Over the past few weeks, I’ve been checking out the site, and today after compiling some notes. Here is AniWatch’s site review. Yes, they have a no-ads policy, but it’s not legal. But they do have a great user interface which is so easy to use and is very different than other pirate sites. The UI experience is pretty good as well. The best part is there are no ads. To add to that they even have a discord server which you can join, there you’ll get updates about AniWatch.
Aniwatch
Very nicely laid out site. The color scheme is a good balance between easy on the eyes but light enough to see what buttons to press and where to go. I love the backgrounds as they feature Rin from Shelter and Charlotte. But I think that they have gone Aesthetics more than functionality with the home page being really simple compared to Twist. Moe or even 9Anime. Personally, the “Anime Tab” was my go-to tab.
The Good
It Ad-Free, not a single ad on site even with video players. Smart programming – having the little 5-second pre-roll of their logo downloaded and played instead of stitching it to the beginning of every video is commendable on their end.
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Video player performance is implemented well with video downloaded (streamed to video player/client) in sections and not a live feed of sorts like older sites do.MAL and AniList’s support was appreciated even though I did not use them.Multilingual – Noticed on some videos
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had alternate audio/subtitle tracks was very surprising to see.Watch2Gether was such a great feature to see. Eliminates the middle service like KastGreat quality control with some great personal preferences too (like setting default quality or enabling Safe Search)You can Download Episodes too and OPs and EDs too apparently.
The Bad
Some users have expressed how they did not like making an account to use AniWatch
User ShodansReveal had this to say about creating an account for AniWatch
Oh, and another thing, classifying the account requirement thingy as a con is not really how things work since it has more advantages than disadvantages if you think properly
TheSpecialistGuy was put off by the account creation too
The requirement to create an account pushed me away so can’t say anything about this site from personal experience.
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Other users have mentioned that the database isn’t as large as other sites – BUT personally, this was totally fine with me as they have everything seasonal that I’m watching.
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Some UI issues especially on mobile. The dropdown menu is not as responsive as the desktop site and sometimes I go to a page where I was not meant to go.
User ferengi5 also had this to say about UI
The UI is a little confusing at first with useless drop down menus and side menus that can be opened up on accidentwhen clicking on a anime to watch, you have then load another page “Episodes” to finally see the episode
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Verdict
Overall Aniwatch is such a great site to use. It’s up there in one of the best sites around with exclusive features and really being able to give the choices they want.
I’m giving it 4 Stars with its great features, customization, and quality. The only main downside to it is that account creation may be a put off for some users but that’s okay if you change your perspective as some users have done.
It’s seriously a great site. You should be using it if you haven’t tried it.
Go check them out
Sidenote: There is an issue of too much buffering according to some community members, but I think that’s on their servers which is not counted for in this review as I was unable to determine if it was me or them or some other uncontrollable variable (like peak usage time, maintenance, browser performance). So this did not affect the score in any way. The buffering I got was minimal and did not disrupt my experience.
