I started off with the newsgroups, then moved across to the ED2K network for most stuff (eMule). It's still great for the older anime where I'm not too worried about how long it takes to come down - got the end of Popotan and Najica Blitz Tactics on their way at the moment :-)

For the latest stuff I want it now, so BitTorrent is the way for me, I ain't got the bandwidth to make it worth while trying mIRC for anime, but I have been known to use it for other stuff.

Either way I know I'm helping to keep the files available on the networks while I'm getting new episodes to dfeed my addiction