Well, that’s one (relatively) long title, so I hope it makes sense. Just to make sure I don’t get flamed in the comments or via email, here’s the criteria I used to pick the sites in this list:

• I use them almost everyday. Yeah, me/mua/watashi, so this list is certainly going to involve some degree of subjectivity, even if I always try to judge objectively!
• They are fast. I get a minimum of 200 KB/s speeds, and an average of 400 KB/s on these sites, even during rush hours. Some of these sites can push episodes to me at above 1 MB/s, even if they are US servers serving to poor little me in London. These speeds are based on a approximately 15-20 mbit (edu) connection.
• They update frequently with the latest episodes, hence the distro classification.
• They are mostly hassle-free, with free registration being the biggest hassle involved.

And in no particular order, the sites are:

• Anikei.com: As reviewed earlier, this site is fast (on both free servers, and the donor server too BTW), and I can normally grab a recently released episode from this site not very long (tens of minutes to a couple of hours) after its release. I tend to grab manga from Anikei as well.
• Animorc.net: The same thing here. I tend to get even faster speeds here compared to Anikei, but that’s probably because Animorc caps the no. of download slots available (still more than enough slots though). Again, the latest episodes are available very quickly, and for me, if I can’t find something on Anikei yet, it tends to be available on Animorc already, and vice versa.
• Rorikonjyanai/404 Not Found: I definitely get the fastest speeds from this site (up to 1.7 MB/sec so far on DDL3), but while they host more anime compared to either of the sites above, update frequency is lower. So, if there’s a recent series I happened to skip, this tends to be the first place I go to to get myself updated.
• fourzerofour: Not only does fourzerofour.us give me great speeds, the latest episodes are also available very quickly after release (e.g. I got Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny Ep. 10 here before it was available from the rest of the sites above). It’s a bit of pain that download accelerators are not officially supported, but I haven’t found it to be an issue so far.

Of course, there are times when some newly-released episodes from a particular series are not available on these sites even after 24 hours, e.g. I still can’t find Manabi Straight Episode 10 on any of these sites yet, but such cases tend to be pretty rare, and you can always torrent or subscribe to a paid server like [Download] Anime if you really need your anime fix ASAP.

Again, this list is just my list. What about you guys? Which anime direct download sites do you frequent for the latest anime episodes?

This feature comes rather late considering that I’ve been using this site for quite a while now, but better late than never, no? Anyway, Rorikonjyanai/404 Not Found is the next evolution of sites most of us have seen before, i.e. Misha.Distrocity and animeblues.com.

Like its predecessors, speeds are first-rate, with a good load of anime series available to uh… leech distributed among two servers. There are some quirks you’d not normally expect, e.g. you can’t access the direct downloads if you’re using Internet Explorer (switch to Firefox!), but they’re really nothing to be concerned about. I do, however, suggest reading the FAQ before downloading anything as there are rules that must be followed to prevent yourself from getting banned, e.g. no hammering if download slots are all taken, etc. The standard stuff you’d expect really, and a small price to pay for the speeds you can get if you have a fast line.

1. Rorikonjyanai/404 Not Found

• Speed: Fast
• Content: 57+ ongoing (e.g. Claymore, Saiunkoku Monogatari 2nd Series, Gigantic Formula, etc.) and 280+ completed (e.g. Hunter X Hunter, Kemonozume, etc.) anime series and OVAs (e.g. To Heart 2, etc.).
• Update Frequency: Quite Frequent
• Video Format: High Quality (HQ) formats, e.g. .avi (HQ), .mkv (HQ), .mp4 (HQ)
• Note: Hassle-free site, i.e. no registration or forum posting required to access downloads. However, Internet Explorer is not supported and there are limited (~20) download slots per server at any time.

We’ve seen this site before, but that was before they started hosting anime on their own servers. I got good speeds from both their servers, though the Europe server obviously gave me better speeds.

Overall, ID-TV is now a pretty amazing site (not that it wasn’t before!), with a large archive of Megaupload-hosted anime and fast direct downloads from their own servers (plus some extra sections, i.e. raws and OSTs hosted on Megaupload, too).

1) ID-TV Community

• Media Server Speed: Quite Fast
• Media Server Content: US Server hosts the latest episodes from some ongoing series (e.g. Hayate no Gotoku!, Nodame Cantabile, etc.), while the Europe server hosts 5 ongoing series (e.g. Reideen, Romeo x Juliet, etc.), 1 completed series (Venus versus Virus) and some other stuff (Hana Yori Dango 2, Evangelion Renewal for now).
• Free File Host (Megaupload) Speed: Average
• Free File Host Content: Approximately 150 anime series, both ongoing (e.g. Idol Master Xenoglossia, Nagasarete Airantou, etc.) and completed (e.g. Last Exile, Gundam Seed, etc.) series. Also, there is a RAW section, containing raws of some of the latest ongoing series, e.g. OverDrive, Shining Tears x Wind, and etc. And an anime OST section, e.g. Paradise Kiss, Honey and Clover, etc.
• Update Frequency: Quite Frequent
• Video Format: HQ file formats, e.g. .avi (HQ), .mkv (HQ), etc.
• Note: Hassle-free, i.e. no registration or forum posting required to access downloads. Up to a max. of 4 simultaneous connections.

