A bored Shinigami decides it might be interesting to see what a human would do with his powers, so he drops his instrument of mortality at the feet of Light Yagami to see what happens. Light doesn’t believe the book has the power to kill at first, but as his situation becomes more desperate he finds himself trying it out, in the hopes he might survive after all. That is the setup and premise of Death Note, and the new live action version of the story is streaming on Crunchyroll. It is part of the current summer season of shows from Japan, and is now up to episode three. If you would prefer to watch the original Death Note Anime before starting the live action presentation, it is streaming at Hulu.
Amazon put together a number of TV series pilot episodes, and put them streaming on line, asking people to vote for the ones they wanted to see as a series. Ridley Scott’s interpretation of Philip K. Dicks The Man in the High Castle got enough votes that it is coming to Amazon Prime this fall; they unveiled the new trailer at Comic-Con this weekend.
Looks like the Daisuki streaming animation site is now live! Because, you know, I didn’t have enough online streaming services to watch anime on already, so I needed this. If, like me, you need more streaming anime in your life, sign up today and check them out. Also, starting today as part of their launch festivities, they are giving away a boatload of prizes of various sorts, you can pick one and apply to win each day.
Nozomi Entertainment has a channel full of their own Anime for you to stream and enjoy, as does Right Stuff (even though the latter is all silly). This is yet another streaming source that gives you entire episodes of anime programs, although in this case they save the cost of installing, configuring, and running their own video servers by using the YouTube service as their delivery platform. I like the concept, and appreciate it means they get to supply us with yet more free to watch anime from an amazing range of classic productions. I end up buying the majority of my Anime DVDs from Right Stuf, simply because their prices tend to beat everybody else’s by a noticeable percentage. And as with the other suppliers, being able to watch the shows for free definitely helps me remember why they need to be part of my permanent collection.
I have never had a Viz Media paid subscription, so I know nothing about their paid services, it’s quality, etc. But they do put a bunch of stuff on streaming for free, and they have some kick ass programs, including One Piece, Naruto, and Tiger and Bunny, to name a few. Like most everybody else they stream to a number of platforms, which seems to have a bit of emphasis to the X-Box in their case. Like Funimation, they are a distribution house, which means they only carry licensed programs that they can also sell you on a disc. But they have a large enough library of product that they keep constantly updating that you will probably be pleased with the selection.
Funimation is another site that has streaming Anime that I decided to try out a subscription with. Like others, it includes both Anime and live action, and it also has simulcasts, meaning you can see an episode within a short amount of time of when it originally airs across the Pacific. It takes a slightly different approach on its subscription service than some others, in that it only gives you the first one to 3 episodes free on a number of series. If you want to keep watching after that you have to buy the subscription service. Note that that is only for a selection of it’s series, with other shows being available for free from beginning to end, and I haven’t noticed that a paid subscription gives you other advantages, like 720i or 1080P video quality. So while I still currently maintain my subscription, I am thinking about whether I should keep paying the monthly premium. I suspect it will ending up boiling down to what they are willing to add to the lineup each week or month; if I have already seen the ones I am interested in, then we will be finished. At the moment, they have a LOT of shows I am interested in, but they need to keep adding to that library if they want to retain me as a customer.