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Having no ability to watch Anime on demand has led to a unique phenomena that I get to experience, the anticipation of Anime night. Saturday night is my Anime night in here as Toonami provides about 80% of the content I get to see.

The waiting generally begins as soon as the evenings programming block is over. However there are situations where I find myself looking forward to the next week before the current one is even finished. Seeing a preview for an upcoming show like Lycoris Recoil or the next Demon Slayer arc can trigger this early anticipation. A cliffhanger episode can also leave me wanting for more before I've even had a chance to digest the remainder of the evening.

Generally though the next morning is when the wheels start moving in here. I usually get together with my friend and weather permitting we'll walk the track and discuss the shows from the night before. Speculating about what may happen next, we can't wait to see if our theories pan out. Rarely do I get close to where the story actually ends up, I clearly don't have the imagination to be a successful writer.

As the week starts to progress there are little landmark events that help build the longing for Saturday night. On Monday they play a couple of shows on the institutional channels. Currently our lineup consists of the original Naruto, Dragon Ball GT, Avatar, and starting this week - the better of the four in my opinion - Hunter x Hunter.

With Monday down the best you can hope for next is an update to the Securus tablet. There are currently three series on there and occasionally they release another season. They have Bleach, Naruto - Shippuden, and Sailor Moon. I have seen all three series but will grab an episode every now and then just to get my fix. At $3.00 an episode that gets pretty cost prohibitive in here though. They also have a handful of Anime movies to rent as well, a couple of the Naruto movies, a few Miyazaki's, and they recently added Belle. Still no Suzume though, despite my repeated requests.

My next landmark then is Thursday afternoon. That is laundry day for the housing unit I live in and when I come in from work I will notice the laundry carts have been moved from their regular location. One day my friend said, "Laundry day..., that means just two more days til Anime!". Now it is an inside joke of ours and provides that momentary pick me up, knowing that soon I will find myself in the comforts of Anime Night.

Once Saturday FINALLY gets here the anticipation turns to ritual. I have to drink an iced coffee around 8:00 pm to help stay up for the whole night. If I drink it too soon then I have to fight to stay awake, too late and I'll end up greeting the sunrise. I like to make a bigger meal on Saturday nights, since I'll be up so much later a little extra food helps keep the stomach from grumbling too much. They serve dinner at 4:00 p.m. here, if that were all I lived on I would never make it to 2:00 a.m. This past weekend found me dining on a penitentiary pizza which consists of Ramen soups, summer sausages, chili from a bag, snack crackers, jalapeño squeeze cheese, and a little honey. Ideally there will be some sweets for desert. I prefer Buddy Bars but they have been out of those for a few months now so Oatmeal Cream Pies have been my go to snack. Maybe a bag of jelly beans but I have to be careful there, a jelly bean addiction is a cruel mistress.

After my meal and coffee I'm ready to settle into my bunk and enjoy the evening. I even look forward to the commercials as they might have some information regarding upcoming shows. I don't have X in here or the internet so I only know what's coming if Toonami is nice enough to advertise it.

That's how I've been doing my time for all these years now, from one Saturday to the next. I'm down to 129 days now. Only 17 more Anime nights to go. Will there be a similar situation when I find myself a free man again? Or has the age of instant gratification done away with such things out there? When new shows are released on apps such as Crunchy Roll do they do like an episode a week or is it an all at once deal?
Every post brings me so much closer to freedom again, thanks everyone who takes the time to read and comment, moderate and share. It is appreciated.

[EDIT: Made the thread title a little less ambiguous. -TK]

Andy26 - your post made me flashback to when I was 4 or 5 years old and still believed in Santa Claus. I can still remember how that last 2 weeks before Christmas morning just CRAWLED by. I swear time stood still. It was like that blessed morning would never arrive.

One thing I wonder is how you will react once you are free and can watch anime any time you want. Will you be like a starving man who, once he is given food, eats too much at one time and makes himself sick? I dunno. I just know it's going to be fascinating to see how you adapt to an Anime Saturated environment like the rest of us already live in.

