The landscape of anime streaming has grown prodigiously over the last 20 years. Where anime was once only available outside of Japan through swapped Betamax and bootlegged VHS tapes at niche conventions and backrooms, it has now skyrocketed into home video and streaming on demand. For the right money (or even in some cases FREE), you can get it dang near anywhere and stream it on dang near anything. While quite a few anime fans might be able to navigate the anime digital divide with aplomb, for some fans, especially those new to the genre, it can be confusing to figure out how best to consume the media. Some services offer a vast catalog of selections, while some are geared to specific niches, and even more offer anime merely as an afterthought, throwing some random shows on their service to check a box.

While you could opt to make like Ash and catch ’em all, and if you’re able to do so, more power to ya, if, instead, you are more fiscally cautious, allow me, your Cajun Samurai Uncle Josh, to give you a detailed (read: Long Winded) profile of some of the more major services in the series I’m calling “Samurai’s Streaming Survey”. We’ll be looking at some of the significant and minor streaming services that provide anime, giving you a breakdown of their history and going in-depth to see what makes them tick, how much they cost, and if it’s worth investing in.

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For our sixth post in the series, we’re going to continue our look at services that offer anime à la carte, and no service evokes this more than this one. They offer literally everything under the sun your heart desires, but does that apply to their streaming services, and most importantly, just how much anime do they have? Let’s take a look at Amazon Prime Video!

Service Overview:

If Crunchyroll is the Walmart of anime streaming services, HIDIVE is the Fresh Market, RetroCrush is the Goodwill, OceanVeil is the Spencer’s Gifts, and Netflix is the Houston Galleria of the anime streaming world, then Amazon Prime Video is TRADER’S VILLAGE. For those who don’t know, Traders Village in Texas is a massive flea market that sells almost everything you can think of. Is some of it knock off? Absolutely. It’s a flea market after all, but if you look closely and hunt around, you can find some legit items at legit bargains. Amazon has become synonymous with its shopping and shipping for decades now, but the Amazon Prime Video service has only been kicking around since 2006. While it once offered anime on its Anime Strike platform, it lasted only about a year before going by the wayside. However, thanks to several partnerships, including a big one with Big Orange in 2023 and the licensure of several hit anime series like Inuyashiki: Last Hero, and the redubbing and distribution of the recent Evangelion Movies, Amazon Prime Video has become one of the key players in the world of anime, even though its catalog of titles is prodigiously sparse.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – 12/1/2026: Since this article went live a few days ago, there has been quite a big revelation regarding Amazon Prime Video, and their use of AI to make “Dubs” of some series like Banana Fish and No Game, No Life. I go into greater detail here, but suffice it to say, this is a big black eye and a prodigious controversy for Prime Video.)

Site Layout:

Just like any other superstore worth its salt, Amazon puts the stuff most people want in the back of the store. In this case, to get to Prime Video from a web browser, go to Amazon’s site, then, in the top bar, right between “Medical Care” and “Amazon Basics,” click the Prime Video link. You will miss it if you don’t know what you’re looking for, which, I have a feeling, is very much intentional. Amazon doesn’t mind that you’re going to another part of their page, but they would like it even more if you checked out their new Black Friday sales, thank you very much. Of course, if you’re using a streaming app, you get right into the Prime Video playground and aren’t met with temptation…not yet, anyway.

Once you get in, you’re met with the main landing page. Since it’s Football season, you’ll no doubt see a big advertisement for Thursday Night Football, available only to those with a Prime Membership. I’ve seen more of Josh Allen and Nico Collins than I have all season. I mean, I got nothing against Josh Allen; he’s a nice guy and a fellow Josh, but dang it, after spending hours writing this, it’s getting old. But I digress…

What if you are on the site and you want only to see the ANIME offerings? Well, OBVIOUSLY you have to click on the nine dots up at the top, then click “Anime”. This seems like a lot of extra work to get to where you wanna go, and it’s not blindingly obvious that you have to click or hover to expand the menu and see individual genres.

