3 Recommended Web Sites for Japanese Anime Lovers

Japanese Anime is a multi-billion dollar animation entertainment industry in Japan. It is rapidly gaining popularity world wide. It is known for its vivid animation art, its creative balance of comedy and drama, and its mix of reality and fantasy. Japanese anime is so popular because it provides series and movies for children, teens, and young adults.

Even though there is an unlimited showing of sex, violence, and foolishness on American televison and in movies, Japanese anime is not generally welcomed in the entertainment industry and by entertainment critics. The cause is its lack of modesty and tendency to depict tabooed stories in the form of animation. The American entertainment industry and critics view animation as a form of entertainment that should only contain subject matter for children, such as shows like Spongebob Squarepants, My Gym Partner is a Monkey, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. A few Japanese anime shows geared for children, like Naruto and Pokemon, have slipped into the American market. The Cartoon Network plays Bleach, and One Piece, two popular anime series in Japan made for teens; however, these shows are aired very late past midnight.

A young American interested in Japanese anime would surely go deprived if television is his or her only source of visual entertainment. Fortunately we have the internet, and many young people have access to it. On the internet there are many different web sites that offer streaming videos of Japanese Anime. Many of the sites are fan sites for a particular anime series. Yet there are some that provide streaming video for a variety of anime series and movies. Being an anime fan, I have searched many web sites looking for the best ones. After viewing over 50 sites, I picked out 3 that I am impressed with. They are Crunchyroll.com, Animefever.org, and Boxsweeper.com.

Crunchyroll.com
Crunchroll provides streaming video of Asian drama, Asian Music videos, video games, and Japanese anime. The anime section, which is very popular, contains hundreds of anime series and anime movies. The anime section contains a variety of types of genre such as action, romance, drama, comedy, and school life, which attracts both genders. The target age is for 13-year-olds and up. The amine section features an alphabetical index. By clicking on any title in the index a window opens, providing a brief synopsis of the series or movie, the number of viewers, and the list of episodes or movie parts. An episode is viewed in a single stream. Movies are streamed in two parts, three parts or four parts, depending on the length of the movie. The screen view and sound is clear and of good quality.

To view Crunchyroll's streaming video one must be a member. Membership is free and easy. The only information asked for is ones date of birth, email address, username, and password. Members are then given a members web page where they can create a profile and send and receive messages from other members. Members are not charged a fee, but they are asked to make donations to pay for bandwidth because the site hosts its videos. Members who donate are allowed to view as many videos as they want each day. Non-donating members are only allowed to view 10 streaming videos per day, which is very generous. All members are allowed to take part in the discussion forums which range over the various anime series and movies, Asian drama, music, video game, and causal subject matter. All anime videos are uploaded by the members.

Animefever.org
Animefever only shows all things anime. The web site provides streaming video for a wide variety of anime series and movies, however, its collection is not as vast as Crunchyroll's. Animefever's videos are of different genres, such as romance, comedy, school life, action, and adventure. The site has a section called Fans Anime Collection. The section provides anime wallpaper, anime icons, anime manga, popular anime songs, and anime information . The web site also provides links to site that provide downloads of anime video. The streaming video on Animefever is hosted by the website. Animefever provides its own videos and it accepts unloads from viewers.

Membership is not required to watch the streaming video. Membership is a required for taking part in fourm discussion. The forum discussions are only about anime.

Viewership is very limited. The episode and movies are divided into parts. Each episode is split into two parts, and movies are divided into six to nine parts, depending on the length of the movie. The number of parts you are allowed to view depend on how much money you donate to the website. The money you donate earns you "fever coins". You use the fever coins to pay for viewing streaming video parts. The more money you donate, the more fever coins you earn. The more fever coins you earn the more video parts you can view daily. However if you do not donate any money you are only allowed to view one part a day. Many anime series and movies on the site are marked as being viewable by donators only.

Boxsweeper.com
Boxsweeper provides streaming video for movies, television shows, and Japanese anime. This website also provides a variety of anime series and movies to watch, however its collection of videos is not as vast as Crunchyroll but a little more than Animefever. To view streaming video, Boxsweeper does not require membership and it does not require fees nor asks for donations. Viewers are allowed to watch an unlimited number streaming video. Viewers are also allowed to download video.

Unfortunately Boxsweeper does not hosts its videos. Its videos are hosted by Dvix Stage6 and Voeh. These severs require broadband high speed internet connection to stream video properly. So people with dial up would not be able to view videos. Crunchyroll and Animefever can be easily streamed using dial up internet connection.

There are many online websites that provide streaming video of Japanese anime now that the entertainment form is gaining popularity worldwide. Many of the websites are limited in their titles offered to viewers. Many of them are fan sites for a particular anime series. Of all the anime sites that I have reviewed, I found the Crunchyroll.com, Animefever.org, and Boxsweeper.com are the best sites for viewing streaming video of Japanese Anime, and I recommend them.