ADV Films and Anime Network debut new Online Player, Subscription, Online Premiere of Clannad and more

[dragoon]

Anime Network debuts new Online Player Subscription Service - Online Premiere of Clannad, Princess Resurrection, Elfen Lied, Azumanga Daioh and more

Anime Network (http://www.theanimenetwork.com) debuts new Subscription service and Online Player with tiered content (Free, Registered member and Subscribed) system. Since Anime Network's Online Player debut, the service has continued to grow in popularity and has become increasingly busy -- with the launch of the new player, Anime Network has also transitioned to a new back end system that promises major improvements in content delivery for its customers and viewers.

The new $6.95/month (plus tax) subscription service grants members full access to the latest ADV Films releases, including the Online Premieres: Clannad and Princess Resurrection, Mahoromatic Season 1, 2 and Special, Kiba, Tsukihime, Cool Dimension - established fan favorites of ADV's that are Premiering online for the first time: Azumanga Daioh, Elfen Lied, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World as well as classic older Out-of-Print titles like Sakura Wars and Orphen Season 1 that are rare finds. Exclusive new titles like Clannad and Princess Resurrection start out with several episodes and like their VOD schedule should get more new episodes in a future update. Other titles coming to Anime Network Online Player in the near future include Appleseed (2004 Movie), Lost Universe, Soul Hunter, and others.

Watch Shows Online: http://www.theanimenetwork.com
Full story: http://advnation.blogspot.com/

[bayoab]

Let's see...
Much better organization of series listing....
Episode organization is absolutely horrible... you cannot tell when you are scrolling and how far you are which is especially annoying when you have 50 episodes to click through.
No listing of subtitled or dub (yes, they are all dubbed except 2 it looks like, but they should be listing it)...
Having 3 tiers... is just pointless.
Turning formerly free things into pay/things that are available on other streaming solutions for free into pay is just pointless.

Oh, and whatever they are using for geodetection apparently isn't great.

[dragoon]

I agree with the episode icons, those need numbers at least.


Turning formerly free things into pay/things that are available on other streaming solutions for free into pay is just pointless.

There are certainly things they can do and will be doing to improve it, it's not the end.

Yeah stuff like BSC and other freebies on other sites, I am not sure what they plan to do with those. But they promise exclusive content coming. The stuff I mentioned above in bold have not been Online before legally (like Clannad, Princess Resurrection, Elfen, Azumanga, etc.), except Kiba (only went to like ep 14 or whatever on Jetstream) and Mahoromatic season 1 (they showed that briefly on the previous iteration of Anime Network) and Lost Universe (I don't remember if Enoki did a deal for that one for Online streaming but I don't think they did?).

In many ways this gives people who don't have access to their VOD SVOD access to SVOD content and OOP stuff.

[Suwako Moriya]

I'm using the first episode of Azumanga Daioh as a test bed and so far the streaming seems to be working just fine for me. I figured it was best to use a show I was already familiar with and enjoyed.

I doubt that I'll do the "pay" thing. However I am considering registering. Only problem is this. Will I visit the site often enough to justify registering? Even if registering is free.

All I know is the increased amount of choice in streaming is a blessing and a curse. There's a lot more to watch now, but also a lot more to decide between. Plus streaming still has to compete with other things. In some ways, it's starting to feel a bit overwhelming to be honest. As just a single streaming site can have multiple series to decide between.

[Draneor]

The new $6.95/month (plus tax)

I'm amazed that ADV is attempting to collect sales tax for every local district in the US and Canada (VAT).

[Edit] Actually, it appears to be $7.52 regardless. What tax exactly are they collecting? Looks fishy.

For myself, I don't really see the point in paying a subscription fee for online access to titles I already own nor, for that matter, paying for more than one channel (currently, I'm subscribing to Cruncyroll). Perhaps they will get access to new content that is currently airing in Japan someday. But for those that like to rent, it may be a good deal.

[something]

nor, for that matter, paying for more than one channel (currently, I'm subscribing to Cruncyroll).
Exactly. This is why I prefer one centralized platform that gets as much anime as possible. I already did the yearly Crunchyroll thing, having judged them as the best option. And of course I won't pay more ($60/yr = $5/mo for CR vs this at $7+/mo) for less. Of course I own any ADV show I care about on DVD anyway. But more to the point, having a paid subscription from one site is acceptable. When content starts getting spread over multiple sites and requires multiple subscriptions, I say no thanks.

