8 episodes a week until latest are up; Crunchyroll drops unauthorized content

Viz Media's Naruto.com website, the Crunchyroll video-sharing website, and the Hulu.com website have begun streaming the first eight English-subtitled episodes of the Naruto Shippūden ninja anime sequel series for free at 6:00 a.m. ET on Friday. The websites will continue adding eight more episodes of Shippūden at that same time every week until they are caught up with the latest episodes broadcasted in Japan. Crunchyroll will also simulcast the latest episodes of Shippūden within an hour of their Japanese broadcast to Crunchyoll Anime Membership subscribers, starting on January 8. Naruto.com, Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Joost.com will stream the same episodes for free a week later.

Crunchyroll has also announced that it has removed user-uploaded content and officially added the following anime series to its website: Gintama, Eyeshield 21, Skip Beat!, Shugo Chara, Dear Boys, Chrono Crusade, and Neo Angelique Abyss. The website will begin simulcasting Gintama, Shugo Chara, Skip Beat, Natsume Yujincho, Web Ghosts PiPoPa (Net Ghost PiPoPa), Linebarrels of Iron, and The Tower of Druaga: the Sword of Uruk within hours of their Japanese broadcast next week. Crunchyroll has posted a list of its authorized content, with some titles that have yet to be announced. The anime content on the different sites will not be available to all countries — for example, Naruto Shippuden on Crunchyroll will be available to all countries except Japan and France.

Image © 2002 Masashi Kishimoto / 2007 Shippuden