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A friend of mine was asking me whether I knew any good and reliable sites to download Naruto from. When he said download, he meant direct downloads off the site instead of via BitTorrent. To be totally honest, I stopped watching Naruto the moment the fillers started. That means I wasn’t exactly up to date with the subject. In a way, it was good and bad.

For one, it piqued my interest in the series. After a long string of fillers, the anime is finally back on track. I could just as well jump in where the main story arc picked off but I found myself curious about the episodes I missed. As a result, I went searching for a good answer to a good question. Is there a reliable site out there for Naruto downloads? The answer is yes and no depending on whether or not you’re willing to pay for the service.

Free Direct Downloads
There are several sites that offer free downloads. However, that doesn’t mean all of them are good. There were a few that I managed to get a few episodes from. However, these free download servers were heavily bogged down with traffic (for obvious reasons), and were far from reliable. Considering the unstable broadband connection that I am on, the combination was a disastrous one.

It is frustrating to have to wait 3+ hours for a download to complete. It is worse when the connection (both broadband and server) drops when you’re 2 thirds of the way through to completion. Since the majority direct download sites don’t support download accelerators, you’re left with little choice except to re-download the episode.

Of the free sites, these are probably the best:
Naruto Chaos
Episode Availability: All
Download Format: AVI
Download Manager Support: No

Full listing of all previous episodes. The server connection is somewhat unreliable. Connections drop without warning. The FAQ suggests using a download manager that supports resumption of partial downloads but try as I may, I can’t seem to get any of the popular brands to work with the site.

Naruto Kun
Episode Availability: 1 - 25
Download Format: AVI
Download Manager Support: Yes

If for some reason you’re looking for the first 25 episodes, then this is the BEST site for you. The downloads are fast and you can use your favourite download accelerator program (such as Download Accelerator).

Naruto Central
Episode Availability: Latest 5 episodes
Download Format: Real Media
Download Manager Support: Yes

The download files are compressed which makes for speedier and easier downloads. File are roughly 25% the size of the original AVI files. That translates to faster downloads for the fans. Unfortunately, if you’re after older episodes, then this isn’t the site for you. Only the latest five episodes are provided for free.

Paid Downloads
If you have a few US dollars lying around, you might like to consider a paid service. Since I was looking for the older episodes, I scouted around for some sites that offered premium memberships. Basically you pay a small sum for privilege access to all Naruto episodes (and a host of other anime downloads) and faster download speeds.

Naruto Central
Episode Availability: All
Download Format: AVI (All) / Real Media (Partial) / MP4 (Partial)
Gold Membership: USD5.00 / month
Bandwidth: Unlimited
Other Downloads (Anime): Yes
Download Manager Support: Yes

Hands down, this is the best bang for your dollars. For a monthly fee of USD5.00, you get full access to all Naruto episodes at very reliable download speeds. Download managers are supported so you don’t have to worry about losing connections and having to start from scratch. The servers are pretty reliable with good uptime.

In addition to Naruto, you also gain unlimited download access to over 800GB of episodes from other animes. A pretty fair deal if you’re an anime junkie. Granted that BitTorrent gives it to you for free, but it’s sometimes a real pain downloading from peers. The download speed here is pretty good. On a stable home line, I’ve managed downloads at 30+kbps.

Naruto Plus
Episode Availability: All
Download Format: AVI
Gold Membership: USD4.98 / month
Bandwidth: 5GB / month
Additional Bandwidth: 5GB - USD5.00, 10GB - USD9.00, 20GB - USD15.00
Other Downloads (Anime): Yes
Download Manager Support: Yes

This was the first paid service that I tried. They aren’t very clear about the bandwidth limitation, so I got suckered into thinking that it was nlimited access for USD4.98. Lets just say that I burned through the 5GB limit in under 24 hours. That was painful.

You DO get very premium service! The download speeds are super fast and they have several servers to source from. Download speeds may vary depending on your connection speed. I’ve seen it go upwards of 300kbps from my office connection. On my rather unreliable Streamyx 512kb connection, downloads are at a respectable rate of 50+kbps. That’s a fairly good rate considering that my connection speed test hovers around the 200kbps mark. That’s the reason why they are charging extra for the bandwidth.

That’s not to say they don’t have any problems. The server has bailed on me on several occasions. I’ve had downloads quit on me unexpectedly (even with Download Accelerator). The download becomes corrupted and I’m unable to resume. There’s also been several occasions when I’ve completed the downloads (150+MB) only to be told that it was corrupted. This really burns into the limited bandwidth that you’re allowed/purchased. Quite unfair if you ask me since you lose out on a few episodes because of their servers.

Conclusion
Back to the question of good and reliable download sites for Naruto. There are free sites available but don’t expect blazingly fast downloads. Sites with premium membership access is something to consider if you’re desperate. You get what you pay for. However, they also have their limitations. Of the two premium sites I’ve tried, I recommend Naruto Central simply because they do not limit your bandwidth.

Bandwidth caps are a pain and expensive. USD5.00 for 5GB of bandwidth is just not worth it, even if the downloads are 6 times faster. Think for a moment and you’ll understand why.

5GB of bandwidth at roughly 170MB per episode gives you 29 episodes (excluding the bandwidth you waste downloading corrupted files). In Malaysia, USD5.00 = roughly RM18.00. A DVD containing 10 episodes can be bought for RM5.00. That means you can get about 40 episodes for the same price, minus the waiting period and overheads.

In conclusion, if you’re an anime junkie, then go for the paid premium access. You’ll probably get your money’s worth. However, if you’re just a casual fan, then download off the recommended free sites, stick with BitTorrent, or purchase the episode DVD from your local DVD outlet. Better yet, get your friends to burn you a copy.

Now, if only my Naruto download would hurry up and complete.