Eugene Woodbury: 12/2022

December 31, 2022

Netflix with ads (content)

So I reactivated my Netflix account using the "Netflix with ads" option. My original queue was still there eight months later, though that caused problems when my old Roku queue picked a fight with my new online queue. I finally let the old queue win, deleted everything, and started over.

In the meantime, Netflix made an important update to its search tools. "Browse by Languages" is now featured in the top menu. Previously, the only way to bring up the language menu was to search for the language content first (you had to search for Japanese content in order to search for Japanese content).

This is one feature that Tubi really needs to implement. Just steal the whole UI from Netflix. Though one oddity is that if you select the A-Z filter, you only get the first half of the alphabet. You have to select Z-A to get the other half. Hey, it's a feature, not a bug! (Don't steal that part.)

Netflix has about as many Japanese live-action series and features as Viki and Tubi, though Netflix covers a wider variety of genres and Tubi features older rerun material. Of course, Crunchyroll and HIDIVE have many more anime titles. Another big difference is that Netflix closely curates its catalog.

That curation does make a difference. Compared to Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, and Tubi, I have seen or am interesting in watching a higher percentage of Netflix anime titles (though there seems to be a polarizing effect too, as the ones I'm not interested in I usually have zero interest in).

At the top of my current list are the latest seasons of Ghost in the Shell, Ultraman, Midnight Diner, and The Way of the Househusband, along with Kotaru Lives Alone, Romantic Killer, I'm Old Enough, and The Makanai, the live-action version of Kiyo in Kyoto.

Though along with its Lupin the Third and Tokusatsu flicks, Tubi's kitchen sink approach occasionally produces some golden oldies.

For example, Tubi has Sonny Chiba's Shadow Warriors ninja series from 1980. Japanese broadcast television was more permissive back then, so along with the slicing and dicing, most episodes feature at least one scene of totally gratuitous nudity. Sonny Chiba's charisma shines through regardless.

As did Hollywood at the time, Japanese television studios back then mastered everything on videotape. It'd be nice if Netflix could grab some old samurai action classics (like the more family friendly Abarenbo Shogun) and run the SD masters through the best upscaling technology available.

On a separate note, I observed last summer that Eleven Arts had pulled its excellent slate of anime movies from Tubi, including Liz and the Blue Bird, Maquia, Penguin Highway, Sound Euphonium, and The Wonderland. They've since all shown up on Crunchyroll.