By this time, I’m sure most of us have seen the Neon Alley ads proudly proclaiming that it is now accessible to PC and Mac users. Never heard of Neon Alley? Well, crawl out from under that rock and take a look at Muse’s original review for the PS3 service which does a good job at giving you a feel for the service in general. Though it’s to be expected, as far as I can tell, not much has changed both in terms of layout and video quality with the addition of a PC (and Mac) accessible service.
The front page for the site contains everything you need to know including a schedule that encompasses every day of the week as well as a box telling you what’s currently showing and what will be up next. It also has another box prompting you to sign up for a free, one week trial if you aren’t already a member, a small video advertising the site, and several rotating images near the middle of the page advertising some of the shows and movies it has. The only other pages you’re able to access are one that supposedly shows you all the shows Neon Alley runs (it’s missing several, so the title “All Shows” is a bit misleading) and another that leads you to what’s currently showing, although that one requires you to have a membership. In terms of selection, much of what Muse noted has transferred over, from the one hour blocks of shows to a slight slant in the shounen direction, though they do have some “girlier” stuff like NANA, Lagrange, and Vampire Knight regularly showing. The site isn’t looking to confuse you and the relatively simple design takes minutes to master once you figure out far you have to scroll.
In terms of the actual service that Neon Alley provides, I can’t say I was floored. For this post, I watched the first episode of K which was premiering on the site last week. Confusing story aside, K is a really pretty show to look at despite the annoying filters. Because of that, it was painfully obvious when drops in quality occurred. Things that were too shiny or moved a bit too quickly, often experienced a bit of pixiliation. It’s a shame because some of the more interesting moments like the chase scene on the skateboard didn’t look as good as they could have. The OP, though, was probably the part that suffered from the most from digital artifacting, even getting to the point where characters’ appearances became distorted. The episode often looked its best when movement was minimal, such as when people were walking or in close ups of faces.
Aside from the iffy video quality, everything else was fine. I didn’t experience any skipping and the only interruption to the stream was a commercial break at the middle and end of the episode which was composed of three commercials which advertised shows, movies, games, and even conventions. I actually enjoyed the commercials to an extent because I’m a trailer addict and these commercials are, at least, centered around things I care about. The sound quality during the episode was good; everything sounded clear. And, for those who care, even the dub wasn’t too bad.
Though Neon Alley in its PC/Mac version offers something unique in its idea to give members the experience of anime on TV, it hasn’t quite gotten to the point where I would want to actively invest time in it. What hurts the service the most, from my perspective, is that it’s trying to give you a TV experience on your computer. With regular TV, you usually tune in to a random episode of whatever show it is that you’re watching and don’t really mind because it’s TV. The Internet, and the computer specifically, are different. If you’re on your computer, you’re usually seeking out something you want to watch on-demand, especially with anime which tends to bank on you watching the episodes consecutively to understand what’s going on. I, personally, have never really had the patience to sit around and tune in at an exact time to watch something beyond my TMNT/Yu-Gih-Oh days. Bringing the TV experience to a PC doesn’t quite work because of the variety of options available via the rest of the Internet that can give you the same thing. I think the service would leave a better impression had I been using a TV, if only for the invoked sense of nostalgia. I’m sad to say I wan’t much impressed with the Neon Alley experience on my computer, but I admire what it’s trying to do overall and wish it much success; after all, more legal means of watching anime are always positive things.