Time for another Rising Sun. I bet you’re feeling a tad bored of all the reviews, so let’s spice things up and talk about a streaming service today.

Approaching the end of the summer, I began to think strongly about buying a subscription to FunimationNOW, a streaming service that is run right from Funimation’s website. After all, my co-workers have strong opinions of the service, so I figured, why not? I took the plunge, and found it to be so worth it.

First off, the prices. The basic plan is $5 a month for almost all of Funimation’s titles in the original Japanese. But if you prefer dubs, the $8 a month plan should do just fine. Plus, it’s the same price as Netflix. (I think?) Personally, I think they should be rolled together into a single plan, on account of the simple fact that most people who watch anime in the United States are going to be doing it through the dubs. But that’s personal experience talking, and I’m sure there’s a reason for that plan.

Anyway, getting past the prices, you find a tidal wave of content in a wide variety of genres staring you in the face. Not only are a good portion of the series I’ve reviewed available here, but there are also movies, series unavailable anywhere else, and one of my favorite things, broadcast dubs. A broadcast dub is a anime that receives a dub as it is aired in Japan. The practice began with Space Dandy on Adult Swim, and now it’s done for multiple shows every quarter. In fact, I think I should cover some of the shows on here quick-and-dirty to showcase the content variety. I’ll do full reviews of them later on, but for now let’s start with:

Three Leaves, Three Colors – Originally aired in Japan as Sansha Sanyou, this series follows the lives of (as the ending credits calls them) a former rich girl, a black-hearted class rep and a black hole. It is hilarious to watch, and one of my favorite touches is that like Madoka Magica, the episode titles come from lines in the corresponding episodes.

Dragon Ball: The Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle – Back in the eighties and nineties, whenever Toei did a animated film festival for spring break or whatever, there would be a Dragon Ball movie. And the second film, The Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle, is a fun take on the horror genre that gives a good spin to Goku and Krillin’s initial encounter.

Magical Teacher Negima! – The last thing the students of Mahora Academy expected was the new teacher to be a kid from Wales, much less a wizard-in-training. Like Fullmetal Alchemist: The Original Series, this anime adaptation goes off in it’s own direction because the source material’s ending wasn’t planned out at the time. But here, there’s no true-to-the-text reboot, so I’ll have to put up with it. Also, it’s pretty rife with fanservice, despite the TV-PG rating. (I think TV-14 is more accurate.)

Kanon (Kyoto Animation) – This series is a reboot of a Toei Animation series, which in turn adapted a computer game. I’ve only seen the first episode, but I liked it. Although I think I was just waiting for the taiyaki girl to show up, which was referenced in Lucky Star. I’ll definitely want to see more.

So therefore, if you like anime but don’t like the minimal variety of Netflix or the mostly sub-only nature of Crunchyroll, I doubt you’ll regret trying out FunimationNOW. It is a fantastic service that anyone will love.