Here’s an anime distro site by Kyuuketsuki, which you might know from fansubbed series like Busou Renkin and KIBA - both of which just ended pretty recently.

I’m afraid I wasn’t impressed with the two new series they’ve just picked up, i.e. Koutetsu Sangokushi and Shining Tears X Wind, but I guess it’s a bit early to say anything much.

In any case, that doesn’t impact the fact that you now have yet another anime direct download site at your disposal:

1) [Kyuu] Direct Download

• Speed: Average
• Content: Unlicensed series fansubbed by Kyuuketsuki, e.g. Koutetsu Sangokushi, Shining Tears X Wind, Busou Renkin, and etc.
• Update Frequency: Almost As Soon As Kyuuketsuki Releases New Fansubs
• Video Format: HQ file formats, e.g. .avi (HQ)
• Note: Free registration required, but forum posting is not required.

It’s been a few posts since we’ve looked at non-free file host anime direct download sites/forums (not that there is anything bad about them), with the most recent one being Anime Horizon.

Anyway, back to today’s site. Craving Anime is still pretty new, so they’re pretty much hosting a range of completed anime, and have yet to put up any ongoing series. Nevertheless, it’s a growing community with some quality admins, so give it a look:

1) Craving Anime

• Speed: Average
• Content: 27 completed series (e.g. Red Garden, Airmaster, GateKeepers) and 118 manga titles.
• Posts Required to Access Downloads: Average post rate of 0.375 (i.e. posts/days = 0.375).
• Update Frequency: Average
• Video Format: HQ file formats, e.g. .avi (HQ), .ogm (HQ).
• Note: Free registration and forum posting is required. Max. of 2 simultaneous connections enforced.

Continuing on from yesterday, here’s another anime direct download site focused on a single anime, which is Mushishi in this case.

No streaming video here, but there’s Megaupload (and Filecoast) anime downloads, as well as manga downloads on a variety of free file hosts (e.g. mihd.net, GigaSize.com).

1) Mushishi.net

• Free File Host Speed: Unknown (too many different free file hosts used)
• Content: All episodes of Mushishi. All chapters of Mushishi manga released so far.
• Update Frequency: As Soon as a New Chapter is Released.
• Video Format: .avi (HQ)
• Note: Hassle-free, i.e. registration and forum posting not required to access downloads.

This anime DDL site is pretty much self-explanatory, I think. Similar to sites like BleachTV, the site focuses completely on Death Note alone - providing both streaming episodes and direct download of all the episodes via Megaupload.

1) Death Note TV

• Megaupload (Free File Host) General Speed: Average
• Content: All episodes of Death Note released so far.
• Update Frequency: As Soon as a New Episode is Released.
• Video Format: .avi (HQ)
• Note: Hassle-free, i.e. registration and forum posting not required to access downloads.

Next up is an anime downloads site which at first glance looks to have a gargantuan collection of anime series on free file hosts (primarily on Megaupload). But digging a bit deeper, I found some manga titles in their anime downloads list, and some pages which are still devoid of links. Nothing wrong with that really. I just needed to qualify some of the numbers I’ll be putting down here.

The nice thing about Anidown is that there are no registration requirements, and to quote one of their info emails in verbatim, “No registration required just come in download and get out.” So, Megaupload Premium users in particular, here’s a whole archive of anime (unfortunately only in .rm or .rmvb formats) for your viewing (or maybe just downloading) pleasure.

Note: The comments below have alerted me to the fact that Anidown’s collection is to a large extent made up of content from other sites. I have verified this, e.g. .hack// Legend of the Twilight Bracelet was taken from Anime-Sensei and Afro Samurai from Euphoric-Anime. They do give attribution in certain cases, e.g. 2×2=Shinobuden was attributed to Vortex @ Mystic-Chambers, while there is a credits page of sorts for Da-Anime and Anime-Sensei. And Anime-Sensei’s admin has publicly stated that their link stealing case with Anidown.com has been closed. I haven’t, however, seen attribution to sites like Euphoric-Anime. So, use Anidown.com as your beliefs/values permit.

1) Anidown.com

• Megaupload (Free File Host) General Speed: Average
• Content: Approximately 300 ongoing and completed anime series.
• Update Frequency: Unknown
• Video Format: Mostly .rm (LQ to MQ)
• Note: Hassle-free, i.e. registration and forum posting not required to access downloads.