Amazon Prime Video opts for a Netflix-esque sliding layout on its landing page, using customary sliding panels. Yup. Nothing groundbreaking here. In fact, it’s a step back, as they once again use small rectangles instead of large poster-sized images. But the show images they do have are large enough and clearly display the offering’s title. It’s a better-done iteration of HIDIVE’s landing site. They even take the time to brand their own Amazon Prime Exclusives with a little logo in the corner, along with shows you can buy or rent with a little logo. Let’s talk about that one right now. Cause, my lord above…I got some things to say about this.

Service Offerings:

You would be forgiven if you take an initial look at Amazon Prime Video’s anime library and say, “Oh, this is a lot of shows and movies they got!” Sorry to pop your bubble, but in reality, Prime Video only has about 60 regular anime series and a little over 50 movies that you can immediately watch with your standard subscription. All the other shows you see? The ones with the Crunchyroll or HIDIVE logo? Yeah, you need a subscription for those services to watch on Amazon Prime Video. That’s right. You need a subscription FOR the subscription. Now, to their credit, if you subscribe to Crunchyroll through Prime Video, you can get their “MEGA FAN” package for $2.99 for two months. That’s an excellent deal, right? Hold your horses and read the fine print, little Niblings. That is only for two months, and then it goes back up to the regular price of $11.99. Of course, you could always get their basic “FAN” package for $7.99, or skip the middleman altogether, skip Amazon Prime Video (cause you have common sense), and get the Crunchyroll subscription by itself. That would make more sense, especially when you consider that you don’t need Amazon to watch Crunchyroll. HIDIVE works the same way, except you don’t even get the discount!

Oh, but it gets better! Let’s say you find a show or movie that doesn’t have Crunchyroll or HIDIVE’s logo. You think “Prodigious! I can watch this series as part of my regular subscription!” You go to click on it. And then, bless your sweet heart, you see that you have to either BUY or RENT it for an ADDITIONAL cost. And by the way, you only have a limited amount of time to watch what you rented, and the clock starts once you click “Play”. To their credit, Prime Video does label each of these series with a little shopping bag icon in the lower left corner of the page, but it is easy to miss, and for the unaware, it gives the illusion that everything you see can be watched under the subscription. Knowing this, the collection does seem a lot smaller, doesn’t it?

Prime Video’s “Exclusive” anime offerings are…well…not very exclusive if we’re being honest. They do get a few seasonal shows exclusive to their platform, and a lot of them, like My Deer Friend Nokotan and this season’s hit Sanda, are banger series, but so much of the library is just stuff you can get anywhere else for much cheaper. That said, Amazon Prime Video does offer simul-dubs and simulcasts for the shows they do get, which are always well done, and as I noted earlier, they did manage to get ahold of the new Evangelion movies, and even brought back the original dub cast for one last go around the block, which is awesome.

Amazon Prime Video also offers a free, ad-supported “LIVE TV” option that gives you an admittedly wide selection of live streams, much like cable TV. There’s even a Guide that shows you which show is coming up next, but it only goes a couple of hours into the future. You do have anime channels for HIDIVE and Crunchyroll, but there are also channels for individual shows like Pokémon, Naruto, Sailor Moon, and Hunter (Silent X) Hunter. That is pretty freaking cool, truth be told, if you wanna watch just one series and don’t mind not being able to pause, rewind, or change the language options. Speaking of language options, some shows on the Live TV stream are subbed, while others are dubbed. How do you know which you’ll get? Just click on it and find out. It’s a surprise, because EVERYBODY LOVES not knowing what they’re going to watch…said nobody ever. There’s also an option that gives you SOME of their library for free, but of course, it’s heavily ad-supported.

