Does dokusen mean the title will never appear elsewhere?

No. It states a current arrangement. Exclusive windows expire, and a title marked dokusen on one platform can appear on others once the agreement ends.

Is senko the same as dokusen?

No. Senko is a timing claim — this platform has it first — while dokusen is a scope claim. A senko title is expected to appear elsewhere later, by definition.

If a title is mihodai, is it free?

It is included in a subscription you already pay for, which is different from free. Mihodai membership is a tier, and titles move in and out of it.

Dokusen, Senko, Mihodai: Reading Distribution Labels

Dokusen (独占) means a platform is the only one carrying a title, senko (先行) means it has the title early, and mihodai (見放題) means the title is included in a subscription rather than sold separately. All three describe a commercial arrangement, and all three can change without the title changing.

These three labels answer the question "where and how can I watch this?" — not "what is this?" They describe a commercial arrangement between a studio and a platform, and every one of them can change while the title itself stays identical.

That is the key point for anyone trying to find a specific release. A distribution label is a snapshot of a business agreement, not a property of the video, so it goes stale in a way that genre tags do not.

What does each label actually claim?

Label	Japanese	Literal sense	The claim it makes	Does it expire?
Dokusen	独占	"monopoly"	This platform is the only one carrying it	Usually
Senko	先行	"advance"	This platform has it before general release	Always
Mihodai	見放題	"unlimited viewing"	Included in a subscription tier	Yes, titles rotate
Haishin gentei	配信限定	"streaming only"	No physical edition exists	No
Dounji haishin	同時配信	"simultaneous"	Released on the same day as elsewhere	n/a

The last two are worth recognising because they are frequently mistaken for the first three. Haishin gentei is a format statement — there is no disc — and says nothing about exclusivity. Dounji haishin is the explicit denial of senko.

What does dokusen signal when it appears on a listing?

It signals a current sole-carrier arrangement, usually paid for by the platform. It is a marketing claim aimed at justifying a subscription, and it is true on the day it is displayed.

What it does not signal is permanence. Exclusive windows are negotiated for periods, and when a period ends the title typically becomes available more widely. This is the mechanism behind a common frustration: a title someone remembers as being locked to one service turns out, later, to be on several.

There is also a weaker usage. Some platforms apply dokusen to material they themselves produced, in which case the arrangement is structural rather than contractual and is unlikely to change. The label looks identical in both cases, and the listing rarely distinguishes them.

How is senko different from dokusen?

Senko is about time; dokusen is about scope. A senko listing is telling you the title will appear elsewhere — just later.

This makes senko the less consequential of the two for a viewer who is not in a hurry. It matters commercially, because early access is a subscription driver, but a title marked senko today is by definition scheduled to be available more broadly, whereas a dokusen title has no such schedule attached.

The two labels can appear together on the same platform's catalogue for different titles, which is a reasonable signal that the platform distinguishes them carefully. Where a catalogue uses only one of them for everything, the label is doing less work than it appears to.

What does mihodai change about how you buy?

It moves the title from a per-item purchase to a subscription inclusion, which changes both the price structure and the permanence of your access.

	Per-title purchase	Mihodai (subscription)
Payment	Once, per title	Recurring, per period
Access after cancelling	Usually retained	Ends
Catalogue stability	Fixed once bought	Titles rotate in and out
Typical use	A specific title you want	Browsing breadth

The rotation row is the one that surprises people. A title being in a mihodai tier this month is not a commitment that it will be there next month, and platforms generally do not announce removals.

Why do these labels rarely translate well?

Because English catalogues fold all three into "exclusive" or "streaming", which discards the distinctions entirely.

"Exclusive" in English can mean sole-carrier, early-access, or platform-produced — the same three cases Japanese separates into dokusen, senko and a production credit. A reader relying on English metadata has no way to tell which claim is being made, and therefore no way to judge whether waiting will change anything.

The same flattening affects everything in this vocabulary. In our index, 197 of 2,333 named performers carry a romanised stage name that disagrees with the name recorded in at least one other language's metadata for the same person (our index, 2026-08 snapshot, n=2,333). Where even names diverge that often, contract-status vocabulary has little chance of surviving intact.