Remember the Minna no Theater Wii (Everybody’s Theater Wii)? It’s a digital entertainment streaming program designed for WiiWare in Japan. The service goes live on January 25, about a month later than originally planned, and you can only rent movies or TV shows to watch.
Similar to Joysound Wii, Fujisoft has a three courses, or as you would say in American English packages, to choose from.
A little watching course: 1 title to watch over 2 days for 300 Wii Points.
Basic course: 2 titles to watch over 3 days for 600 Wii Points.
Leisurely course: 3 title to watch over 5 days for 800 Wii Points.
Since anime isn’t as long as a full length movie three anime episodes count as one title. Fujisoft also offers three free anime episodes to watch: Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy), Aria the Animation, and Araiguma Rascal which sort of makes up for the fact you have to pay 500 Wii Points to get access to Minna no Theater Wii in the first place.
The service seems to have a lot of content, mostly classic anime content right now. Titles include the Gacchaman OVA, Kimba the White Lion, and Swan Lake. There are some episodes of the new Astro Boy series in the list too. The other categories like movies and drama are mostly bare. Surprisingly, Ultraseven X, which is part of the Ultraman series is considered a “drama”.
Once you get over paying the fee to download Everyone’s Theater Wii renting full length movies from Fujisoft is cheaper compared to the PlayStation Store and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Video Marketplace content. However, it’s not like Japan has those other options right now. The PlayStation Store only offers a selection of anime and the Xbox Live Video Marketplace doesn’t exist there yet. Microsoft will launch the Video Marketplace in Japan next year.
Images courtesy of Fujisoft.
