According to Anime News Network, quoting a Japanese press release, GDH/Gonzo is set to run another anime series on YouTube and Crunchyroll.

Readers will recall that instead of taking the same path that many other distributors and producers have taken, coming down hard on fansites that streamed unlicensed anime episodes, Gonzo and its parent company GDH decided to roll with the trends and put some series online for fans to watch very shortly after the episodes had run in Japan. (The company seemed to reason that one explanation for illegal copying and streaming of anime was that fans had to wait so long for someone to bring the shows to North America.)

To that end, they have been running both The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk and Blassreiter on Crunchyroll, on BOST-TV, and on their YouTube site (Tower of Druaga here, and Blassreiter here). In some cases, fans can watch for free, but usually also have the option of paying a small fee for a version with higher definition.

While Blassreiter still has 12 or 13 episodes to go, Tower of Druaga finished its 12th and final episode on July 20. So GDH/Gonzo have announced that the next series to run on YouTube and Crunchyroll will be Strike Witches. Anime News Network reports that BOST-TV wasn't mentioned, but it wasn't the first site mentioned last time either, so we'll see if the series ends up running there before they're done.

Strike Witches is another 12-episode series, and will premier in Japan on July 3, which means that it will probably air on YouTube and Crunchyroll on July 4 or 5, since these episodes always play first in Japan before being placed on the websites. The series tells the story of the planet's battle against the Neuroi, who spread a corrosive miasma over the world. They are opposed by a combination of magic and technology, in the persons of Strike Witches whose magical powers enable them to handle technology and weapons that would normally be beyond their strength.

GDH/Gonzo appear to be satisfied with how their online experiment is going, with the result that fans can continue viewing a few new series at virtually the same time they run in Japan. Those who have enjoyed Tower of Druaga will be pleased to learn that a sequel is planned, but it won't air until July of 2009. So they'll be happy that these other series are running in the meantime.