How We Verify Availability
An answer about where to watch legally is only useful if it’s true today. Streaming rights churn constantly. Shows leave Crunchyroll without announcement, catalogs move between services, and most sites never notice. Hozuna treats verification as the product.
The verification loop
A daily automated job re-fetches the official streaming links for each anime Hozuna covers from AniList, a licensed anime database. It keeps entries AniList marks as streaming services and compares the fresh list with the links currently shown on Hozuna. Links missing from the new list are removed that day. Appearances and disappearances are recorded in a permanent history you can view on the title page.
The date on a title page reflects the oldest check among its listed services. Using the oldest check prevents a stale entry from hiding behind a newer timestamp. If one service has gone longer without a fresh result, the whole page stamp ages with it.
This process establishes what AniList listed when Hozuna last fetched the title. It does not open a streaming service's catalogue or confirm playback in any country. Hozuna filters the display to services operating in the US and other Western markets, but a regional licence may lapse before AniList removes its link. The page shows the licensed database record, checked daily, alongside its visible history.
How we check streaming information
Hozuna checks US streaming catalogue data weekly for a selected set of popular and currently airing titles. Our source is Movie of the Night, a streaming availability data provider. Its listings distinguish subscriptions, free viewing with ads, add-on channels purchased inside another service, rentals, and purchases. They also report English audio and subtitle options, and sometimes a date when a title leaves a service.
On a season page, we show data for that season when we can match it. Otherwise, we show a listing for the series overall, which may not list that season separately. Film pages use data for the film. These are catalogue listings, not playback tests: Hozuna does not open the apps. If a check fails, an old result stops appearing after three weeks.
Separately, every Hozuna title page shows any official streaming links listed by AniList, a licensed anime database. We fetch those links again daily; this does not check availability by country. Schedule rows for titles with Hozuna pages show a US catalogue result when checked, or the daily AniList links. Rows for titles without Hozuna pages show AniList's platform listing, which Hozuna has not checked.
Where the data comes from
- anime-offline-database (ODbL license) provides the licensed catalog backbone, including titles, formats, seasons, and episode counts.
- AniList provides fresh metadata and streaming links, fetched on demand and re-checked daily. We rewrite all prose ourselves; nothing is republished.
- Wikidata (CC0) is the public entity backbone that connects anime identifiers across databases.
We never scrape competitor sites, never use sources whose licenses forbid commercial use, and never host or link to pirated streams. Every fact on a Hozuna page traces to licensed data; every sentence of prose is original.
Who runs this
The editorial side covers reviews, guides, curation, and the judgment calls in the daily sweep. It is run by Mika Tanabe, Hozuna’s editor. Facts are machine-checked, and she signs her opinions.
Corrections
If you spot a dead link or a wrong claim, tell us at [email protected] and we’ll fix it, usually within the week’s sweep and faster when it matters.