Anime Addiction

I used to watch a lot of anime. Back then(the era of 56k connection), it was such a pain to get anime episodes from the net. Also, there were only very few locations where bootleg copies are obtainable. You are considered lucky if you chanced upon a store that carries the series that you are into. But now that we have faster access to the internet, dvd collections of almost any series that I am aware of can now be found almost anywhere. The battlefield for quenching the thirst for anime addiction is no longer accessibility, but rather, getting access at the earliest possible time. Some fansub groups stream their fansubbed copies as early as 3 hours after its maiden broadcast.

Recently, the Fansub group that releases the anime that I am watching decided to drop the project. They allegedly received a letter from the licensee and they were requested to stop distributing the series lest they want to be sued. The licensee in turn, allowed an anime streaming site to distribute these anime for a small fee (via internet stream). I was quite alarmed because I thought that such was the end of me getting free anime.

So I headed off to check the services provided by the anime streaming site. And to my surprise, they indeed require only a minimal and albeit tolerable fee(for their annual subscription). Subscription grants access to various titles and as an added bonus, subscribers are granted immediate access to streams(as early as hours after its original broadcast in Japan) and watching its full glory in freakin’ Hi-Def. Free users can access these episodes a week after.

Analyzing their strategy, it’s a great way of curbing, if not eliminating piracy. Getting it fast and cheap (or reasonably priced) is a very viable alternative. Perhaps that’s the problem of the movie industry, they tend to distribute their titles way to slow and definitely not cheap.