The first anime title that I ever saw was Doraemon. I was a kid and I loved it so much that I’ll sit in front of the tv and wait for it every weekday before 5pm. Later on, came Dragonball Z and the series blew me away. I even have a collection of DBZ manga on one of my shelves. Then came Naruto. Then came Bleach. Then came Death Note. Sometimes when I’m free, I’ll check out other anime titles from around the web and watch them.

Along the way, I found many, many useful sites which I think some of you anime fans are also familiar with. Below are 10 of the best sites to find, watch and download anime. Check out the ones you have not checked out before.

May you be an anime addict by the end of the post. =)

CrunchyRoll



Tons of animes. Either watch it online or download directly. Registration required. Find not only anime but also games, music and Japanese dramas. Feels a bit youtube-like to me. Neat and screenshots are provided for each and every anime series. Very well organized. Check it out for yourself.

AnimeSuki



Anime is the Japanese contraction and pronunciation of the English word animation. Suki means like or love in Japanese. AnimeSuki has been providing unlicensed subbed anime torrents since 26th December 2002. The links found on AnimeSuki are actually linked to trackers all over the web and is one of the top sites for unlicensed anime torrent links.

Most groups use Scarywater, EdwardK or AniRena as their tracker. They don’t track sexually explicit porn like hentai but they have the lightweight ecchi which also means pervert in Japanese. When an anime title gets licensed by an American company, it is instantly removed from the site. Check out their licensed list for the titles that have been removed.

BoxTorrents



Another huge source of full anime torrents. Only users who signed up are allowed to use the site. It’s free and it’s fast. Users are divided into 5 different groups.

• User

Normal user, can choose to view hentai.

• Power User

Higher user, can view peer lists and report bad torrents or comments.

• Uploader

Same as normal user except permission has been given to add new torrents. Ask in the Forums if you wish to contribute content.

• Power Uploader

Same as power user but with upload rights.

• Moderator/Admins

Appointed by Admins. Don’t ask about becoming one.

AnimeYuMe



AnimeYuMe actually stands for ‘Anime for yu and me’. The site lists mainly anime torrents and ed2k releases. They even have wallpaper, radio and podcast sections! The database is neatly organized into 6 simple categories.

• Top100

Bored? Here’s the list of top 100 coolest anime to date. I seriously recommend everyone to check out the top 10. Before you know it, you’ll be an anime addict, like me. =)

• Trailers

Want to know how the anime looks like even before it comes out? Look no further. Check out the trailers to anime movies, series or DVRs before watching them. Form your own opinion on whether it’s gonna be explosive when it’s out.

• Genres

Want to watch only ecchi animes but don’t know which is which? Well, thanks to the team at AnimeYuMe, they’ve listed all animes into 42 different genres for their users. Neat.

• Series

Everything from A to Z is found here. Everything. This will benefit those who are looking for old anime series. Just go to that alphabet and you will find it.

• Groups

Like Dattebayo’s quality subs? Wanna know what other series Live-Evil is subbing? Well, here’s the groups section for you. Also listed from A to Z. Sweet.

• Year

Maybe you heard of the name before and forgot about it. Maybe you only know the year. Try your luck by checking out the anime release dates in this category. They even have animes dating back to year 1962!!

AniDown



has more then 800+ anime series & movies and everything is free. Video format is either .rm or .rmvb. The site is updated daily and the download method offered is direct download. Everything from A to Z is found in the main page. No frills. No clicking here and there. Just click on the alphabet of the anime that you are looking for and walla~ you’re there. Can’t find case closed? honey and clover? Kyou Kara Maou? fruit basket? trigun? saiyuki reload? gravitation? They have it all.

Da Anime



Almost the same as Anidown. Anime episodes are in either .rm or .rmvb or .avi format and everything can be downloaded directly. You can also find English dubbed titles. For one, English dubbed Full Metal Alchemist 1 to 51. Almost everything can also be found here. Really, really huge lists of links.

