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School Days to Be Posted on Crunchyroll This Spring (Update 2)
posted on by Egan Loo
The Japanese production company Marvelous Entertainment has announced on Friday that it decided to distribute its animated works in North America on the Crunchyroll media distribution website, starting with the School Days anime this spring. The decision encompasses the titles for which Marvelous Entertainment holds the master rights. Marvelous Entertainment's announcement notes the increase in illegal video downloads, the decline in DVD sales and the overseas licensing market, and the expanding content distribution market. According to Marvelous Entertainment, there are 4.4 million registered user accounts on Crunchyroll.
The 2007 School Days television anime series adapted the adult game of the same name from Stack's Overflow label. It follows the love triangle that develops when a boy enlists his close female friend to help him attract the attention of a girl in their same school. The anime gained unexpected media attention when its final episode was preempted by a real-life axe murder in Japan. Instead of the final episode, the television stations aired a series of unrelated scenery images and the following text: "The programming has changed due to certain circumstances." The substituted boat scenery images led to the "nice boat" catchphrase that has spread throughout the overseas anime fandom and even into Japan.
Image © STACK, School Days Production Committee 2007
Update: More background information added. Spring release corrected.
Update 2: Crunchyroll announced that this anime will be streamed "in enhanced definition" without video advertisements to Crunchyroll's Anime Member subscribers. The general public can view the anime at a lower streaming quality one week later, depending on regional and age restrictions.
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