Animax - Bunch of Jokers

elaniel

elaniel

Vampire Ninja
Hi all,

Not sure if anyone else has had any issues with them?

I took out the free 2 week trial and was charged straight away. I've actually tried contacting them via phone 5 times and 2 times they have cut me off and the others I have been promised a call back with none coming through.

I chased up again today and was put through to someone who claims it was escalated to her and that she now has to escalate to someone else. It really shouldn't take this much hassle to deal with.

Sorry for ranting, but want to know if other's have had any issues in the past? I'm going to see it as a sign that I should stick with physical discs and not bother with streaming.
 
I think they're useless and consider any series they license to be unlicensed because I don't want to use their terrible website and endure their fuzzy release dates. It's easy to ignore them because they've inherited AoD's complete inability to publicise any of their acquisitions or schedules - I only found out that they had Sekai Seifuku after it was too late to watch the simulcast and it sounds as though my decision not to use the trial was wise ^^;

Having said that, I have had success emailing them before to give feedback. They very politely thanked me for my message and wrote a personal reply which sidestepped all of my suggestions. Good luck.

I wish they'd merge with someone else and disappear, because it's silly having four major streaming services here with only a handful of new titles per season. License exclusivity is a pain in the neck when it comes hand in hand with subpar services.

R
 
Problems i've had vary:

  • I'm not in the UK so no video access - seems to be on & off
  • Video refuses to play
  • Watching a video and then it being cut off to be told there is no item available
  • Watching Tiger & Bunny dub for subtitles to randomly appear*
  • Not being able to find a few episodes because for whatever reason, some of their simulcasts weren't showing in the shows section
  • Not replying to email regarding AOD offer and comments

*The first time I noticed this, an email was sent off - they replied that an clean version is being recovered. Subtitles on screen also were different to the sub.

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All in all though, i'm still subscribed for now...
 
The problem I have with them being terrible is that they license a bunch of titles with exclusivity, and they're titles the US gets to see on Crunchyroll. It's maddening that they effectively lock us out of the good versions on Crunchyroll then try to make us pay extra to watch on their flaky service.

Problems I've had include:

  • Unwatchable, poor video quality whenever their player spontaneously decides I'm on dialup for some reason (I have no trouble on Crunchyroll/Wakanim/Niconico). This should be user configurable if their player's detection sucks.
  • No real support for alternative devices.
  • They add content more slowly than US services.
  • Even then, titles are delayed with no warning or explanation.
  • It's not clear when things are going to go up even when they aren't delayed.
  • There's no ad-free option for simulcasts whatsoever, even when you pay.
  • I don't understand what the subscription provides if you already own their catalogue titles and/or follow simulcasts, since the video player offers the same poor quality and simulcasts still have ads.

Crunchyroll gets it so right with a schedule on the front page, updates when something is delayed by a couple of hours, a news feed for site information, clear, consecutive ordering by default on all shows and a logical subscription system. It puts Animax to shame :(

R
 
Rui said:
Crunchyroll gets it so right with a schedule on the front page, updates when something is delayed by a couple of hours, a news feed for site information, clear, consecutive ordering by default on all shows and a logical subscription system. It puts Animax to shame :(

R
Click to expand...

Animax should have adopted Funimation's format for streaming, like this:
Watch uncut and exclusive series that are unavailable to non-subscribers.
Gain access to over 300 shows and movies. That's over 8,500 videos, including 2,500+ in HD.
Get English dubs the same day they’re released on DVD and Blu-ray – sometimes even sooner.
Watch your anime in HD, commercial-free.
Watch TV-MA uncut and exclusive series.
Get access to subscription content across all of our apps.
Access the Elite Member forum where you can get extras and hear breaking news before anyone else.
Click to expand...

If they do this method then it would be worth it. They could ask Viz and others to get exclusive dubbed anime from their Neon Alley service to Animax while also teaming up with Kaze to get their catalog on the service every time they release a show on DVD and Blu-ray.

But yeah, CR puts Animax to shame.
 
Obligatory.

I've only been to Animax's website a couple of times, and from what I've read here I see no reason to change that. It really is Anime-on-Demand 2.0, except I think they've actually made it worse. That you still get ads on simulcasts even when subscribing is absolutely ridiculous. This is precisely the wrong way of providing competition for Crunchyroll.

I hope that situation gets resolved for you Elaniel. Charging straight away for a free trial is not on.
 
Are they still doing ads? I've noticed that I haven't been getting them on the simulcasts like I would have done a month ago. Just extra checked, Hamatora episode 7 didn't start with ads and I have no ad blocker with the browser i'm using.
 
I've always found that with Animax (and Wakanim for that matter) that the ads only seem to play randomly. They'll sometimes pause for an ad at the expected time and nothing will happen. I don't use any adblock plug-ins at all so it's probably an issue at their end :S

Not sure whether this happens on Crunchyroll as I have never used the free version. I assume they're all still doing ads, unless they aren't trying to make any money at all...

(The suggestion that they should copy Funimation's system would definitely work for me! Funi have done a fabulous job of tying their physical product into their streaming service while making the elite upgrade worthwhile. Shame they hate non-Americans.)

R
 
Before they launched the PS3 app, I avoided them at all costs - which sucks because they have two of my favourite shows this season (Nisekoi and Chunibyo). I haven't subscribed because I don't see £6 as being worth it when I own the majority of their catalogue already and their delays are a pain. I will use the PS3 app to watch Nisekoi and Chunibyo on the big screen, but that's it.
 
Wow, you're right! How do you get to that page from the front of their site?

Assuming I'm not blind, I now feel sorry for the person who writes announcements which they don't post for visitors to spot. I was travelling at that time and when I was syncing back up I relied on their simulcasts landing page as they have no obvious news feed.

R, who doesn't use Facebook :S
 
Their website is absolutely appallingly designed. I wish they'd make it much more obvious which number the episodes are, because believe it or not I don't have the names of every episode of Magi and Nisekoi committed to memory :roll:
 
st_owly said:
Their website is absolutely appallingly designed. I wish they'd make it much more obvious which number the episodes are, because believe it or not I don't have the names of every episode of Magi and Nisekoi committed to memory :roll:
Click to expand...
For Nisekoi - all the episodes are marked as [episode number] - [name]. For Magi, the same applies but only from season 2, episode 13.
 
Yeah they eventually listened to people rightly complaining that it was impossible to watch anything in order without poring over the full descriptions. The sorting is still terrible, but at least once the simulcast gets going the ordering is ok. Magi was so confusing for the first few weeks of season two when the episodes were all randomly jumbled in with season one no matter how you sorted it.

I think Animax's core problem is that they never look at the site from the perspective of an actual anime fan who just wants to watch a show. They bombard you with tons of distracting images from other series -which bafflingly don't have the series title in the name - but they never think about how the user browses the site. They advertise their premium service without caring that it doesn't cater for everyone. They also assume everyone psychically has the same information they do, and it's really, really not transparent when things will appear and disappear from the site.

Daisuki is quite bad for navigation too, though at least there's some organisation under the dodgy presentation and I can now use their iOS app which cuts out the mess.

It would do these sites a great service to recruit a bunch of cantankerous fans and get them to go through the site naturally and give feedback which will be heeded about what isn't working in the design.

R
 
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