An admin from AkiraBlaid recently emailed me on some of the changes the site has gone through since last year. After checking the site out, I had to agree that there were some important changes since my last review, including:

• Episodes are no longer compressed into .zip files
• Download speeds seem markedly higher than before
• A few more anime series than before

However, episodes are still re-encoded to achieve smaller file sizes - which is a good thing if you prefer getting your anime dose quicker and don’t mind the minor quality loss.

1. AkiraBlaid

• Speed: Quite Fast
• Content: 4 ongoing (e.g. Naruto, Bleach, etc.) and 9 completed anime series (e.g. Beck, Shamanic Princess, Death Note), plus 2 movies (Ninja Scroll and Full Metal Alchemist). Also has a 8 manga series (e.g. Trigun, Ichigo 100%, etc.) and couple of anime OSTs.
• Update Frequency: Average
• Video Format: .avi, .mp4 [MQ to HQ (not the usual HQ due to slight quality loss from reencoding)]
• Note: Free registration required, but forum posting is not mandatory to access downloads. Optional pay-for premium media available.

Thought I’d go for something different today and post about fast XDCC bots instead. I’ve always gotten good speeds from the bots listed at Distro.anime.nu, so if you happen to be an IRC fan, take a look at the pack lists on their site:

P.S.: Even if you’re the pure DDL+BT kind of anime downloader, give IRC a try. You certainly won’t be disappointed, especially for those rarer/older anime. Even for ongoing series, you might get episodes faster from XDCC bots…

1) Distro.anime.nu XDCC Pack Lists

• IRC Nicknames: Keiki, Naoki, Akemi, Epylon, [Yoroshiku]Onizuka, [mendoi]archive, [order]archive
• Usual Locations (IRC Server and Channels): #distro.anime.nu, #serin, #yesy, #kazenokoefansubs, #ryoumi, #black-order @ irc.rizon.net (differs a bit between bots)
• Content: For Keiki, Naoki, Akemi and Epylon: Latest episodes of several ongoing anime series (e.g. Dgray-man, Mushi-Uta, Claymore, etc.); For the rest: Completed series fansubbed by the group the bot is named after (e.g. [mendoi]archive has Mendoi-fansubbed series like Amaenaideyo and Inukami).
• No. of Download Slots: 50 for Keiki, Naoki and Akemi; 75 for Epylon, 30 for [Yoroshiku]Onizuka; 30 for [mendoi]archive; 6 for [order]archive.
• Update Frequency: Varies, but generally Quite Frequent
• Video Format: High Quality (HQ) formats, e.g. .avi, .mkv, etc.

I’ve been trying to clean up the archives, looking for dead sites and preparing to update the site lists. But in the mean time, here’s another anime DDL site.

To be honest, I don’t particularly like Anime Realm’s low (50KB/s) speed cap considering the range of uncapped (or with higher caps) anime direct download sites you can access, but if that is in the best interest of its community, then there’s no harm I guess.

1) Anime Realm

• Speed: Below Average to Average (there is a speed cap of 50 KB/s, as explained in their forums)
• Content: 35 completed (e.g. Genshiken, School Rumble, FMP, etc.) and 10 ongoing (e.g. Devil May Cry, Claymore, Kenichi, etc.) anime series.
• Update Frequency: Average
• Video Format: .avi (HQ), .rm (LQ to MQ), .rmvb (LQ to MQ)
• Note: Free registration required, but forum posting is not required. Max. of 2 simultaneous connections.

This is another anime direct download site that I would put on my favourites list. Frequent and timely updates for ongoing series, plus pretty fast download speeds always make my day.

Unlike most sites that host their own anime, Anime Sharing uses its forum as its download “platform” (normally seen for sites that host anime on free file hosts like Megaupload), but that’s just my pointless little observation.

1) Anime Sharing

• Speed: Quite Fast
• Content: Most recent episodes from most ongoing series, 22 completed series (e.g. Chobits, Basilisk, GunGrave, etc.), and 13 movies (e.g. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, Ninja Scroll, etc.)
• Update Frequency: Frequent
• Video Format: High Quality (HQ) file formats, e.g. .avi, .mkv
• Note: Hassle-free for new episodes of ongoing series. But free registraton required to access completed anime series (forum posting is not necessary).