Last week I saw some third party articles that reported Crunchyroll had successfully implemented "appointment viewing" for Kaiju No.8 and that they had plans to continue that premier style for other upcoming anime. I had to take some steps backwards. First, what the hell is an "appointment viewing"? After researching I figured out it's just corporate speak for an audience tuning in to watch something together at a specific time. So basically all TV before streaming took over could be considered "appointment viewing" because if you wanted to see a certain movie or show, you had to make plans to have your ass on the couch when it was airing (a dead concept to the kids of today for most ways of consuming content). Next I needed to determine what exactly this meant in the context of Crunchyroll's platform.

Apparently the situation is that Crunchyroll experimented with simultaneous release of Kaiju No.8 episodes as they were broadcasted in Japan. In other words you could tune in each week at the same time the episodes were aired and the subtitles were available immediately. Like the TV practices of old, a bunch of people could all watch the content upon debut at the same time. According to third party reports, this practice was very successful for Crunchy as they saw a large portion of younger users tune in to try this out, a demographic typically not associated with appointment viewing. On top of that they saw Kaiju No. 8 pull in more viewers each week than similar anime. Honestly this kind of surprises me. While there was something cool about big productions on TV encouraging people to get together all at the same time to watch a huge finale or hyped up premier, I don't personally miss having to take into consideration the TV schedule when planning my evening. Using a streaming service to watch whatever, whenever has won my heart over. The only huge advantage I can see to keeping appointment viewing around is to avoid spoilers. These days even my friends who don't religiously follow anime news still find themselves getting spoiled for big anime like Jujutsu Kaisen. Being able to watch something right at premier could be quite helpful in the internet age where everyone wants to yap about spoiler material in order to garnish views and clicks.

Me realizing how old my ass is getting.

I'm not sure if this was a one-off success or if a large portion of people would enjoy being able to stream releases right as the Japanese version airs. Personally I don't think planning around it is worth it as long as it's not a popular production that could be ruined by some YouTube reviewer putting a spoiler in the thumbnail. Why do you think Crunchy saw success for simulcasting Kaiju No. 8? Was this a one-off practice or is there enough people who want to watch content with zero delay that you see it expanding?  Have you ever heard the term "appointment viewing"? Check the Japanese time, convert it to your time zone, and be there day one for the next episode of your favorite series in the comments below!