As some of you might know Funimation is recently loosing many Anime titles due to expiring licenses which inspired me to create this thread. But first of all: Why is that happening right now and what consequences does that have for us and old/unknown shows? Well, the relationship between the american distributors and the japanese licensors is changing all the time and for example a part of Aniplex moved to North America to be able to distribute their stuff overseas. But now, that they are a publisher themselves there is no longer a need for an American publisher, let’s take Funimation as an example, so their agreements are over. Now Aniplex (or any other studio that may set foot in North America and become successful for that matter) can distribute their shows themselves but, and there we come to the second and third question, how does this influence us and old/unknown shows. We all know money is important, so what happens to old shows or the ones that aren’t popular? Once the licenses for these kinds of shows expire (for example Naoki Urasawa's “Monster” ore recently “Darker than Black” and “Baccano”) the publisher usually has six months to sell off their remaining Stuff and streaming sites have to take the show down (Crunchyroll for example). Old and unknown shows don’t sell very well so they most likely won’t be re-released which means, once the DVD is out of print, it won’t be legally acquirable or only for very high prices on eBay because it becomes rare. But even popular shows aren’t safe, like the soon to be expired hit “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood“.

Now, I’d like to make a list of Anime that are going to expire. To keep it updated it would be cool if you could add titles with the expiration date and repost the list from time to time so that everyone on the board can see what titles are in danger of disappearing and are able to watch and get them as long as they are still available.

- 02/08/16: Baccano!
- 03/31/16: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- 03/31/16: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa
- 07/31/16: Fullmetal Alchemist
- 10/14/16: Birdy the Mighy: Decode
- 10/28/16: Sound of the Sky (via Manga Ent)
- 12/31/16: Wagnaria!!2

- 02/09/17: Sekirei (Note: Season 2 currently not on Hulu)
- 05/29/17: Black Butler
- 08/02/17: Angel Beats!
- 08/12/17: Night Raid 1931

- 06/01/18: Mardock Scramble: The First Compression
- 06/02/18: Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion
- 06/30/18: Black Butler II
- 06/30/18: Shiki
- 07/02/18: No.6
- 08/31/18: Darker Than Black Season 2 (most likely also the OVAs)
- 10/02/18: Persona 4: The Animation
- 11/02/18: A-Channel: The Animation
- 12/01/18: Inu X Boku Secret Service
- 12/31/18: Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust

Thanks for the heads up! Gotta get on this and watch them I guess...

Oh man... Gotta rewatch Angel Beats and watch Baccano fast then...

No!!! Not Black Butler!!!! This is horrible!!!!! Thank you for letting us know

Yeah I was pretty shocked myself. There are some of my favorite Anime on the list.

Holy fudgenuggets, this totally sucks D': Don't even know if I can afford buying all the FMAs. I'd hate to resort to watching uploaded illegal versions *ugly crying*
Thank you for letting us know though...

whuuut?! well thats no good... but if some titles are on Netflix (i.e Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) will they still be on Netflix after the expiration date?

>>8 Most likely not. If they lose the streaming license it won’t be available unless they get the license back or Aniplex re-releases the show. But since FMA is a very famous franchise the chances of getting a re-release are quite good though it might take a while. I'm sorry that the answer isn't more specific, but it varies from show to show and unless there is an official statement by Netflix which says that they still have the streaming license I’m fairly certain it will be taken down.

Here is a link to a fan run Twitter Account of Netflix Anime U.S. They often post there how long certain shows are available and other stuff.

Netflix Anime U.S: https://twitter.com/netflixanime?lang=de

Well... thanks for the repply.. I guess its time to watch FmaB and Baccano then.