I’ve written before about HBO Max, AT&T/WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service. While they promise a range of content, for anime fans, it’s the selection from Crunchyroll that was most of interest.
But now, they’ve inked a deal that is bound to excite many potential subscribers — and with a company that some thought would stay away from streaming for the near future.
Polygon and The Announcement
On October 15th, news outlet Polygon published an article about why Studio Ghibli films aren’t available to stream and how that may not change any time soon.
Well, just two days later, WarnerMedia announced that HBO Max would be the exclusive platform to stream Ghibli films. The deal includes 20 movies at launch, with The Wind Rises being added in Fall 2020. As all the news outlets point out, Grave of the Fireflies is missing; that’s because the rights are tied to Shinchosa, the publisher of the original “Grave of the Fireflies” short story, and Sentai Filmworks has the rights in North America. However, the deal does include Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which was released the year before Studio Ghibli was officially founded.
There was some debate about whether Polygon followed good journalistic practices in regards to its October 15th article. Their main source for the article was an email correspondence from earlier this year with GKIDS Films, the current distributor of Ghibli movies. According to the Polygon article:
“‘Studio Ghibli does not make their films available digitally, whether for download or streaming, anywhere in the world,’ a GKids representative told Polygon over email earlier this year. ‘They continue to believe that presentation is vital and particularly appreciate opportunities for audiences to experience the films together in a theatrical setting.'”
GKIDS has told people to stay tuned for any announcements like in this June 2019 Tweet, but they dispute the date of the Polygon email, stating it was from 2018, not earlier in 2019.
In fact, GKIDS says Polygon added the line “(GKids was unable to provide a comment from a Studio Ghibli representation for further clarification or additional updates on deals in progress.)”, which is in the middle of the article, when the article updated on October 17th regarding the deal.
Whether Polygon blew a chance to break the HBO Max-Ghibli deal, if there was some miscommunication, or the writer misstated the date of the quote, that’s a whole other debate and not the focus of this article.
Ghibli On Demand
In regards to streaming, Studio Ghibli films have been available before. Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo, for instance, were on Netflix back in 2011. So this is not a fully groundbreaking change for Studio Ghibli. And perhaps if their distribution agreement with Disney hadn’t expired in 2017, the studio’s films could have made it on to the upcoming Disney+.
But even if Disney was still dubbing and promoting Ghibli movies, who knows if they would have been added to their service. Not everything that is on the various Disney stations has been announced for Disney+, so who knows what they would have done. Either way, it’s pointless to speculate.
For anime fans who are also interested in series like Game of Thrones, Friends, and Sesame Street for themselves or their families will have more anime-goodness to look forward to with their subscription, which will be $14.99 a month or less thanks to an ad-supported version that will debut in the first year. While we may not know until its launch in May know how much of Crunchyroll will be on HBO Max, perhaps being able to watch Spirited Away or My Neighbor Totoro on demand will fill some of the anime void if a fan chooses to go with HBO Max’s multi-genre approach over the anime-centered Crunchyroll. After all, even without a subscription, anybody can watch series on Crunchyroll, albeit with ads, but it unlikely that everyone will be able to stream Ghibli films. The ad-supported version will likely only reduce the monthly cost (probably to about $8 according to one analyst) and not be free like Crunchyroll.
However, jumping on the HBO Max bandwagon is not going to be an option for a lot of fans. “Tailored versions” of the service will launch in 2021 for some of Europe and Latin America. An extended deal between HBO and TV provider Sky likely means that HBO Max is not coming soon to countries like the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Italy. Canada? Currently “no plans”. I know I said it’s pointless to think about what Disney would or wouldn’t have done in regards to Ghibli movies, but in terms of preparing their streaming service, they seem to be ahead of the game. With a low price and a timeline for going globally, Disney is in a better position to compete in the Great Streaming Wars. Crunchyroll may be expanding in Europe, but HBO Max looks like it’s not going to immediately capitalize on this.
It’s great that Studio Ghibli is allowing their movies back on a streaming service, especially since, as reported in this Anime News Network article, one of the co-founders is against streaming deals: “I don’t want to do it because the films would be treated as cheap commodities.”
But whether Ghibli has realized times change or WarnerMedia threw an obscene amount of money to add another exclusive to its lineup, who knows. It could be both. I don’t think a lot of potential subscribers are suddenly going to jump on HBO Max because Ghibli films are available, especially since home media is readily available. But like every other streaming content announcement, it’s another tantalizing piece meant to entice fans to bite. Unfortunately, people from other countries are forced to stare at Americans through the window. For those folks in countries where HBO Max will be limited or nonexistent, well, hopefully this will open the floodgates for local streaming services to sign their own streaming deal.