BREAKING NEWS: Toei Continues Expanding Anime BB Service!

Not too long ago, we told you of a promotion being offered to Japan's BIGLOBE cable subscribers where streaming anime from Toei's Anime BB service was being offered for free for nearly a month. It seems that this trial was really popular and now Toei has expanded their service to BIGLOBE subscribers! For a monthly fee of ¥1554 (or $13.50 USD) subscribers will have unlimited access to Toei's library consisting of 1000s of titles. There are also other plans in place for subscribers, and we assume they are similar to the lite plan offered by FLETS. As a special bonus, some parts of this month's access will be free of charge! For fans who are wondering, we have finally learned a few more details about the format of the episodes. We already knew that they were in Windows Media Video (.wmv) format, but we now can confirm that each episode carries a bitrate of 1 Mbps! Fist of the North Star, Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Galaxy Railroad 999 are all among titles that will be offered.

One article commented that now that this service is available, no Toei anime fan is being overlooked. We are still waiting here in North America (and perhaps all over the rest of the world), anticipating the potential launch of Anime BB here. The question is, now that the service has conquered Japan, when will it conquer other countries? We're really hoping that Toei doesn't jump on this bandwagon last, as there are already Anime on Demand services popping up through cable providers and Azureus Vuze and our favorite, Joost. Europe's Gong is available internationally on Joost, and though their English programming selection isn't vast, it serves it's purpose well and is a very innovative way for anime delivery. So Toei, what are you waiting for?