Crunchyroll for sale, Kissanime shutting down, and anime legally on YouTube in the future

 The current pandemic has left me with more time on my hands than I had in years, so I kinda wanted to go back into writing (at least for a while). And the last week has given me more than sufficient material to work with. 

For real, it's been years since the anime community has been shocked this much. And I remember writing about it last time as well: See this post.

So let's connect the dots, shall we?

Part 1: AT&T is in huge debt and wants to fix that

AT&T? What does this have to do with anything, you ask? Well: everything! Back in 2018 AT&T purchased Otter media for the whopping sum of 1 billion dollars. The name Otter media may not ring a bell, but this is thé group that consisted of Crunchyroll, VRV, RoosterTeeth and a few others. This thus made AT&T the owner of Crunchyroll.

However, massive consecutive purchases and the Corona-crisis has left AT&T in a period of self-reflection to fix its massive debt situation. The company is 151 billion dollars in debt and needs HUGE restructuring in order to get it back into shape. Earlier messages confirmed that most of the staff of DC Comics (another subsidiary of AT&T) was fired and that the comic book industry will undergo a digital revolution (including stopping physical prints of single issues, stopping the DC Universe streaming service and other things).

Now, the old rumor of Crunchyroll being for sale has turned into pure facts. AT&T wants to sell Crunchyroll for 1 billion dollars or more and sees in Sony an ideal purchasing "partner". However, AT&T is trying to milk as much money out of this deal as possible, resulting in some bickering back and forth.

AT&T originally wanted 1.5 billion dollars, Sony balked at the price, and now they're talking with multiple partners about a sale price. Who these "other partners" are, is not revealed and may even be pure speculation/fiction to drive up the price. But I guess we'll hear more about this in the future, since deals like this can take months to complete (if not years).

Part 2: Kissanime has closed its doors

Huge news came this past weekend when fans had to read the news that Kissanime and its content servers were taken down by copyright owners. 

This news does not come out of nowhere. Back in June, Japan reinforced its copyright protection laws and made it easier to strike towards people who upload copyright protected works (anime, manga, magazines, books and other forms of media or academic papers). This clearly gave copyright owners the right tools to finally go after sites who provide streams and downloads of anime, like Kissanime. It has been one of the biggest thorns in their side for the past decade, so it obviously had the biggest target on its back.

But it's also obvious that they won't stop there. (in)Famous anime torrent site Nyaa had survived its earlier takedown which I reported on a few years ago (that post aged horribly, considering it bounced back a week later or so). But with the takedown of Kissanime, I think it's safe to say that Nyaa will probably be next on the radar of the copyright owners.

Let's not beat around the bush: The intent of the Japanese copyright owners is to eliminate fansubs and especially end groups that steal legal streams and spread them as their own (most notoriously offenders being Horriblesubs and Kissanime).

Will this work? That is a big question. Prior famous takedowns of Piratebay and Nyaa have not really worked, since alternative sites quickly take its place. But takedowns of "content sharing services" like MegaUpload, Rapidshare, Limewire, and others have worked. It all depends on how much of a witch hunt the copyright owners are willing to go on. With the Japanese law now at their sides, we may see a notable change in how anime is "shared" in the future.

And on that note...

Part 3: YouTube channel AnimeLog will host anime legally

Source: https://variety.com/2020/streaming/asia/japan-animation-unified-youtube-anime-initiative-1234728555/

Link to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsnDtu-g18tDA4miToMOjXQ/videos

Toei Animation, Kodansha, Nippon Animation, Tezuka Productions, Shogakukan-Shueisha productions and Shinei Animation have banded together, and together with an influx from American money will make anime legal for viewing on YouTube. This American money being Benjamin Grubbs and the investment venture Next10 Venture.

While the first uploads will be exclusive to Japan, the uploaded titles will eventually get subbed into multiple languages (including English, obviously). 

What content is going to uploaded is still up to question. But most likely it's older anime (like Black Jack and Astroboy which are present in the banner), and family-friendly anime (I've read things like Doraemon, Shin-Shan and others). 

Now the big question as to WHY and why now? Simple: Combating piracy. One of the few valid remarks that the internet had on Kissanime's existence is "preservation of older titles". Titles that aren't on streaming services and where the content is out of print or very hard to find. This can fix that issue. And if it's successful, maybe even more in the future. There's a huge library of anime that can be added.

But a few questions remain. 

Question: Will EVERY anime title in existence appear on here? No, definitely not. The bigger  titles are just too profitable to sell through distributors instead of YouTube ads. While I'd love to see more titles on here, it's obviously not going to go that fast.

Question: Is this the end for Crunchyroll and Funimation? No, definitely not. However, in the case AnimeLog becomes a success, both may see their catalog shrink over time (not immediately). 

