The founder of a new site for streaming anime contacted me to take a look at his site, Anime Bananas, and possibly write reviews for him. The question of Anime Bananas legitimacy came up on the Crunchyroll Forums. As evidence for its legitimacy, one can’t find fansub versions of anime on the site, and the founder has agreements with the anime providers he connects to. Let me talk about the benefits of Anime Bananas and a couple of its drawbacks below.
The site brings together six streaming venues (Crunchyroll, Hulu, YouTube, Viewster, Viki, and Tubi TV) into one so that the viewer has a huge selection of anime available in one place. In particular, it allows one to watch episodes on Hulu without paying a membership fee for that site! Still, one must deal with commercials on Hulu and most other sites even if one is a paying member on those other venues. (Crunchyroll stands as an exception: if you are signed on as a premium member, there are no commercials.) Another drawback to Hulu on Anime Bananas is that certain mirrors are no longer active due to Hulu dropping those shows, e.g. Magic Knight Rayearth and Armitage III.
I’m hoping for Hulu to bring Magic Knight Rayearth back, but we’ll see.
Anime Bananas reminds one of Crunchyroll in having pages for anime which lack episodes, e.g. Angel Cop. The best way to prevent having one’s hopes dashed again and again is to set the search to “Watch Only.” (“Discussion Only” does the reverse of including only shows with no videos.) On Anime Bananas, one can find shows which are hard to find elsewhere, like Key the Metal Idol, Dallos, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Ga-Rei Zero. I’m really looking forward to exploring this site and adding some reviews.
Many anime fans overlook Ga-Rei Zero, but it has a very powerful story and great characters.
Be sure to check it out!
Medieval Otaku 
Were you paid to talk about this? If so what do you actually think. Also what does it cost and can you log in with a crunchyroll/hulu account? Do you even need an account to watch anime on the website?
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You certainly ask the right questions! No, I have not been compensated in any way to write this. The founder has offered to pay for me to have my own domain for a year, but I don’t see the need for it and so will decline. A tobacco company once sent me four cigars to review (you might find that post interesting to see in an aniblog!); otherwise, I have never received valuable compensation for my work here.
If I have hidden anything in my review, it might be to the exact level of my irritation at finding so many broken links to Hulu. I also omitted my initial skepticism, which has since been overcome. Anime Bananas is a great idea and on the level.
There is no cost to join Anime Bananas. Premium membership on Crunchyroll is $6.99 and Hulu demands $7.99 for base membership and $11.99 to watch without commercials. You don’t need either membership to watch anime from these two sites if you use Anime Bananas. But, being signed on to your Crunchyroll premium membership while using Anime Bananas means no commercials; on the other hand, being logged on to Hulu, even if you pay the $11.99 per month for no commercials, confers no additional benefit–you still get commercials.
As for whether you need to have an account to watch anime from Anime Bananas, it seems like it’s not necessary.
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Thanks!
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So where does this site fit in the anime streaming market? It seems like it has legitimacy not present on sites which host illegally copied content, but it doesn’t seem to fit in the premium service niche held by crunchyroll and funimation. How does the site finance itself? Is it entirely ad driven? If so, does the owner have precautions in place to prevent malicious ads? If the site is truly legitimate, I’d like to be able to support it, but I am cautious to whitelist a site for adblock unless I’m sure it won’t lead to trouble.
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It looks like the site has no ads. They look quite premium to me. However, I normally watch straight on Crunchyroll.
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I don’t know all the particulars of the business model. I just know that there must be some ad revenue and that the owner has contracts with all the anime providers there.
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