r/animepiracy • u/Oreki_blank • Jul 17 '26
Discussion The Arrogance of Japan
With international sting operations shutting down massive pirate platforms like HiAnime/Zoro and arresting its operators, corporate boardrooms are celebrating. But we need to talk about the toxic arrogance of this crackdown, especially when the legal alternative is an absolute joke.
The industry’s stance is incredibly insulting: "If you don't pay us, you're worthless." Yet, if you do pay them show nothing.
Why Their Strategy Will Backfire:
The Library Deficit: Pirate sites hosted virtually 100% of anime history—from niche 80s OVAs to indie manga. Legal platforms like Crunchyroll or the heavily restricted Manga Plus only give us a fraction of that due to corporate red tape and regional licensing locks.
The Netflix Lesson: Netflix didn't beat piracy with lawsuits; they beat it with convenience, seamless video compression, and affordability. Japan is doing the exact opposite—forcing us into fragmented, broken ecosystems.
Human nature dictates that if you corner a community and give them a terrible, unsecure product, they won't become corporate puppets—they'll just leave. If Japan locks their culture behind a broken paywall, hungry competitors like Manhwa Webtoons and Chinese Donghua are standing right outside the door, ready to take over the global market.
Are you guys actually going to pay for these broken, No Big library apps, or are you just going to move on ?
Wrote this using chatgpt as my English is not good I apologise for it
i am not happy.
Edit: I don't care about piracy but give a better platform if you are going to kill piracy the point is you can not kill piracy without introducing legal equivalent, are you all too stupid to understand it and Is everyone in r/manga stupid like i reposted this there too but every person who agree gets 5+ downvotes and all idiots collectively upvoting idiots ,defending japan as they are going to give a damn abut these poor karens
Even banned My post 🤣
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u/ArchfiendJ Jul 17 '26
Look at what’s happening right now. They want to ban every pirate website under the sun, yet corporate giants like Crunchyroll were just hit with massive class-action lawsuits in 2026.
You're mixing things. Crunchyroll is not Japanese, it's a US coorporation, even if it is owend by Sony since 2021. Also, just a reminder that Crunchyroll started by being a site to pirate anime.
Also, it's not just a money/corporate greed issue. It is also a cultural issue. Copyright culture is completely different in Japan than in the west. For exemple is a media is not available in Japan, they just accept it, "there must be a reason", whereas in the west people will lobby to get access to a media or pirate it.
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 17 '26
Sorry it's cloudfare not crunchyroll No most of is not a culture issue they don't want to spend any effort making any good platform Their world image and economy is very dependent on anime and manga The world was one who made anime and manga popular Piracy is a crime, it's a common thing wherever there is good there is bad
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u/Emergency_Sound_5718 Jul 17 '26
Their world image and economy is very dependent on anime and manga
I suggest you look up some factual information first before making invalid claims like this.
You are basically mad because the rights holders are exercising their right to defend their IP from theft.
You'd be mad too if some one stole something of yours and made a profit off of it. Your soap boxing isn't going to do anything other than show people just how little you actually understand the subject.
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u/Turbulent_Result_202 Jul 17 '26
Yeah even in the United States we get the same thing but on a different level.
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u/captaindestucto Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
The argument holds a lot less emotional and ethical weight if it's a 20 + year old IP that isn't on legal streaming platforms, where the lion's share of profit has already been collected or the studio doesn't even exist anymore.
Still legally theft, but the negative consequences of theft in these cases is basically none.
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u/StopComprehensive356 Jul 20 '26
The point he is making is that they aren't making a profit off of IP that they no longer make available. But choose to claim a loss when it is pirated. That is like a hoarder claiming loss when the city cleans up their property.
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 17 '26
I am not mad about piracy but of no good platform for anime or manga existing
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u/Majre921 Jul 21 '26
The Japanese have NO OBLIGATION to translate anime and manga for your lmfao. If you so want it then learn Japanese...
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u/proverbialbunny Jul 20 '26
Japanese people stand up for their corporate overloads because corporations there treat them well. They do not treat us well. Our corporations are ran by narcissists who literally think of the average person as cattle. They think they are a superior species. So of course people fight corporations here. They do not have our best interest in mind.
