Where and how do you get your anime fix?

There's definitely no shortage of anime out there.  If you're looking to get an anime fix, you have plenty of methods to do so.  We certainly don't have it as good as they do in Japan, but it's kind of  hard to top the location that actually pumps out the content!  While we can't ever hope to see anime that widely spread in the states, at least we still have plenty of options when it comes to viewing.

Personally, I like to actually purchase the box sets and individual DVD's/Blu-rays that come out in the states.  I feel this is an important thing to do in order to support the companies that go through the trouble of localizing these features.  It's not like there are a ton of companies that localize anime, so I feel I should be heading to retail and picking up their work.  If no one buys their content, we're going to see less official releases in the states.  That's not something I want to see happen!

Of course, it's much easier just to watch anime online.  Thankfully, there are plenty of legal ways to do this.  The localization houses I was talking about above are all moving into the digital age by providing their features online for free.  You can actually check out a handful of episodes for newly localized series' online before you shell out the cash for a purchase.  You can also hit up places like Hulu to check out recently released anime features, and they add more every single day.

As I'm sure all of you know, there's also a huge subculture of fan-translated anime.  Some of it is top-notch and other stuff isn't very good.  Still, people are working hard to translate new content from Japan in order to feed the need of anime fans in the states.  This kind of translating usually goes on with titles that will most likely never make it stateside.  I don't know how these Japanese animation houses feel about the fan-translation sub-culture here, but I don't think they've done much to stop it.

Now we can't forget about the video on demand services as well.  Just like you can do on your computer, there are also anime on demand features on a lot of cable and satellite providers.  There's actually a lot of great, free content out there to check out.  I am often surprised by just how up to date these services are.  It's always nice to pick up your TV remote and scan through what's been added each week.