You can now stream the popular anime Dragon Ball Z on Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, and Amazon, but not Netflix. However, that may change – at least, according to the folks over at ComicBook.com.
The outlet seems convinced that the infamous Japanese animated series will be coming to the streaming service sooner rather than later. Their rationale? The (supposed) fact that Netflix is releasing the first two arcs of One Piece, another widely-known anime made by the same studio as Dragon Ball, this summer.
If true, this would be great news, not only for anime fans, but all viewers in general. One of the highest-grossing media franchises in the history of civilization, One Piece currently counts over 800 episodes which together tell the emotionally taxing and delightfully imaginative tale of Luffy, a young boy on a quest to become the most feared in the world.
With such a long runtime, it’s to be expected that Netflix will not settle for the entire series. According to a tweet uploaded by the streamer’s official Twitter account back in March, only the first two story arcs – which together equal about 45 hours of content – would be made available to subscribers.
However, given that Netflix later deleted the same tweet without any explanation, the possibility of One Piece – and, by extension, Dragon Ball Z – coming to the streaming service seem a lot slimmer than it once did. Considering many anime studios are suffering considerable financial losses as a result of their having to pause production due to the spread of the coronavirus though, they probably wouldn’t pass on a chance for US distribution.
If it’s up to Netflix, then, what’s keeping them so long? Maybe they’re not interested, or, maybe, just maybe, they’re waiting on Disney to make their live-action version of the property…