Here’s a message for the webmaster. At the time of viewing, the orangy background of the site looks ugly though. Here’s a tip. Check out Adobe’s Kuler to get nice matching colour combinations. =)

AnimeViewer



Has nearly 900 anime episodes and users watch streaming anime episodes online. Something like youtube. Updates to the latest anime episodes of Naruto, Bleach and Death Note is written at the top, below the logo. Good for watching anime episodes in the office and while traveling. =P

Anime Eden



Though you can use a download manager, there are 2 limits I noticed.

• no more than 5 concurrent connections at a time when downloading.
• to get max speed for the month a small donation of $5 is required.

Anyways, this site is by far one of the best. You can either watch online or start a quick download. However, you’ll need to register first before downloading. All anime episodes are either in .avi, .ogm or .mkv. High quality stuff, actually. They really seem to have everything.

Reality Lapse



Episodes are in rmvb format and the limit set is 2 episodes per download. Most of the anime listed have a download size of about 70MB. Some are also English dubbed. Decent selections. Soundtracks can also be found. At the time of viewing, they almost 18, 000 chapters of manga in their library. Huge indeed.

A note to the webmaster. The boxy fonts of the logo at the top is hardly readable. Here’s a suggestion. You might wanna check out Alex’s Web 2.0 logo generator. Cool, simple and easy to use.

YouTube



Mother of all video sharing sites. Time magazine’s ‘Invention Of The Year 2006′. No registration required. All you need to do is just search and it will be found. Not much introduction needed, actually. =)

Earlier, I have written an article on the steps that the RIAA took to file a lawsuit against users who shared copyrighted materials. A simple act like filesharing these days can make us feel like hunted criminals. We never know when we may be the unlucky ones to be dragged into court by the authorities. In US, the RIAA has accepted lawsuit settlements before, ranging from US$3,000 to US$17,000. How does the authorite decide who the unlucky ones are? Read this . How do you find ways to protect yourself? Read on.

Here are 3 ways.

1. Remove all copyright infringing files in your shared folder. Some P2P networks may only enable you to download faster if you share more files. Whatever it is, make sure it’s not copyrighted materials.
2. Remove all potentially confusing filenames that may be related to copyrighted materials such as “Pussycat Dolls” or “Snow Patrol”.
3. Last resort but it’s the most effective. Some P2P allows it, some don’t. Examples are Kazaa Lite. Here is a screenshot of it. Avoid, if possible.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Digital world freedom fighters

Since the later half of 2003 up till July 2006, the Recording Industry Association of America has sued over 20, 000 music fans for file sharing. As the saying goes, if you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost. So I came across an article written by CNet on what information the RIAA gathered information to find people and file a lawsuit. Here are the 6 steps summed up.

Step 1

If you use ANY of these, you’re at risk. eDonkey , Shareaza , Limewire , eMule , Ares , Kazaa. Why? Cause usually users share their files on the network for others to download. So what the authority does is scan for users with a particular filename and download the entire list for verification purposes. Some of the songs and artists cited in earlier lawsuits include:

Step 2

Features within the P2P programs are used to list each file in the user’s list so that screenshots can be taken to use as evidence in court.

Step 3

The IP address of the computer sharing one of the copyrighted song is recorded by the authority’s custom made detection software.

Step 4

Once a file is downloaded, the authorities are able to do more complicated analysis of the files such as the ‘metadata’ or narrow down the source. Usually, when a CD is ripped into mp3, there’s a signature/comment by the ripper like “Ripped by PaiKia” or “Presented by Kapster”.

Step 5

The authorities then get a court order to get the Internet Service Provider to provide the information of the person’s identity associated with the IP address given.

Step 6

Once exposed, all technical information collected earlier are used to file a lawsuit. The RIAA has accepted setllements of varying figures ranging from $3,000 to $17,000. That’s a lot of money..

News.com
Steps summarised from the website