Hulu: A Treasure Trove of Free Anime

I’ve never fully realized until now, but HULU is Bad ASS!

Not only do they offer a unique selection of animated films, both American, and Japanese, all available for FREE, but they have a RIDICULOUS ABUNDANCE of anime series, closely nearing 200, nearly all entirely FREE, and they even have a crap ton of shows that usually only Crunchyroll gets their hands on. They have almost the entire FUNimation and Nozomi line-ups here, including such notable specialties as:

Alien Nine, Princess Knight, Dirty Pair the original OVAs and the Dirty Pair FLASH OVA, Sabor Marrionette J and R, Soul Eater and Soul Eater NOT!, Super Gals, Soni Ani, Nadia the Secret of Blue Water, Irresponsible Captain Tyler, Fist of the North Star, Excel Saga, Birdy the Mighty Decode, New Dominion Tank Police, Zatchbell, Blood Lad, Case Closed, Tenchi Muyo, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, FLCL, Magic Knight Rayearth, Sonic X, Sgt. Frog, Pani Poni Dash

and the list goes freaking on and on and ON!

How on earth could you want anything more than this!? This is even better than Crunchyroll, because at least here you don’t have to contend with arbitrary resolution sizes that look crappy as hell, and you don’t have to mess with nearly as many ads in the middle of your show. The ads come about as often as they would have back in the late 90s and early 2000s on television. And trust me, TV ads are far more annoying these days, having doubled their efforts since the internet became the primary source for home entertainment. Besides, if you really have a problem with ads, then that’s your own problem. Because this is still a damn sweet deal, and you owe it to yourself to work through it, especially if you are on a tight budget, and the only good thing you have is a solid internet connection.

I’d also like to point out that there are quite a few notable films available for FREE instant streaming on Hulu, specifically animated ones, that otherwise would be a bit difficult to obtain. Thankfully, some of them you can also watch on Amazon and Netflix, but Hulu is the only place you can see them without a subscription or fee of ANY KIND. And you get to watch them in relatively good quality.

A lot of these films, and indeed some TV shows, that are present here on Hulu, it appears, have been sub-licensed to Hulu through either their original owners, or from a US distribution company known as Discotek Media, a sub-company of Eastern Star. They’re the ones who are currently packaging Monster Rancher, CyberSix, Gatchaman, Sherlock Hound, and Lupin the Third Part I, all of which are here for free viewing.

However, the anime giant known as TMS, whom I’ve mentioned countless times in the past for their impeccable animation skills, are the owners and producers of the Lupin the 3rd franchise, which not only has a few films available here, but ALL FOUR television series nearly in their entirety: that includes Lupin the Third Part I (the green jacket series), Lupin the Third Part II (the red jacket series), Lupin the Third Part III (the pink jacket series), and Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. Likely TMS made a deal with Hulu directly, in order to allow this massive library of material to be made available, and for free to the public no less, along with some of their other productions like Princess and the Pilot, and the yet unreleased Lupin VS Conan the Movie.

We also have a fair amount of GKids releases here of some notable foreign animated features, with their high-quality English dubs I imagine: including Nocturna, A Cat in Paris, Chico & Rita, Mia and the Migoo, The Secret of Kells, and Patema Inverted.

And FUNimation is not short on titles here either, as they have nearly all of their major anime series like: Cowboy Bebop, Space Dandy, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Watamote, Blood Lad, Senran Kagura, Pet Girl, Heaven’s Lost Property, the entire Slayers television franchise, Hetalia Axis Powers, Baka and Test, Ouran Highschool Host Club, Sekirei, Samurai Champloo, Spice and Wolf, One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach.

And to round things off, here are a few other notable animated films that can be found on Hulu as well. Keep in mind also, that certain anime features may have been accidentally stuck into the “anime television” section by mistake. So be sure to search carefully, as everything I have mentioned here was up on the site the day this entry was posted.

The Secret of NIMH, The Point, The Princess and the Goblin, , Bugville, Animal Farm, American Pop, Dead Leaves, Inuyasha Movie 3, Patlabor the Movie, Ghost in the Shell (original cut), Fairy Tale Phenonix Express, Beyonetta: Bloody Fate, Trigun Badlands Rumble, Cardcaptor Sakura the Movie, Afro Samurai Resurrection, Kite, Revolutionary Girl Utena the Movie, Legend of the Millennium Dragon, Ninja Scroll, Appleseed, Origin Spirits of the Past, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, Rahxephon: The Motion Picture, Colorful, Lupin the Third: Green VS Red, Redline, Armitage the Third, King of Thorn, The Castle of Cagliostro, Gunbuster VS Diebuster: Aim for the TOP! – THE GATTAI!! Movie, Jungle Emperor Leo, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – The Laughing Man, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Individual Eleven, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society, Gunbuster the Movie, Ghost in the Shell: 2.0, Loups=Garous, Jin Roh (Subbed), Jin Roh (Dubbed), Sword of the Stranger, Lupin the Third: The Mystery of Mamo, Space Adventure Cobra, Panda Go Panda, Under Sea Super Train: Marine Express (Osamu Tezuka cross-over film), Vexille, Blue Gender: The Warrior, and Macross II: The Movie

If you were not aware of this glorious treasure trove of anime goodness, then I surely hope that you are now, and that you will take the opportunity to peruse its wares, because this is one of the best libraries for a free, and legal, streaming service that I have ever seen.

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