Just imagine the screens have anime on them
Crunchier Than The Food
Sony-owned Crunchyroll has been engaging in a worrying takeover of the anime industry lately. While they hardly have a monopoly – streaming platforms like Netflix have no shortage of anime and anime-inspired shows and films on offer, especially if you consider something like the recent global explosion K-pop, Demon Hunters to qualify – they’ve certainly acquired and consolidated much of what was previously a broader anime streaming industry, and established significant control over a lot of content. Their recent announcement of a partnership with Delta Airlines is thankfully less concerning than some of their other actions (such as a general hostility to unions and the rights of voice actors) – basically, passengers on Delta Airlines flights will be able to access a certain amount of Crunchyroll films, shows and specials in the in-flight menu. Which content this will be has not yet been specified – I’ve heard that “around 25,000 hours” worth will be available.
Curation – Do “Mature Content” Concerns Come Into It?
It ain’t every anime, but….
The content on offer will be curated by Crunchyroll, which really prompts the question – what will this curation process be like, and what will the results be? There’s a couple of ways you can look at this – one is through the lens of concern about adult content, and the other is through popularity. I love anime, or at least some anime, but some of it is less than appropriate for more public viewing. This isn’t just in reference to many of the more gory and violent anime out there, or ones that go all out with “this is for adults only” sexual content – these are frequently given high age ratings to match their content. The anime landscape has a tendency to make shows that are ostensibly for young people but contain some surprising levels of violence and… not nudity, but pretty close. My Hero Academia is rated PG-13 in the States, yet much of its imagery and character design can really push boundaries. Violently broken bones, horribly burnt flesh, and teenage superheroes showing a lot of skin are just a few on the list. Then you have some of the niche harem anime and the like that might seem at first to be a bad choice for more public viewing. However, even some light research I did suggested otherwise.
It’s About Popularity
Hopefully not one streaming service for all.
This Business Insider article, published at the beginning of last year digs into the general thought process airlines apply to in-flight entertainment curation. Delta Airlines is, helpfully, one of the companies covered here, along with United Airlines and JetBlue, and what I was surprised to find was that the maturity of content didn’t really enter into it – John Wick 4 and The Last of Us are called out as particularly popular titles on United Airlines despite their graphic violence. Anime’s specific combo of low age ratings and mature content could potentially throw a wrench into this, but it seems that the curation process is focused primarily on entertaining viewers with the most popular titles, with significant effort also put into examining specific types of passengers – such as business travellers – and what they are typically drawn to. To quote the article directly: “The airlines service a diverse set of clientele. They must consider different generations, cultures, careers, and more when choosing which content to offer”. Given this, I strongly suspect that the Crunchyroll curation process will follow a similar pattern, with a focus on the most popular anime content – My Hero Academia will easily make the cut, regardless of content concerns. I also expect that they will conduct extensive market research – Crunchyroll no doubt has reams of data on the different “types” of anime fans that consume their content, and now I’m expecting they’ll be doing all they can to find out which of those types travel by air often.
Air-nime
I wonder what they’re all watching.
It’ll be interesting to see if the details in the above article carry over to what’s produced by the Crunchyroll/Delta deal. Anime, with its specific yet expanding fanbase and unique creative approach, isn’t directly comparable to a lot of the media currently being used as in-flight entertainment, but it isn’t so different either, so I expect a lot of the established curation strategies to apply here, too. The smaller, niche options won’t apply here – it’ll be a mix of the latest Demon Slayer blockbuster, the newest seasons of Chainsaw Man and One Punch Man, and long-beloved classics like the 1990s Dragon Ball or Pokémon instalments. It’ll be interesting to see the public reactions. For now, I’m at least happy to see the medium of anime possibly opening up to more people.