[Draneor]

When content starts getting spread over multiple sites and requires multiple subscriptions, I say no thanks.

Well, regardless of my preferences, I have otaku tendencies. So if say Hayate no Gotoku!! aired on CR, K-On! on Anime Network, and Tears to Tiara on FUNimation and each one required a subscription... I'd still do it. But I wouldn't be happy about it. I'd much rather have one central place though or have the content on multiple sites. But I digress. There has been no indication that Anime Network even wants to air exclusive content from Japan like CR and FUNimation are doing.

[dragoon]

Perhaps they will get access to new content that is currently airing in Japan someday. But for those that like to rent, it may be a good deal.

This perhaps may be the goal, since they've rebuilt the engine and back-end from the ground up to be more stable and handle more capacity. Who knows what the future will hold.

I think right now, at least in my opinion this service is mostly geared towards another sub-set of Anime fans, the less hardcore group that does not really buy DVDs or not the ones looking for simulcasts of those on CR -- more towards the casual Anime fans on TV that watch stuff on Anime Network on VOD -- where the prices of both Anime Network and Funimation VOD are around $1/1 episode for new SVOD content (at least for the carriers that don't carry SVOD). So this service fills the void for those types of users instead of paying PPV they can pay a lot cheaper for this stuff.

Personally I'm rather excited since I haven't been able to order Princess Resurrection or Clannad Pt2 yet, hopefully I'll be able to finish watching these series soon. :cool:

Having said that though, I do hope they start to expand once they get more new shows, maybe try to do more simulcast stuff or before they release the DVDs it would be a good idea for them to put the shows on there first. Also we might start to see more OOP stuff that isn't viable for DVD release to start showing up here.

Anime Network is open and looking for constructive feedback too as well, whatever suggestions or complaints said here or elsewhere they are reading/I'm forwarding to them.

[hikaru004]

That would be more attractive considering the prices that you mention. OOP stuff would definitely be nice to put up but new stuff is what attracts online users more imo.

But you can only shell out so much. So they really have to be competitive to get people to give money to ADV when there are free streaming and CR subscription as the competitors.

[chronoclast]

Just want to point out that Anime Network has the following shows listed as coming soon for streaming:

El Hazard: the Wanderers
Izumo
Koi Koi Seven
Lost Universe
Soul Hunter
Super Gals

[Suwako Moriya]

Just want to point out that Anime Network has the following shows listed as coming soon for streaming:

*Reads full post* Heh, I'd be half tempted to re-watch Izumo. Not sure if I'll ever fully watch the Train Wreck that is Koi Koi Seven.

[dragonrider_cody]

Just want to point out that Anime Network has the following shows listed as coming soon for streaming:

El Hazard: the Wanderers
Izumo
Koi Koi Seven
Lost Universe
Soul Hunter
Super Gals

I've been wanting to see Soul Hunter, Lost Universe and El Hazard for sometime now. I'm looking quite forward to them.

Personally, I'm hoping ADV/Sentai has also reaquired the DVD rights to Soul Hunter. I've been wanting to buy it for sometime, but the sets get pretty high on ebay.

[bayoab]

I really have no idea which thread this should be thrown in because we have a ton of ADV threads but... has anyone been keeping track of which Clannad and Princess Resurrection episodes have been added when (or any of the other series for that matter). My chart numbers don't seem to "add up" properly.

[dragoon]

You can get that info from the Online Player Schedule page:

http://www.theanimenetwork.com/index.php?task=tan_vod&id=18&option=com_schedules&Itemid=63

Selecting order by show title helps in getting that info faster too.

[bayoab]

You can get that info from the Online Player Schedule page:

http://www.theanimenetwork.com/index.php?task=tan_vod&id=18&option=com_schedules&Itemid=63

Selecting order by show title helps in getting that info faster too.

That's a really nice feature... but it doesn't have the dates I need. :sweat: I basically need the last 2/3 weeks in June and the first week of July. (I have it written down 3 times that they uploaded Princess Resurrection 20/21 for example.)

[dragoon]

Ah then nope, that's not available at least visibly. They prune it at 2 weeks (it used to prune at the current day, I had to request multiple times for them to make this available as it is) prior to the current day, for VOD they normally keep it at the current month.

I'll pass along your request and see if maybe they can extend it or have an archive version or at the very least if they have that official data somewhere. From what I remember though Clannad and Princess Res are updated 1 ep/week. I'd know better if I was following it specifically, but I decided I'd wait til I get the DVD pt 2's to watch it via that.