Presentation:

Prime Video is much like Netflix in terms of availability. If it can connect to the internet, you can get onto Prime. The player works very well with a scrub bar and forward/reverse skips. On some series and movies, there’s even an “X-Ray” option where you can pull up the cast for the show you’re watching on a sidebar. That’s very convenient. You can also adjust for subs and dubs right in the episode, and even get subs with the dub, as I’ve always liked. Thankfully, there are no separate sub/dub entries on the main page, and you can customize your viewing to suit your own tastes because…say it with me, class…the existence of Dubbed Anime does not cause the subtitled iteration to disappear into the ether. You can enjoy anime as you wish in whatever language you want.

Subscription Prices and Features:

This is gonna be easy. As of the time of printing (November 2025), there’s just one plan available for Amazon Prime Video. It’s $14.99 a month with a 30-Day Free Trial, which requires a credit or debit card. There is a Prime Annual option for $139 per year, saving roughly $40. Keep in mind, this gives you access to ALL the Amazon Prime benefits not related to streaming, including Amazon Photo Storage, Amazon Music, and of course, free shipping/delivery options. Keep in mind that this option does include advertisements embedded in the program.

If you want to go completely Ad-Free, you have to pay an additional $2.99 per month. Yes, another freaking subscription. I know. I know. While this is in line with Netflix’s Mid-Tier $17.99 plan, it just feels like Amazon is trying to get every last cent out of subscribers. (Or should I say “every last nickel” as the penny is now no longer in production?) Why not just give us a $ 17.99-per-month plan from the jump instead of charging extra for commercials? Also, the commercials themselves are kinda long-winded, but in a creative touch, some ads allow you to click “Add To Cart”, so if you forget that you needed to get Gain Liquid Laundry Detergent, and you see the ad for it, click “Select” on your remote and boom, it’s in your cart for later. Nobody likes ads, and nobody likes paying extra to NOT have ads, but hey, if you’re going to give me ads, make them worthwhile.

Samurai Suggestion:

So, with all that said, should you subscribe to Amazon Prime Video? Well, that depends. If you’re looking at this service as a good way to watch a wide variety of anime and NOTHING else, then absolutely not. Do NOT subscribe. Their Prime Exclusive offerings are NOT worth paying $179 per year for. While they do get a few banger seasonal shows and do offer a Live TV option, I can’t see justifying a membership for watching anime, especially when you consider that a wide selection of their “catalog” involves subscriptions to OTHER services. And that Live TV Option? Yeah, you can get that without paying for the subscription! Just sign up for an account and watch whatever you want, just like TV.

That said, if you are intrigued by their non-anime offerings and the shopping benefits of Prime, please go ahead. You do get a lot of features with an Amazon Prime subscription, and besides, if you’re a sports fan, Amazon Prime is the home of Thursday Night Football…though some might argue the quality of TNF game matchups leaves much to be desired. Seriously, the Eagles, Bills, Falcons, and Dolphins get multiple TNF Prime Time games, but my Saints don’t? Not even a TNF game? Get outta here with that…not even one pitty game? C’mon…But I digress. Let’s wrap this up before I get upset all over again.

Prime Video, for better or worse, is a true carrier of the Amazon Brand Name. Much like the shopping side of the site, Amazon Prime Video relies heavily on third-party content while offering its own exclusive content. However, their exclusive content is severely lacking, even with the random bangers that come through. While I wouldn’t recommend this as your primary anime streaming source, if you’re looking for something as a supplement and maybe get some good shopping deals, then Amazon Prime would be a significant investment. Just don’t expect a helluva lot.

Believe it or not, we’re almost at the end of the Samurai Streaming Survey! We have just one more platform to look at, and it’s probably the most interesting one in the bunch. I know it’s popular to ask what happens when the rabbit gets the gun, but what happens when the mouse gets the cheese? Once a company built on magic and wonder, it has now morphed into a media juggernaut, growing with each acquisition. But how does it handle anime? We’ll find out as we dive into the double header that is Disney+ and Hulu.