On Funimation's side, I think it's noteworthy to mention that one of the production companies absent from the AnimeLog description is Sony/Aniplex. They own Funimation and they clearly do not want to be part of this YouTube endeavor (yet). So it's safe to say that the amount of Aniplex/Cloverworks titles on this channel will be limited, if any at all. Funimation dubs will not be present either. So if you think about it, regardless of AnimeLog's success, this will have little to no impact on Funimation's business.

Crunchyroll on the other end? Not in the beginning, at least. Crunchyroll focuses more on new titles, which sure aren't going to appear here (yet). However, if this channel does become a success, Crunchyroll's catalog may take a hit over time, as licenses may no longer be renewed. We've already seen a lot of titles disappear from CR very recently. And if AnimeLog becomes a success and becomes larger, I wouldn't be surprised if more were to follow in the coming months and/or years.

And with a lot of titles disappearing from the service over time, what is left for them? The Netflix method: Branding yourself with original content with the Crunchyroll Originals. If Crunchyroll can host many original titles that will not appear on AnimeLog, it will secure its own future.

On that note: let's circle back to Part 1 of this post: If AnimeLog becomes a success and becomes the future for anime streaming, is Crunchyroll still worth more than 1 billion dollar? I think most people would agree it is not. However, this is a speculative area, and I doubt things will go that fast overall, and thus very unlikely the value would drop very fast (I'd be surprised).

Also, why is Sony/Aniplex is seriously bidding for Crunchyroll right now? This is because they want more exclusive content to stand strong against any challenger in the current Streaming wars.

One final question: WILL AnimeLog become a success? Only time will tell. Daisuki wasn't the greatest success (though that may have been because Aniplex/Sony bailed on them), but maybe this will be the future of streaming. We'll see what happens.

For now, the best we can do is subscribe to AnimeLog and watch the content they provide when it becomes available in your country. If we all partake in this, AnimeLog may become the success that everybody hopes it will be.

Always remember: Because moe

Bonus question! With Kissanime gone, where can I watch anime legally? One address: because.moe. No, really! Because.moe is the anime streaming search engine. Select your region (limited to US/CAN/UK/AUS), type in your title and follow the link they provide in the icons.

Note: If you live outside of the mentioned regions and some links leads to the classic: "not available in your region", try scouring through Yatta-Tachi's ultimate list of streaming sites for alternatives. There sadly isn't a fix-all for everybody worldwide, but I can only hope that AnimeLog will fix that at least somewhat in the future.

That's it from me at this moment. 

V out.

Edit: Also, on a side-note: there's already a fake Animelog channel out there, and I of course had linked to that one first. God dammit all! this caused a few structural changes to the post. Sorry for that.

NyaaTorrents closes its doors, the end of an era?

Being a European anime fan and being active on the internet since the early 2000s, I've spent my fair share of time on the torrent-site nyaa (.org, .eu, and also.se). It's been a part of my anime watching life for years now, and I wasn't really that surprised to see it being down once again (happened a a few times before). What did surprise me was the series of messages that followed it, because it wasn't just "down for a short while". No, it's down for good. The anime-torrent-cat has been put to rest.

V reflects on Nyaa

Long story short

The owner of the site Nyaa.org/se/eu has decided to close his sites on voluntary basis. The reason why is not confirmed by the owner yet, but the people close to him do state that it's most likely due to the recent Kodi ruling in European court (again, not confirmed. Do take this with a grain of salt).

For those who don't know, the Kodi ruling is a court case where the manufacturer of devices that contained the Kodi software were pre-configured to have pirating tv-series as its primary function. While the Kodi software by itself is still not considered illegal (which may change, considering), the pre-programmed device IS considered illegal, because it's configured in a way to promote piracy.

And while this ruling by itself could not be a reason to shut down Nyaa, IT IS a precedent that may very well extend to other "sites that are configured in a way to promote piracy" (which Nyaa technically is). And since the owner didn't want the hassle or media attention the MegaUpload owner (Kim Schmitz) garnered when his site got taken down, he took it upon himself to pull the plug.

Fan-subs: Legal or illegal?

Fan-subs have been kind of a legal gray area in Europe for a long time. Yes that IS strange, isn't it? For Americans and Asians it was clear for a long time that it was illegal to share this kind of content. Heck, in Japan it's even illegal to OWN fansubs.

But in Europe... nobody really cared and there was no general law prohibiting to create fan-subs nor share them for free (emphasis on: for free). Some countries had some form of law, while many others had pretty much nothing.

And since anime was pretty much unavailable in most European countries (if you're not living in the UK, France, Germany, Spain or Italy at least), most countries had other priorities to handle when it came to handling piracy.

How to watch anime in Europe in the past? Fansubs was the only way!

If you don't live in America, Asia or the previous mentioned 5 European countries, you're like me and have had a hard time watching anime in a legal fashion.

While during the anime boom of the early 2000s, some anime have aired on TV and some companies have tried selling official subs in a lot of European countries, the bursting of the anime bubble around 2008 caused most of those companies to become bankrupt. Today, not a single company is foolish enough to repeat that mistake, unless it's a Ghibli movie or Pokémon.

