Ninja Slayer From Animation, Studio Trigger’s anime series based on the Ninja Slayer novels, will premiere via online streaming instead of on television. The series will begin streaming in Japan on April 16th via NicoNico at 11:00 pm Japan time.
Anime News Network reports that the series will also be streamed in a number of other territories, including the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, South Korea, and more. Overseas streaming plans have yet to be announced.
The series is also being made available in Japan through services like the Bandai Channel, PlayStation Store, and Rakuten. What’s interesting is that Japanese television networks won’t see Ninja Slayer until sometime in 2016.
Speaking with Siliconera last year, Studio Trigger CEO Masahiko Otsuka said that animation watching habits have shifted in recent times, and that Trigger wishes to stay in sync with the viewing habits of fans.
“The method of watching animation is gradually shifting from buying the content on Blu-Ray or DVD to watching it on the Internet via streaming,” Otsuka said to us at the time. “In addition, anime is no longer TV-exclusive content either. Viewers have a wider selection of platforms such as PC, smartphones, and so on. It is only natural that the method of doing business has shifted [in line] with these modern changes.”
Otsuka added that he wants Trigger to have the freedom to take creative risks. This is in part why the studio turned to Kickstarter to fund Little Witch Academia 2, a sequel to the first Little Witch Academia OVA, which put Trigger on the map in a big way.
