According to Anime on DVD, BOST TV– the ugly middle child in GONZO’s release of Tower of Druaga and BLASSREITER –has given up on making people who didn’t sign up early pay for the episode and is now offering the episode for free to everyone who signs up. (Those who already used points to buy the episode will have them refunded.)

Their free offering includes a streaming 640×360 copy of the episode– higher res and smoother looking than YouTube, and way less choppy playback than Crunchyroll –and DRM-free downloadable versions for iPod and PSP. BOST’s iPod and PSP versions are slightly higher-res than Crunchyroll’s, though of course BOST doesn’t have the high-res downloadable CR does.

So now there’s even less reason to download fansub versions (Druaga now has three such releases, which have been downloaded over 6,000 times)– the BOST streaming version is pretty decent quality.

The race to kick ass bringing anime to American fans has begun! Not long after Crunchy Roll announced that it would be releasing GONZO’s new series BLASSREITER and Tower of Druaga ~Aegis of URUK~, BOST TV announced that in addition to doing the same, they will also be offering it in a DRM-free version at no extra cost.

Also, if you sign up for BOST before April 2nd, you get the first episode of each series for free.

Alright, who wants to one-up that? Anyone?