Thoughts On Anime Streaming Now a Days

 

This has been you.

 

It’s awkward… middle of the night watching anime online and you feel like someone is there, watching you. Streaming anime online I want to say has evolved in the last few years with having Simulcast available now. For those who don’t know what that is, Simulcast means current airing anime in Japan will be streamed 1 hour after it’s aired in various other countries. Sometimes it can happen straight away but it’s made the newest airing anime more accessible than ever, which I think is great for people who like watching seasonal anime.

So in this post I am here to give my opinion on the options of streaming anime, the subscription options, what are benefits? is it worth it? the downsides? and my personal experience in signing up to streaming services. 

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Too many options…

Many or some people know watching anime online, youtube videos etc has not been an option for me. When your living with three other people, especially a sibling who just sits playing league of legends a lot, that’s where all the internet goes. I am no saint myself of all the internet usage being used up. Recently that all changed, which my parents know I am grateful for is we got a internet upgrade. Which has allowed me to do things I couldn’t do before and one of those was watch anime online.

I decided I wanted to join up with at least two streaming services but before anything I sat and did my research for an hour. The streaming options available to me as region counts, not all streaming services are available in your country. After much deliberation I joined up with two services, one I am experimenting with and the other I will permanently stay with.  Before I get into the ones I joined up with I’ll go through the most know legal streaming sites you can watch anime on and what country they are centered for.

Hulu primarily is accessible to people in the USA only, they have a various library of anime titles. What I have heard and read about Hulu so far is at the beginning June around over 150 anime titles were scratched from their anime library, due to contracts expiring. Which sucks. I found an article listing some of the anime’s that would be scratch which you can read here. Another thing I found out was Hulu now will only be subscription only… which means no more free streaming option, click here to read to find out more. My overall impression of hulu so far is not stellar, though with Hulu you still have access to other tv shows, movies which is still good. 

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Funimation primarily like Hulu is USA only but I can tell you the options funimation have are better than hulu. I was surprised I was allowed access onto the funimation website, but I was already impressed with their anime library. Much variety on old and new anime shows to stream, or you can buy online. Funimation is known for all it’s dubbed anime, the newest dubbed shows are constantly updated.

Joining up to funimation you get a fair choice as the following image above tells you all you need to know, if you have been thinking of joining up with them. But like any streaming service you can watch things for free but when you sign up there is a 14 day free trial and you can cancel at any time. so if I was you funimation my american friends, this would be the way to go.

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Now I am going to talk about the two subscription services I joined up with after much research. The first one is the most famous streaming site of them all Crunchy roll. Signing up with crunchy roll I’m experimenting with it, to see if I want to stay on. I cannot deny they have the most selective choice when it comes to simulcast anime each season, primarily was the reason I joined. I’m glad the process of joining was fairly simple, as I decided to become a premium member.

• $6.95 a month
  No Ads
  HD Quality
  Access to Manga + Store
  14 day free trial
  Cancel at anytime

The premium membership is decent but there are some downsides for me I feel with crunchy-roll.

-Some anime series are not available to watch due to licenses (Because I live in Australia)
-Their store I cannot buy from as only ships to America
-Limited anime library

The two first downside points are the main ones and the last point their anime library will grow over time just like any streaming service. I think it comes down to generally contracts and licensing of anime’s. I was surprised to see Yugioh and Fuishi Yugi on their anime list, so they have a few old titles. But when you watch any of their shows most of them are primarily in sub, only so many are in dubbed. I will be sticking with crunchy roll for rest of the year to see if I really want to stick with it, I would recommend for anyone to join up with them if you like keeping up with simulcast shows. You don’t have to sign up you can watch shows for free but you have to wait a week later if they are simulcast ones.

 

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So the second subscription I signed up to was AnimeLab which is only accessible to Australia and New Zealand. So this streaming service is ideal for me and only made it’s debut sometime mid last year, so it’s fairly new. I love everything about this streaming subscription a bit more than crunchy roll. It has a great mixture of sub and dub shows so far, has the latest simulcasts to watch and when signing up you get a 30 day free trial instead of 14.The premium membership is so worth it to me more than crunchy roll but again you can still watch things for free.

$6.95 a month
30 day free trial
Cancel at anytime
HD quality
No Ads

 

Their video player is the best one I’ve used and the easiest 🙂

Anime Lab gets a huge thumbs up from me and highly recommend signing up or using for any Australian, New Zealand anime fans.

Another streaming option for Australian, New Zealand fans I use is through the distributor Hanabee . All you have to do is sign up with them and you can watch all their anime on there for free, they  don’t have a premium membership. Just all free no ads, it’s pretty awesome, so that’s another option for those that didn’t know.

 

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So Crunchy roll and Anime Lab are the ones I signed up too and hope gave you some insight into what is out there.

The controversial of watching anime illegal and legally,  you might want to think about or ask how many people get into anime through these means. I can bet you people will say it was through illegal sites, and that side of things you can’t stop at the click of a button. People always want a way of getting things for free so Why would you pay money to stream things online when you can just watch for three through illegal websites?

Because it comes down to choice, I chose and wanted to, knowing I had the option to do so and know I’m supporting a hobby, industry I love in another way. It is everybody’s choice when watching things online, downloading them, this just does not apply to anime but to music and the film industry. It all comes down to your decision through legal or illegal to watch anything online. 

Just because I’ve signed up to these streaming services now doesn’t mean I’ll stop collecting anime…… How could I ever stop doing that…. Never muahh.!!!!

 

Support what you want to support.

I hope you enjoyed hearing my thoughts on anime streaming and finding out the options already out there, or new ones. It was nice to discuss this topic finally as I know the side of legal and illegal is always avoided. 

Comment below any thoughts you have on this topic !! 

I’ll see you in the next post!! 😀
LitaKino

 

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