Anime fans, you may want to start binging some of your queue list if you have a subscription with Hulu. The streaming site has been a go-to locations for fans who want to watch series like Naruto, Attack on Titan, and even classics like Dragon Ball. However, towards the end of April, a slew of anime shows are set to expire on Hulu – and Toei Animation will be the studio hit most by the turn.
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According to Hulu, the website’s contract with Toei Animation ends on April 28th, marking the end of their longtime streaming partnership. The website currently lists the shows as “Expiring,” and the site’s support account did confirm Toei’s shows would be leaving the site. When a fan asked if One Piece would be removed from the site, Hulu answered, “While [episodes] of One Piece will be leaving us on 4/28, we’ll still offer other simulcasted content.”
Later on, the site confirmed the expiration date was set for all of Toei Animation’s series. The loss will take away some of the company’s most popular shows like Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT, One Piece, Fist of the North Star, Digimon Adventure tri., and Toriko.
In particular, One Piece has a long history with Hulu. The anime series first came to the site in 2009 when Funimation partnered with Hulu to host the show. So far, the anime remains as one of the website’s top 100 most-popular series.
If you were hoping you could fill in your One Piece gap with Toonami, then fans will be sorely disappointed. The late-night anime block removed One Piece from its line-up last month to make room for Tokyo Ghoul. Funimation’s own streaming service will still host One Piece through Funimation NOW. The service also hosts all the Dragon Ball anime properties as well as Digimon.
You can check out a description of One Piece from Viz Media below:
As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. But his life changed when he accidentally gained the power to stretch like rubber—at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, Luffy sets off in search of the One Piece, said to be the greatest treasure in the world…
@kyuunsparku While eps of One Piece will be leaving us on 4/28, we’ll still offer other simulcasted content like: https://t.co/pr6O9gLzUk
— Hulu Support (@hulu_support) April 14, 2017
Eiichiro Oda began his manga career in 1992 at the age of 17, when his one-shot cowboy manga Wanted! won second place in the coveted Tezuka manga awards. Oda went on to work as an assistant to some of the biggest manga artists in the industry, including Nobuhiro Watsuki, before winning the Hop Step Award for new artists. His pirate adventure One Piece, which debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997, quickly became one of the most popular manga in Japan.
[HT] One Piece Podcast