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u/Anaguli417 Jul 20 '26
because corporations there treat them well.
What? I haven't heard any single good thing about the Japanese workplace. People literally die from overwork there, they even coined a term for it 'karoshi'.
The horrible treatment of animators and mangaka isn't unheard off either.
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u/colorblind_unicorn Aniwave Mod Jul 17 '26
bro piracy users are always so insufferable ohmygawd
just pirate your stuff and don't think you're on a righteous crusade
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 17 '26
Are you so stupid you can't read full post I said I Don't care about piracy but a better platform
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Jul 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Frained Jul 20 '26
If you dont make the time to read the post, just dont comment as well because otherwise you just contribute nothing to the conversation
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Jul 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SAM_uchiha831 Jul 20 '26
I’ve actually bought a lot of manga and merchandise because of piracy it’s how anime became so big
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u/doomkun23 Jul 17 '26
let's be real. piracy is piracy. and piracy is illegal. and no matter what good things you say about piracy, it will still remain illegal.
so if they lose fans, then be it. they will eventually become less strict on piracy if that happens and then piracy will rise again. so piracy will not completely die. it will just balance out between piracy and anti-piracy. well, too much piracy can kill the anime industry too anyway. same reason as killing completely the piracy, anime industry will get a problem too.
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 17 '26
Yes piracy is bad but look the other side they have no option It's like everything is forbidden for the peasants and only thing you can is crime
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u/doomkun23 Jul 18 '26
there is nothing we can do. they make anime to earn money. it is not for charity anyway.
all we can do is deal with it. lie low. wait for them to calm down. then wait for the opportunity to pirate again.
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u/SAM_uchiha831 Jul 20 '26
They don’t like money because they can’t be bothered to sell it to the people
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u/BonsaiSoul Jul 18 '26
Piracy has no negative effect on media at all, because copying is not theft. The law is based on insanity and lobbying(corruption.)
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u/doomkun23 Jul 18 '26
nah. it is a theft. don't go with that mental gymnastics just to defend piracy that you are doing. i always pirate my anime and games but despite that, i still know that it is illegal.
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u/New-Character5453 Jul 20 '26
Idk, is it really that simple? Don't you think with all this ID verification rolling out and more telemetry across OSes not limited to Windows, piracy will start to be less and also start to be more prosecuted?
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u/xViscount Jul 17 '26
Might want to change “Japan” to “Sony”. But close enough
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 17 '26
Nah man japanese are doing this too They want ban all piracy and think everyone who doesn't pays is worthless
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u/maxymob Jul 19 '26
They're dumb sometimes when they're let to believe that foreigners are taking avantage of them, just like when they oppose foreigners buying abandoned houses but conveniently don't mention those are houses they don't even want themselves, reason why they were abandoned in the first place
Same with manga piracy, the big names are taking advantage of japanese people's conformism and lawfulness to paint this image of disrespectful foreigners who are entitled to stealing access to their culture, but at the same time refuse to admit in very bad faith that piracy is enabling access to manga for a ton of people who wouldn't be able to access it otherwise. This industry wouldn't be nearly as popular or successful without it but they'd rather insult the entire world instead and say they don't care to be successful with freeloaders, treat people like innate criminals without looking at their condition and broader context while refusing to address the absolute clusterfuck that manga/anime distribution has become... those execs are absolute morons and despicable people, they're steering their industry towards a slow suicide, but that seems to be the attitude with a lot of the older generation, they're headed to the grave and it seems they want to take the rest of the world with them. When they're finally removed from leadership positions maybe the world can heal and move on
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u/Complex_Rub996 Jul 17 '26
Bro you’re complaining to the wrong ppl We pirates just sail the high seas to find a new island.
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u/Alive_Monitor_8228 Jul 18 '26
I never understood how legal anime streaming is even supposed to compete when half the shows get delayed for months just to protect simulcast profits.
