Best way to access Anime: The pros and cons of physical ownership, digital ownership, and streaming services

Anime fans worldwide have some of the best ways to access anime today compared to the pre-internet days. Anime fans today are much better off than when anime began being ported overseas and couldn't adequately be collected without spending obscene amounts of money. Now, they can access anime in multiple formats, from physical copies of entire seasons on one or two Blu-ray discs to digital collections and streaming services like Crunchyroll.

While there is plenty of access to anime of all sorts now, there are also plenty of drawbacks to each approach. They have to deal with scalpers, lack of availability, companies removing content without warning, proprietary content, or exclusivity. For fans, there is a veritable minefield of obstacles, regardless of their chosen format.

To that end, an examination of the pros and cons of each approach is required for any fan who wants to know the best way to access anime.

Disclaimer: All opinions belong to the author. Spoilers are included for any anime discussed.

The pros and cons of owning anime in physical, digital, and streaming formats

Physical ownership

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Before online shopping and storefronts like Amazon became prevalent, there was only one way to own anime: physically via VHS tapes. VHS tapes were very limited in what they could store and recording via VHS was also limited. Additionally, most tapes only came with three or four episodes when they were officially sold.

This made collecting an entire series like Pokémon or Dragon Ball Z costly. However, things became easier as recording technology advanced, and online shopping came into existence. DVR replaced VHS recordings, and DVD and Blu-ray fit a whole season or series on fewer discs.

An anime collection that normally fills up an entire closet or cabinet is now half that space, and anime-selling outlets tend to be easier to find thanks to the internet.

Several pros of physical versions include the media preservation aspect. There's no chance of a physical disc or copy being removed from someone's library barring a natural disaster or misplacement.

Customers only pay once for their copy and can resell, borrow, or gift a physical copy. There's no internet connection requirement either, so long as the player and media suit the format. For instance, modern game consoles can play Blu-ray and DVDs.

Examples of physical collections in anime and reality (Image via Studio Gainax, Xebec, X user @MinistryofOtaku, Target)

The cons are plenty, however, even for the physical format. For one, there's the issue of availability and cost. Physical editions of anime series, movies, etc. will skyrocket in price depending on age and availability or lack thereof. Scalpers are a common issue, hiking prices on physical items to ludicrous degrees, particularly if they're rare.

Sometimes the DVD's animation quality will be questionable, even on Blu-ray. Issues with censorship and localization are also a factor. Many sellers and outlets, such as Best Buy in the United States, have ceased selling physical copies at their outlets and online stores. Many computers are being produced and sold without CD or DVD functionality, and buying online can be a risk. That is if a physical version were ever made.

Going purely physical can also be a health risk, as many people discovered during the highest days of the COVID-19 pandemic and before. There is also the question of storage space, as even the most dedicated anime fan runs out of room eventually, and buying more shelves is a patchwork solution.

Digital distribution and ownership

Examples of Digital storefronts (Image via Crunchyroll, Microsoft, Sony, and Disney)

One of the many boons the internet offers is easy access to anime. One huge advantage digital copies have over physical copies is that they go on sale sooner. This is the case with everything from video games to movies to books, with flash sales and monthly sales helping to reduce the cost on the customer side.

Another advantage is that they're portable. A digital copy can be taken when traveling. They can be accessed on a phone or tablet via services like Movies Anywhere, Vudu, Amazon Prime, iTunes, or through direct downloads. This makes digital the perfect choice for anime lovers who don't have time to sit still.

Digital purchases are looked upon as a form of pleasurable convenience. This eliminates the arduous task of digging through and choosing from a physical collection. Portability also helps to fill the time between doctor's appointments or longer travels on buses or flights.

There are, however, plenty of cons to digital purchases. Firstly, the copy of that movie, series, or whatever else it may be is restricted to whatever device it's downloaded to. Barring breaking the extensive layers of DRM via hacking or piracy, that copy is the exclusive property of whoever downloaded it.

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The thornier issue raised by digital purchases relates to the concept of ownership. The person in question who purchases a digital copy doesn't own the product if it's available digitally. Services like Movies Anywhere are also in a temporary state, as when or if the service gets shut down, the customer loses access to their collection. Internet connections are vital to accessing digital products when hosted on a service.

Gamers are familiar with this concept, as they also have to deal with digital stores being shut down and games being delisted. While anime hasn't had this happen recently, there is precedent for this in the form of Sony's original plans to delete all Discovery Channel content from user's devices. While Sony changed course after negotiations, many customers still saw it as a stop-gap measure because of the wording of the agreements only allowing them access for the next 30 months.

Streaming services

Since Netflix's first foray into streaming around 2007, streaming services have come a long way. Plenty of streaming platforms offer far more specialized entertainment than cable TV. Even when combined with other streaming services, it is still much cheaper than cable TV.

