal-like abilities known as “traits,” a new high school year begins. Kuro, a popular boy with the wolf trait, meets the traitless Misako. These two opposites couldn’t be further apart, yet they grow closer by the day. But what happens when Kuro’s behavior takes a sudden turn? A clumsy yet sincere wolf-boy coming-of-age story!
Title: The World is Full of Monsters, but With My Fluffy Feline Companion, I’ll Be Okay (Monster ga Afureru Sekai ni Nattakedo, Tayoreru Neko ga Irukara Daijōbu Desu)
Creator: yosshaa! (author), Chiho Shinishi (character designer), Enya Uraki (manga artist)
Release date: September 26
Summary: The hit series “The World is Full of Monsters, So I Want to Live as I Wish” is back with an official spin-off! This time, the hero is the strongest cat around! Running parallel to the main story, the action moves to Kyushu with all-new boss monsters, skills, and mysteries waiting to be uncovered. If you love fantasy and post-apocalyptic survival, prepare for a purr-fectly wild new reverse-isekai adventure!
Title: There’s a Wall of Extroverts Around Me! (Sekigae Shitara Yōkya ni Kakomareta Hanashi.)
Creator: Misaoji
Release date: September 27
Summary: It’s the final seating chart swap of her second year of high school, and self-proclaimed introvert Hinako Kagei finds herself completely surrounded by extroverts! Behind her is a gyaru, diagonally is a goof, and right beside her is the school’s top delinquent, Hino. When totally opposite cliques clash, can Hinako make it out in one piece?
Title: Blood Addict (Bladict)
Creator: Umiharu
Release date: September 29
Summary: After being ravaged by war, Tougoku is now consumed by the endemic threat of UDL, a powerful and heavily addicting drug. Ibuki, a survivor living in the dregs of Tougoku’s society, sells UDL in order to fund the search for his lost mother. But then, he meets a mysterious girl named Milfie, who soon turns his search efforts upside down.
Source: Email correspondence
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© Yusei Matsui/SHUEISHA, The Elusive Samurai Committee
The title of “My Buddha, Part Two” marks the episode as an explicit follow-up to one of the first season’s finest outings, which meant my expectations were raised before I even clicked the “play” button on the streaming app. This second season of The Elusive Samurai has been messier and less consistent than the razor-sharp first year, but even when the larger scope and shape of its story is getting shaggier by the week, it can still impress in its individual chapters. While I don’t think “My Buddha, Part Two” lives up to the sterling quality of its predecessor, it’s still a good time overall, as it sees both the plot and Tokiyuki’s development as a master tactician move forward in a sufficiently satisfying way.
Since the two-pronged failure of last week’s attempted assassinations has plunged the region into chaos, Yorishige declares this the time to strike back against the enemy, and Tokiyuki is given the honor (and the test) of selecting their route of attack. Tokiyuki’s explanation for taking the ostensibly more difficult, longer route is a good and practical demonstration of what the boy has actually learned after so many weeks of setbacks and false starts, even if all the expositing doesn’t exactly make for the kind of edge-of-your-seat television that we saw in that first “My Buddha” episode. We’ve gotten to the point in The Elusive Samurai‘s run that its penchant for introducing an endless wave of odd new characters and its obsessions with increasingly convoluted battlefield minutiae must be counted as a feature, and not a bug. Even if it’s not exactly the anime I hoped it would become, it’s clear that The Elusive Samurai knows exactly the kind of cartoon it wants to be.
Eventually, we arrive at the reason that this episode is even called “My Buddha, Part Two,” as Team Hojo Clan’s offensive requires Tokiyuki to pursue old Alien Ant Farm himself, Shokan, yet again. Watching the kids and their disbelieving army of recruits prepare for this rematch is quite entertaining, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t appreciate the return of those Season One vibes that I’ve been sorely missing across several of this season’s episodes. It certainly did not hurt when we got to enjoy the ridiculous montage of Tokiyuki’s memories that cataloged all of the freaks, geeks, and bloodthirsty lunatics we’ve met along this journey.
Tokiyuki is not the only character who is learning from his past mistakes. It’s fascinating to see Shokan become a genuinely reformed man so haunted by his former life as a merciless and cruel bandit. It was surprising enough when he threatened to behead one of his underlings for thinking about indulging in the raping and pillaging to which they were so accustomed. I truly was not expecting the horrific jump-scare that we got when Shokan’s guilt transformed the face of his adorable little attendant into the mutilated visage of a bloody ghoul. With both our hero and our villain having properly evolved, we will have to see what happens when their blades clash once again on the battlefield.
Episode Rating:
The Elusive Samurai Season 2 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.
James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.
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Company stated it plans to further expand its IP × AI business by developing its existing webtoon properties into various forms of AI-generated content
© Ankey AX
Topco Media, the Korean company behind the webtoon platform Toptoon, has changed its corporate name to Ankey AX Co., Ltd., as it expands beyond webtoon content into AI-powered services.
The company approved the name change at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on September 10. Once the corporate registration and listing procedures are complete, the company’s KOSDAQ name will also change to Ankey AX. The company has also added AI content, AI chatbots, virtual humans, and AI solutions to its stated business purposes.
Topco Media operates Toptoon, a webtoon platform serving Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and North America, and also runs the web novel platform Novelpia. The company has expanded beyond webtoon distribution into AI-generated animation and short-form video. It previously established an in-house AI studio and developed AI-based animation using its webtoon IP.
The company’s latest AI initiative is Toptoon Chat, an AI character service that allows users to have one-on-one conversations with characters from its webtoons. Launched in Korea in March, the service has since expanded to Japan, Taiwan, and North America. Users can also use the same coins as Toptoon’s existing payment system to access the AI service.
Ankey AX said it plans to further expand its IP × AI business by developing its existing webtoon properties into various forms of AI-generated content, including conversations, stories, and images. It has also introduced World Chat, which allows users to interact with multiple characters simultaneously.
Ankey AX said the name change represents a broader expansion of its existing IP business rather than simply a corporate rebranding. The company plans to continue combining its webtoon IP and AI technology while expanding its business through its content platforms, including Novelpia.
Source: edaily (Yoon-jung Lee)
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