Well, it's begun. The new anime series from Gonzo, The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk, has begun its run in Japan, with concurrent availability on the same day, on Crunchyroll, BOST TV (either in streaming or downloadable form), and YouTube. The first episode in the series was broadcast in Japan last Friday, April 4, appearing shortly thereafter on the websites with English subtitles.

And following on the heels of that series, Blassreiter began its run in Japan the next day, again being made internationally available on the same sites.

GDH, Gonzo's parent company, had announced last week that it would allow an "open pricing" policy on the Crunchyroll site, effectively allowing downloaders of the episodes to choose the price they will pay for their own copy of a high-quality version. There are encouragements to pay more rather than less (special goodies like an animated badge from the series, or encoded versions for PSP or iPod), and judging from the "Top Donators" board, there are more than a few people willing to donate quite a lot. (At the time of this writing, the top donation for the first episode was $50.)

Gonzo views this pricing model both as a chance to assess viewer feedback, and as an opportunity to gain revenue to fund future projects.

The arrangement is slightly different on BOST TV. Viewers can pay 100 BOST points (around US $1.99) per episode, with the first two episodes of both series being free, or they can acquire a Season Pass that covers all episodes. (In the case of Tower of Druaga, being 12 episodes, the Pass is 1000 BOST points, while the 24-episode Blassreiter would be 2000 points.)

The YouTube run is free, and the many pages of comments indicate, so far, that this experiment is being quite well received. Amusingly, though, there is still the odd comment asking which fansub the series will eventually be on because, as the commenter complained, they want to see the episode full-sized on their computer screen, and not in the smaller format on YouTube. But there is general enthusiasm and congratulation to Gonzo and GDH for attempting this new way of delivering anime series outside of Japan without the time lag that so many fans dislike.

It will be interesting to see how much the enthusiasm (and financial contributions) may level off, once the novelty and excitement subside and this becomes the normal way of doing things. Gonzo's hope is obviously that this method will be so convenient to fans that both the company and the viewers can profit by it.