Article: I am downloading licensed anime

I am downloading licensed anime

As we all know anime is an expensive hobby and the economy is not in the best of places (not that anime fans tend to be all that rich in the first place). The temptation to download fan subs is always there but as many people tell us, people who do that are bad people. The question is what to do if you like anime that isn’t a long running shonen series (the kind that appears on cartoon network) aren’t that wealthy but you want to support the industry so it doesn’t disappear like Geneon.

For those of you that keep up with anime news you will probably have heard that Gonzo has made a deal with some third party companies to release their shows off of the internet. Intrigued about the prospect of quick but legal anime I signed on to BOST TV and got the season pass for Tower of Druaga. For those of you that are looking to find some legal alternative to fan subs the setup that BOST has going is nearly ideal for the low price of only two dollars per episode (with a price break if you buy a season in bulk) You can not only watch the show on their site (like Youtube but with a better picture) but also download it for watching elsewhere. Although the site does say to download to one’s Ipod the episode can be watched on any media play that plays mp4 files. The only downside that I can see is that the episodes are available for only two weeks although this time limit can be avoided by downloading the episode onto one’s hard drive.

Another way for viewers to watch anime downloads legally is through the amazon unbox download service. Although there are several shows to choose from for the purposes of my experiment I downloaded Samurai 7 from the sight. Unbox downloads cost two dollars an episode although again you can buy an entire season at a discount. Amazon then instructs you to download their unbox player so that you can watch the episodes that you have bought. There are several small problems with this approach. The first which threatens to reignite the dub/sub wars of past is that unbox only supports dubbed versions of the shows that they offer. Secondly is the requirement that you watch the show on their media player. I have found a way of skirting this requirement by using the search feature on your computer to find the episodes on the hard drive. Then select the episode that you wish to view and create a shortcut of it on your desktop. I found that this method allows you to play the episode with real player and win amp.

The third method that I have explored for the purposes of this article is Kurau Phantom Memory. As a person able to rack up as many anime reviews I have a service like Netflix is necessary due to my lack of billionaire parents. The online viewing service operates like many streaming video services where you just select the episode that you wish to see and watch it on your browser. The video only works with Microsoft internet explorer which is a bit annoying since I normally use Firefox. Also the video only plays in English dubbing. Even with all it’s warts it is a useful and free addition to a service that any sensible Otaku to get.