Again, thank you for sharing your experiences with us... it really is a window into another world.

Andy26 Wrote:

Quote:

When new shows are released on apps such as Crunchy Roll do they do like an episode a week or is it an all at once deal?

Mostly once a week. Crunchyroll and Hidive the two main streaming services release subtitled versions as they are broadcast in Japan. Usually within a day or so. Select series are also dubbed shortly after release in Japan. I'm not sure about the smaller anime streamers.

Netflix used to hold a series until it was over in Japan and post the entire season as once for binge watching. I know they are now releasing some anime week by week but I'm not sure if all series are done like that. Holding the series until the end of a season was referred to as Netflix Jail. People love to watch shows weekly as they come out and discuss them online and with offline friends. For those who were unwilling to pirate the show, Netflix Jail caused big problems.

That being said, the above pertains only to shows being shown currently in Japan. Crunchyroll alone has thousands of hours of anime from previous seasons. Hidive and Netflix have additional large bodies of prior seasons of anime. The only problem there is finding someone to discuss the show with. You may be able to find some form of anime club where you are living, check the local colleges. (Non college clubs tend to be way younger than you are likely to be comfortable with) You can also come here or other anime sites to see if you can get a thread running.

Unfortunately not all past anime is available streaming. For some shows you may have to go on Ebay or other third party sites and track down older DVDs, that can get expensive. Blood- can probably give you tips there.

I should note that a monthly subscription to Crunchyroll, Hidive or Netflix gives you access to their entire back catalog. No charges for single episodes there.

In addition to the sites that Alan45 mentioned, which are the main ones, Tubi, Retrocrush, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and HBO Max have anime titles. Tubi and Retrocrush have quite a few while the other three are much more limited, but Tubi and Retrocrush's libraries are mostly old stuff. All of which is to say that when you are free, you won't have any problem getting your anime fix!

It occurs to me that you are probably not familiar with what is current in Japan.

Each season, a quarter of a year or 13 weeks, anime broadcasts start over. While a few shows will run two or more seasons (often referred to as cours) most are new titles. Currently Japan puts out approximately 40 shows each season. While there are a few shorts, most of these run 12 or 13 episodes of about 24 minutes (with ads they are half hour episodes). So 6 to 6 1/2 hours per show. Making allowance for continued shows and shorts that works out to 120 to 150 shows a year. They have been doing this at this rate for the last decade or so. Some complain that this rate is unsustainable, but they have been saying that for the last decade or so and it hasn't stopped yet.

These are the shows I told you above that are streamed on a weekly basis. Feeling overwhelmed? We are. Bottom line is that you can't catch them all. Laughing

wait, how long has he been in prison?

Like, close to 20 years. I think since Toonami was still a new thing on Cartoon Network.

ok, so then the seasonal aspect of anime shouldn't be a new thing to him. What is going to be new is just how much airs each season now compared to 20ish years ago

17 years. He wasn't aware of anime before he went in. See his post below "Final Christmas in Prison"

Oh, sorry. I was not aware he made other discussion threads

Sorry, that does read a bit abrupt. It was intended to be informative not a rebuke. I'm on the site too often so I've seen his posts as they came up. It is interesting to see the view point of someone who likes anime but is not plugged into anime fandom, ...yet.

Arigato,

Thanks for all the great information everyone. Yes, its been a strange trip to get from where I started and now to where I'm going. I'm glad to see I'll have a few supportive people to lean on for information and opinions. Its one thing to Google search for streaming services but much better to just ask the people that use them. 116 days left as of this groundhog day. A symbolic day to reflect on this entire prison sentence, as each day seems to have been a carbon copy of the one before. They are starting to change though, they are starting to be filled with hope and anticipation of an amazing future, thanks again.

I think that broadcast anime on tv ended when 4kids went bankrupted.

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The state of anime broadcasting.