Poor Canada. If Canada is not busy being forgotten, then the country is probably being treated as America’s hat. Or being mistaken for America.
Despite the vast majority of the country’s residents living within 100 miles (or 160 kilometers for our neighbors up north), they often play second fiddle to Americans when it comes to getting usage rights and licenses. After some bad news from Crunchyroll earlier this year, Canada finally gets some good news!
In case you missed it, in February, Crunchyroll made all catalog titles Premium-only for Canadians. In other words, free members could only access currently-airing simulcast shows as they became available. So while I could pretty much stream everything for free, someone just on the other side of the lake could only watch a fraction of Crunchyroll’s lineup for free.
However, that situation is better than what fans of such shows as Sailor Moon have had to deal with. While Viz Media started streaming the 90s Sailor Moon for the United States in 2014 (and finally wrapped up the series this past April), the company kept promising the series would be aired “soon”. “Soon” was not soon enough for many fans, especially with what they felt was a lack of updates from the company.
Well, Sailor Moon is finally available for Canadians on Tubi TV (both the well-known 90s version and the first two seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal).
In addition, both Americans and Canadians can stream Death Note and Naruto on the site. All shows are available with Japanese audio and English subtitles. The new partnership between Viz Media and Tubi TV also promise additional shows to be added to the platform in the future. Naruto and Death Note were available to stream via Netflix Canada, but Netflix requires a paid subscription to view shows on their service. These Viz Media shows are not Tubi TV’s first anime series either, as they also feature Right Stuf/Nozomi titles (Revolutionary Girl Utena, The Irresponsible Captain Tyler), Sentai Filmworks series (Rin-ne, Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto), and Starz (Ghost in the Shell, Street Fighter Alpha).
I’m Not Canadian. Why Should I Care?
So, should you really care if you’re not Canadian? After all, all three series new Viz Media series are already available on the company’s website and as well as Hulu. (Hulu is unavailable in Canada.) Meanwhile, a lot of the other titles are available on Crunchyroll or YouTube. So does this announcement really impact Americans? The answer is yes!
First, introducing anime to new fans is always a good thing. The larger the audience, the more likely companies are going to license new series. Secondly, Tubi TV is free. Of course, to make up for the lack of subscribers, all users must watch ads during their chosen program. But since there is no paywall, Tubi TV has the advantage in offering its content for free. Tubi TV is also gathering series from several different licensors, making it easy to watch different series on one app. This will be especially nice for Canada, as its citizens often don’t get fast access to new anime.
So, have any of you watched anything on Tubi TV before? If you haven’t, are you going to watch some anime now?