I spend a lot of my free time watching anime, so figuring out how to get more anime into my life is always something I’m thinking about. For years, the choices have been either shelling out for physical releases, something that is happening less and less these days, or paying subscription fees for one of the growing number of streaming services that are fighting to get anime fans to part with their cash.

While Netflix, Crunchyroll, Prime Video, and Hulu remain where those outside Japan can watch the most anime, this season, a new contender has entered the mix – YouTube, with a surprisingly large amount of free anime to watch for American fans. Two of the most anticipated anime of the Spring 2026 season are streaming for free on YouTube, while a smattering of other shows have shown up outside the usual paywalls that fans have become used to.

I’ll start with Akane-banashi, which I’ve named before as a future hit anime based solely on how unique the premise is. A young woman enters the competitive world of Japanese storytelling/comedy out of a mixture of spite and a quest for vengeance for her father. The manga has won multiple awards and is one of the best Shonen Jump manga not yet adapted into an anime. Anticipation for this show was high, which is why it is so odd that the production committee has decided to stream the series for free on YouTube in North America.

Kill Blue is the other series that has, beyond all expectations, ended up on YouTube this season. In fact, that became a central part of the marketing campaign for the show, with the PR company telling press that Kill Blue would be “one of the most accessible anime releases of the season.” You can stream it on Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Prime Video, but you can also catch it for free on Remow’s It’s Anime YouTube channel.

There are other free shows available on YouTube this season, including Ichiyoma Mankitsu Gurashi! on the Remow It’s Anime channel, but I’m still slightly surprised that two of my most anticipated shows have just been put out into the world for free. While YouTube has been a key way to promote anime, with companies like Crunchyroll routinely dropping scenes to build hype for upcoming episodes or trailers for shows getting shared around the world. However, it has been a long time since YouTube felt like a destination for anime fans rather than just a tool to help promote anime.

For Akane-banashi, it feels like anime fans aren’t necessarily the only ones who will watch the show. The focus on performance theater is something that could have wider appeal, so it makes sense to make the show available to non-anime fans. Even if the production committee loses some money on licensing fees, it gains more from general exposure. As a creative person working on the Internet, I automatically balk at the idea of doing anything "for exposure," but that doesn't mean I can't see the appeal here. No such thing as bad publicity, right? Meanwhile, Kill Blue is likely to be popular enough that other revenue streams will make up for any licensing fees lost because of the decision to stream these shows on YouTube.

And that is what all of this comes down to: money and how to make it. Anime is bigger than ever outside Japan. We are, frankly, overwhelmed every season with new shows to watch alongside returning favorites (Remember how One Piece came back this season?). While this means there is more money to go around, it also means that studios and publishers need to be more creative in how they try to make that money and how they stand out in a crowded industry. For Akane-banashi and Kill Blue, that apparently means luring folks in with free episodes on YouTube in the hopes that they will spend more money in the future. 

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