No longer do fans have to wait on a cable service to see new episodes of Naruto, My Hero Academia, and others. They can simply sign up for Crunchyroll, Netflix, or any streaming services that carry anime and tune in at their leisure. New episodes for currently airing anime usually air on streaming services first.

Cost-effectiveness is one way people justify getting a streaming service. They would have to pay upward of $200 for cable or $50 or more for a physical copy. However, anime fans can get Crunchyroll ad-free for about $10 a month plus taxes. This affords them access to a wider variety of anime than cable or shopping.

That said, there are multiple problems with streaming services. Streaming services heavily depend on agreements between the service and the company that owns the original product.

When those expire, the media (such as Revolutionary Girl Utena or Yu Yu Hakusho) are taken off the service with no guarantee they'll resurface on another. Likewise, there's no guarantee the entire series will be there, as exemplified by Kill la Kill's epilogue, Goodbye Again, which is still exclusive to home media.

Another infuriating point is that sometimes a series is split across many streaming services. For example, no streaming service carries the entirety of the Pokémon anime. To watch it all, spin-offs and movies included, customers require a Netflix subscription, an Amazon Prime Video subscription, and access to YouTube. When Funimation and Crunchyroll merged, not every series made it onto Crunchyroll, and Funimation members had to be compensated by Crunchyroll.

Likewise, the content can just be deleted permanently. Netflix has reportedly not been interested in physical media releases for their exclusives, which risks them vanishing. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers Discovery deleted any traces of Infinity Train and other cartoons from their Max streaming service in 2022. The content was deleted despite promising it a permanent home.

Disney Plus has also deleted content that's only been on the service for six months, like Willow. Other examples include Rooster Teeth's 21 years of content having to hastily be archived due to WBD shutting them down in May 2024.

The question of Piracy

The Jolly Roger flag from One Piece (Image via Toei Animation)

Keeping the previous point in mind, fans are left wondering how piracy fits into the equation if companies have no regard for the preservation of the art they produce or host. Consider, that the reason piracy was being abandoned was because services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video provided convenient access to plenty of content in a convenient and cheaper form.

This sense of convenience burst around the time when other companies decided they needed their bespoke streaming services like Disney Plus, AMC+, HBO Max, and MGM+. Suddenly, what was once an easy-to-navigate set of islands became a chaotic ocean.

While piracy is officially frowned upon, including in this article, it remains an option that plenty of fans choose due to simply accessing one particular series becoming too much. Most people like having one place where they can access almost everything, and that is increasingly not becoming the case.

While piracy isn't condoned, it must be understood that sometimes piracy is the only option available for some people. These could be people who either don't want to spend obscene amounts of money or don't want to be at the mercy of corporations for their entertainment. They could also not be living in places where streaming services serve, or they are unable to get physical copies, or the media they're pirating isn't sold anymore.

Pirating media of any sort is illegal and can result in legal action or law enforcement responses. While burning a series from a digital copy onto a disc is an avenue that is legal and valid, companies have been cracking down on this along with password sharing to avoid family members being roped into spending money.

Many fans believe that companies are either knowingly or unknowingly pushing customers to pirate their media just to access it. Seeing the reckless abandon by which companies like Netflix, Disney, and Warner Brothers Discovery treat their media and the people that make them, it's hard to refute that.

Final Thoughts

More streaming and OTT avenues (Image via Netflix, Disney, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal)

The customer is the only person who can decide which avenue is appropriate for them when it comes to accessing anime. There are a ton of advantages and disadvantages to each approach, possibly more than this article can fit into it.

Some fans eagerly spend upwards of hundreds of dollars to maintain a large physical library of movies, plushies, figures, and entire series. Some have large digital libraries, while others have access to every anime streaming service that exists, and some pirate almost every bit of media they own.

The conversation of media preservation amid studios being brought out or shut down and how that affects access is a conversation that deserves to be had. It is especially so when looking at anime studios that shut down, like Studio Gainax recently did owing to bankruptcy. There are plenty of issues anime communities have with the way their media is treated, regardless of format.

Hopefully, this article has gone some way to addressing or airing some of those issues in an official capacity. It's not fair to fans that they are required to jump through several hoops just to enjoy a series, especially when digital and streaming are meant to be a better way to view anime than hunting down physical copies.

Having said all of that, piracy isn't condoned or worth it either. The legal trouble with DMCAs, copyright strikes on YouTube, potential law enforcement involvement, lawsuits, and various legal snags are not worth the trouble. It can also end up hurting independent studios.

Fans tend to be particular about what the best way to access anime is. This debate over which is better will continue as long as the famous subs vs. dubs battle has. In short, the customer should be the only one who can choose, regardless.

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Edited by Madhur Dave