For the benefit of those who want to download directly, I have taken it upon myself to go through several of the links provided by other user and tell you how reliable they are. That way you won’t have to waste your time and I’m sure I’ll get some good anime into the bargain. So here goes:

1. animenation.no-ip.org : An ftp address. I couldn’t get onto it, as is usually the case with ftps, but it’s been posted several times so I thought I’d give it the benefit of the doubt.

2. ftp://hikago.easynet.de/Hikaru/ This one actually works pretty well but it’s slightly slow, even with a fast connection. Unfortunately all it has is Hikaru no Go, which I do not like.

3. http://lithium.sta.man.ac.uk:81/ Hardly ever works but seems to have a nice selection. It’s too iffy to be reliable and kinda slow but worth checking out if you feel lucky.

4. http://web.mit.edu/bandersn/anime/ Only four anime episodes there but the download rate is extremely good. Check it out.

5. http://is.rice.edu/~whoojong/Tokyo/ Nope, doesn’t work anymore. I think I got some Get Backers from there some time ago, though.

6. http://www.anime.diaspora.ru/ I couldn’t find any episodes there, unless you count On Your Mark. It has some manga and several OSTs, though.

7. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~yanga/downloads.html Another site with only four episodes listed but they don’t work.

8. http://dewdrop-garden.com/theater/downloads.shtml Apparently they’re serving Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne but they have a limit of 200MB a month, which gets used up pretty quickly. Fortunately February 1st is just around the corner.

9. http://www.geocities.com/master8492/anime.html They have a couple of episodes but I couldn’t download them with either Java or Anti-Leech plugin so I’m assuming they do not work.

10. http://www.saikou-fansubs.com/ You need to be registered to download off the site but as far as I can see all they have are the first three episodes of both Wolf’s Rain and Get Backers.

That concludes the first 10 sites I checked and as you can see it’s pretty hard to find anime for direct downloads. But keep trying and I’ll keep checking out the sites.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2003

Answers

And here are the next 10 for your downloading pleasure. And mine too, of course.

1. http://lilu.joint.eu.org/index2/download/download.html This site seemed promising at first but none of the episodes would download, plus I don’t understand any Polish so I don’t know what was going on with them.

2. http://www.omnirai.net Apparently they used to have episodes but they are down at the moment and anime sites which go down tend to stay down, just so you know.

3. http://www.animefantasy.nl/english/main.php? content=naruto/eps The Naruto eps were there all right, along with Shaman King and Dragonball Z but they were impossible to download with Anti-Leech and Java. Feel free to try and see in you get better results.

4. http://www.clyde.k12.oh.us/hs/04nslone/Goldenboy/ Pretty good, they have the first 3 episodes of Golden Boy up but the server is VERY SLOW. If you have a very fast connection or something it could be worth a try. They also have the End of Evangelion here: http://www.clyde.k12.oh.us/hs/04nslone/End%20of%20Evangelion/

5. http://users.cnu.edu/~rquader/xsc/ This used to work, I got some stuff off it last time but it seems to be down right now. Drat and double drat.

6. www.asukaanime.net/ranma-uploads.htm Good news at last. This site serves up 4 episodes of Ranma per week. Nice size, nice download speed. Files are Real Player, though, so you can’t expect too much.

7. http://www.anticausa.hpg.ig.com.br/episodios.htm Another good site. It has its good days and bad days so if you get the server on a slow day just try again later. A lot of the files are in Portuguese but I managed to get Ranma and some other stuff in English so I definitely recommend it.

8. http://www.hakkai.net/yugiohexesky/home.htm Yu-gi-oh and Rockman episodes here but not very good quality. I got one or two for my brother, though. He’s a big fan.

9. http://www.sayajinextreme.com/index.php?page=epi This site hardly ever works and when it does tends to be kinda slow. Most of the files are subtitled in Portuguese but there are a few English ones out there. Worth a look if you have the time.

10. http://www.pbxanime.com Wow, how could I forget to mention my first big haul? This is a fantastic place: I got Ghost in the Shell, Fatal Fury and all of the Buu Saga. And I didn’t even donate, I feel so guilty.

Oh well, this is the second set. And after all the investigations I’m starting to realize how awfully difficult it is to get episodes for Direct Downloads but keep trying

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2003

WOW that´s great, you even found a site I didn´t knew :), thanks a lot and keep going this excellent work!

This are my top 3 html sites:

1. http://web.mit.edu/bandersn/anime/ Distributes recenty released fansubs via fast html. If you want to get to know any anime beside DBZ, Ranma and Inuyasha check it out! It changes eps nearly each day!

2. http://lithium.sta.man.ac.uk:81/ Very popular site that has a lot of great series to choose from. Unfortunatelly it´s sometimes hard to get in and speeds may be slow but it´s updated quite often with new episodes, so give it a shot!

3. http://lilu.joint.eu.org/index2/download/download.html It has pretty much popular series and circles them at least every month. If you can´t download, they´re probably updating or the servers are just overcrowded, but try it for sure, it´s great!

~turning out some more sites ...

1. http://evangelion.cruelmemory.com/home/downloads.html For End of Evangelion better go here, it´s fast :)

2. http://www.clashstudio.brturbo.com/episodios/lain/ I think only Lain 1 is english, but http://www.dragonpower.com.br/ is down, so I can´t tell anymore.

3. http://www.pohanenhuma.cjb.net/ They used to have so much stuff *sigh*, think they got problems with the company which hosted their files, but I hope that they will recover and there´s still some nice stuff left ...

4. http://www.sayajinextreme.com/index.php?page=opepi Only One Piece 3 seems to work for now, but they do have other episodes as well.

5. http://www.animesuniverse.com/kdanimes/?page=episodios Boggiepop Phantom,Ippatu Kikimusume and Patlabor OVA worked for me, but I remember getting Psychic Academy and more from here as well, as I don´t understand portuguese I can´t tell how to access the episodes that say forbidden :(

6. http://www.cspower.com.br/aplanet/index.php?page=episodios Again a portuguese site that has some english eps, but for me it was too slow or not working at all.

7. http://anime.jyu.fi/greyhawk/hooseki/downloads/CardCaptorSakura/video No real episodes here but the fan episode is worth it *gg*. Maybe you will find some more nice things.

8. http://students.chs.lane.edu/~jharris24/ Only Love Hina 1, but well, it´s on fast http.

9. http://www.orangeangel.com/tenchi/download.shtml Tenchi GXP 1 here.

10. http://www.extum.com/anime/ Had lot´s of episodes, I remember getting Vampire Princess Miyu from the test directory, but ther´re gone, only Panyo Panyo DiGi Charat is left.

Happy downloading everyone ^_^

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2003

*Sniff* My first ever post!! Maybe I should check out some more. I was so anti-P2P in those days, I couldn't even bear to see the word Kazaa. Memories...

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2003