So how could you watch anime? Well, you either hoped some TV channel would broadcast it, you imported overpriced DVDs or BRs or you did like most people over here and went to nyaa (directly or indirectly via fansub sites).

Unless you had bank notes to spare, there really wasn't any other option!

Do NOT diss fan-subs

I get that it's not-done as a blogger or Youtuber to promote fan-subs due to piracy reasons (let alone promoting thieves like Horriblesubs), but you have to admit that they're a necessary evil.

Many anime only got popular in the west due to fan-subs. Mainstream series like Naruto and Bleach got their hype due to the fan-subs.

Many less popular titles would never have gotten a dub or release in the west, if not due to fan-subs making them more popular.
A sequel or remake is announced of a classic anime? Go search Nyaa or IRC for who subbed the original series and you can get up to speed.
Somebody advised you a niche title that may be up your alley? Search online and enjoy!
DVD's sold out and no longer being made due to the anime bubble bursting? You can rely on fansubs to be there for you.
Don't have any money? You could still watch fan-subs until you have money to start your own collection (it's what I did).

If not for fan-subs, the anime community would never be this big.

Times are changing - legally streaming anime

Luckily times have changed. Crunchyroll going from illegal to legal and Netflix starting to offer anime were two very big changes the anime community desperately needed. We now have options to watch anime in a legal fashion without it costing an arm and a leg. Go to Crunchyroll and you'll find hundreds of anime you can watch for free (including big titles like Gintama, Gundam, Naruto Shippuuden and Yu-Gi-Oh). Go to Daisuki and Viewster and you can find some other titles, no matter what country you live in.

Make this happen for One Piece and DB Super and you got me sold.

Yes, there's still that annoying "Content not available in your region" BS we have to put up with on the popular shows (like Attack on Titan or Dragon Ball Super).
But of the current season alone, there are LOTS of titles available to watch everywhere, even outside of the US. I counted all shows currently airing that I can legally watch in my area (Belgium) and I came up with 35 different titles (on Crunchyroll and Daisuki combined). And that's not even including the offers Netflix and Amazon have.

And yes, that includes popular titles like Boruto, WorldEnd, Berserk, Akashic Records, Love Tyrant, Alice & Zoroku, Eromanga Sensei, KADO, Hinako Note and many others.

Think about it. 35 titles that are still airing that you can watch without bothering to download anything illegally. And if you pay for their subscription, you can even watch the latest episode just as it aired in Japan! That is something that was unthinkable 10 years ago.

Back then, any site that offered you a subscription model was basically selling "free fansubs" for money. And yes, I did not forget Crunchyroll used to be part of these kind of scumbags. Why do you think it took so long for me to actually trust Crunchyroll? I only started trusting it after Funimation officially endorsed the site.

What about the anime "not available in your region"?

Well, the other thing that is good about the changed times is that the overall price of anime DVDs and BRs have dropped significantly due to decreased demand (and online/legal alternatives). I got quite a nice collection of anime DVDs and BRs that are otherwise "unavailable" to me via legal streaming.

Sites like Amazon, Zavvi, Archonia and others have made it possible to buy full seasons of classic and current anime for 30€ and below (which in the past could barely get you a single DVD disc containing 4 episodes of questionable quality).

Random screen grab from Zavvi anime Blu-Rays.
At this price, it's an offense to still bother with piracy.

But for the series that are not available (yet), I sadly enough still rely on groups like Horriblesubs. No, I don't like them either (they're no fan-subbers. They just steal Crunchyroll's content), but until region locks are a thing of the past it's the only option for me to watch shows like My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Atom the Beginning, Sakura Quest, The Eccentric Family and Dragon Ball Super.

Heck, I will make a promise here and now. The day Crunchyroll announces they're getting rid of Region Locks, I'm dropping torrented subs all together and I'm buying a Crunchyroll premium membership for the rest of my life. And I'm a man of my word.

How do I know which anime is available in my region?

Use the following process:

• Go to: http://because.moe/. (bookmark it)
• Type in the anime you want to watch/test.
• The site will return the platforms you can watch it on legally (CR, Daisuki, Viewster, Funimation, AnimeNetwork, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon).
  Note: This search engine does not know about region-locks.
• Click on the site logo (e.g. the Crunchyroll logo) and you'll get a direct link to the anime page.
• If you receive an episode list, it's legal in your country/region.
• If you receive that [censored] message of region-locking, you're in no luck.

Note: Sometimes it's handy to test multiple platforms. Blue Exorcist Kyoto Sage (for example) is unavailable on CR in my region, but IS available on Daisuki. Same goes for Eromanga Sensei. Why? I have absolutely NO idea. But that's the way it is.

Okay, I got this little rant out of my system. Rest in Peace, Nyaa. You served your purpose.

Until next time, V out.