Although I didn’t really plan to do this, I think this week, we’ll primarily be looking at anime direct download sites that exclusively use free file hosts to serve anime episodes, i.e. sites without their own media servers.

Today, we’ll first look at AnimeCorner.nl, a site that uses Rapidshare - one of the most famous, yet irritating file hosts - to serve their files. Given Rapidshare’s relatively tiny 100mb file size limit, it should be obvious to those with Rapidshare experience that the episodes uploaded by AnimeCorner.nl have been reencoded into .rmvb.

Yes, this means that AnimeCorner.nl is one of a very select group of sites that has two uhmm… not-so-popular features, i.e. .rmvb encoded episodes and free file host servers. On the upside, it has a large database of anime series and movies available and is ad-less.

1. AnimeCorner.nl

• Rapidshare Speed: Quite Fast
• Content: 51 anime series - both ongoing (e.g. Suzumiya, TOKKO, Soul Link, etc.) and completed series (e.g. Chobits, Ikkitousen, Suzuka, etc.) - and movies (e.g. Mononoke-hime, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc.)
• Video Format: .rmvb (LQ to MQ)
• Note: Hassle-free site, i.e. no registration or forum posting required to access downloads. Uses only free file hosts, i.e. Rapidshare.de, to serve anime episodes. Ad-less.

I’ve seen quite a wide range of anime forums that provide direct downloads to their members. But this is the first time I’ve seen an anime direct downloads forum hide the number of forum posts that its members have to make before being granted access to the forum’s direct downloads.

Supposedly, this approach encourages active and non-spam posting by its members as there are no set limits publicly available, but whether this works, that’s another story altogether.

1. AnimeArk

• Speed: Unknown
• Posts Required to Access Downloads: Unknown
• Content: A few anime series (e.g. Bleach, Dear Boys, Fate-Stay Night, etc.)
• Video Format: Unknown
• Note: Forum posting required, but number of forum posts needed is unknown. Of course, a lot of other things are unknown as well.

Anyone’s a member of this forum (with direct download access)?

I know I said that I would feature individual XDCC bots on individual blog posts, even if their bot lists were displayed in a single page. But this policy of mine has proven to be more irritating than I expected (to me, that is).

So, from now on, I’ll be grouping XDCC bots together if their pack lists are displayed on a single page and if individual bots are too small (content-wise) to place in individual posts.

Let’s start this off on AnimeYuki’s Bot Listing:

1) AnimeYuki Bot Listing

• Usual IRC Nicknames: AnY|KoolAidMan, AnY|Archive, AnY|Freddy, AnY|Puffy, AnY|Blanka, AnY|Mithril
• Usual Locations (IRC Server and Channels): #animeyuki @ irc.rizon.net
• Content: Episodes from ongoing (e.g. Ah My Goddess - Sorezore no Tsubasa, Cluster Edge, MAR) and completed (e.g. Ichigo Mashimaro, Futakoi Alternative) series fansubbed by AnimeYuki.
• No. of Download Slots: Varies
• Update Frequency: Unknown
• Video Format: .avi (HQ) and .mkv (HQ)
• Note:AnY|Archive (AnimeYuki’s archive bot) has an alternative pack list, which is updated every minute

Anime DESU is something like Shareparadise.net, an anime forum which primarily aggregates direct download links on free file hosts, e.g. Megaupload. But unlike the community structure of Shareparadise.net, Anime DESU is almost completely admin updated, and currently uses Gigagone (a relatively new free file host) exclusively (possibly due to its FTP upload feature and above average speeds).

I know most people don’t dig free file hosts, especially after experiencing the uber-slowness that is Megaupload. But in the few cases where you happen to get excellent speeds from Gigagone or just can’t find a particular anime series anywhere else, you just might find Anime DESU useful.

1) Anime DESU

• Gigaone’s Speed: Above Average (definitely better that Megaupload, but still not really up to scratch, especially in recent days)
• Content: Frequent
• Update Frequency: 15 complete (e.g. Dokuro-Chan, Rozen Maiden, etc.) and 12 ongoing anime series (e.g. Black Lagoon, Yakitate Japan, Jyu Oh Sei, etc.).
• Video Format: .avi (HQ)
• Note: Hassle-free site, i.e. no registration or forum posting required to access downloads. But the site does not have its own media server, and thus exclusively uses Gigaone (at least for now).

These are the DDL sites and XDCC bots we’ve covered this week. In chronological order, they are:

1. OMG! Anime - Anime Direct Downloads Forum
2. DragonBall DivX - Anime Direct Download Site
3. DeimonHigh.com - Eyeshield21 Direct Download Site
4. EveryAnime - Bleach and Naruto Direct Download Site
5. Dynamite Anime - Anime DDL Site
6. Anime Ground - Free Anime Series Every Month

Okay, I’m exaggerating a little with the post title since these sites weren’t really dead in the first place - just temporarily down. But anyway, exaggeration or not, these sites are back up, alive and kicking:

1. JaguarPowered (reviewed here) was down a while back, but it’s returned.
2. Shareparadise.net (featured here and here) was experiencing some problems a few weeks back, but it’s okay now.
3. AnimeFairGround.com (reviewed here) was shut down recently, but it has returned in the form of AnimeGround’s “free anime series per month” section (featured here).

It’s a pity I can’t report the same for Anime-Treasures.com though.

Just 24 hours after I posted about the death of AnimeFairGround.com, I spotted a forum post highlighting the fact that AnimeGround (the parent site of AnimeFairGround.com) has reinstated their “free anime series per month” system (which is basically what AnimeFairGround.com was, but just made into an external entity).

Yep, AnimeFairGround.com has been replaced by:

1) AnimeGround - Free Anime Download

• Speed: Quite Fast
• Content: One series per month (this month, it’s Blood+)
• Update Frequency: One series per month
• Video Format: .avi (HQ)
• Note: Hassle-free site, i.e. no registration or forum posting required to access downloads. Since bandwidth for this site has been capped to 40 mbit for all free users, downloading during non-peak hours will certainly get you much better speeds.

AnimeGround.com previously used this system prior to their implementation of AnimeFairGround.com. So, I’m guessing that AnimeFairGround.com didn’t get them as many new paid members as they wanted since they have reverted to their original system.

I wasn’t thinking of featuring this site given the substantial hassle involved in downloading from it. But some of you might find it useful (that is, if you are desperate enough), so here it is:

1) Dynamite Anime

• Speed: Quite Fast
• Content: 11 ongoing (e.g. Fate-Stay Night, School Rumble 2nd Term, etc.) and completed (e.g. Magikano, Black Cat, etc.) anime series, as well as 1 anime movie (i.e. Naruto Movie 2)
• Update Frequency: Quite Frequent
• Video Format: .avi (HQ)
• Note: No registration or forum posting required. However, there is a large number of adverts on site, including multiple pop-ups and floating ads. Moreover, you are forced to visit two sponsor sites before being allowed to enter the download page. Last but not least, the site uses the Anti-Leech system (i.e. must download Anti-Leech plugin or NetPumper download manager).