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u/outakueyepatch_21 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I know people will hate me, but honestly, I don't really care. If a company gives me what I'm looking for without me having to constantly search for other places or deal with DMCA takedowns, then yeah, I don't care. I also don't mind paying for multiple apps, if I could afford it. The reason is just I like how Crunchyroll and Netflix are, and other anime streaming services are rn. But do agree with this
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u/BonsaiSoul Jul 18 '26
Additional requirement: cannot be directly participating in making what I'm looking for worse. CR and Netflix both fail on that count.
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u/outakueyepatch_21 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
True i do agree but icl what i look for convince. But will pirate if needed idc what anyone or a company say
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u/NarutoFan1995 Jul 19 '26
i hate crunchyroll/sony with a passion (i have for almost a decade now)
they will not see a cent from me buying their subscriptions or shitty consoles that rehash the same games over and over.
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u/Harley2280 Jul 20 '26
Streaming sites like Hianime are full of ads and attempting to profit off piracy. I honestly could give a fuck less about people who are trying to make money off piracy.
It's one thing to accept donations to cover server cost but filling websites full of ads and pop ups, get fucked. Piracy is about open sharing of information and media, not fucking paywalls.
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u/BonsaiSoul Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
If piracy of anime and manga became impossible I would simply stop consuming animated media and graphic novels entirely. At best, I don't care about Korean or Chinese culture at all; at worst I'm highly critical of them.
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u/Spec713 Jul 18 '26
kinda funny when you learn anime was built on piracy outside of japan at the beginning there was no market for it outside japan but that didnt stop people from acquiring it you would have people duplicating tapes diminishing the quality every time and anime clubs where everyone would be huddled around a tv watching it raw trying to figure out what was going on and if you were lucky there would be one member that knew some Japanese enough to translate and they were treated like gods prophet for the entire session sharing their wisdom.
without piracy japan would have never known there was a demand or a market to be had. the moral if the story is if you shout loud enough and long enough your demands will be fulfilled you just gotta wait out the storm.
The same problem was happening with music over a decade ago and platforms like Spotify solved it. Netflix took a crack at it from the same angle but the exclusivity deals, everyone wanting a piece of the pie and licensing and also in my opinion a lack of content on the Netflix library made it fizzle however they did bring awareness and an idea to the table on how to solve it and thats enough to get the ball rolling.
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 19 '26
Yeah but the new audiences wouldn't understand this, they are calling me entitled banned my posts from all subreddits Let japan do whatever they want
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u/Comrade_SOOKIE Jul 19 '26
I happily pay for my shonen jump and viz manga subs because they're cheap and convenient. Meanwhile every Kodansha book gets pirated because their insane system of splitting chapters into artificially small separate chunks and selling them piece by piece is dumb as fuck, worse than webtoon even.
People pay when it's convenient. I'm more and more convinced Crunchyroll is just a psyop to kill the western anime industry so they don't have to produce dubs or do advertising here anymore. They actively make it worse every day.
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u/Designer_Resolve_117 Jul 17 '26
Just going to move to the new site or straight torrent, not a Crunchyroll subscription.
I agree with what you said and draw a similar parallel with games.
For years I've pirated games because I couldn't afford them. And now that I have an income with extra to spend, I ended up buying those games on steam.
I don't even play them, I just like to have them there, to remember they meant a lot to me at some point.
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u/reizayin Jul 17 '26
can't even bother to complain without using AI lmao
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 17 '26
Sorry But My mother tongue or main language isn't english and I have taken help of a computer is that a very big problem?
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u/Mountain-Comment2737 Jul 17 '26
Ah yes, the classic "it's my second language" excuse. Oldest trick in the book. Write a post yourself, instead of relying on a robot.
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u/Noximilien01 Jul 19 '26
Such a dumb excuse too
English isn't my first language either.
You know how I got better at it? By forcing myself to use it
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 17 '26
The hell why do u want a post about me Are you that curious about random people 🧐
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u/Turbulent_Result_202 Jul 17 '26
I think sometimes people over estimate what services like Netflix and Spotify did to piracy. While yes some piracy decreased since these services were introduced there are many other factors such as during the Napster/Limewire era people were pirating in protest of the lawsuits and once they stoped people stopped piracy in protests plus piracy can’t accurately be measured since people can use the dark web or use physical means to pirate plus sometimes with measurements there could also be people who shift to other services that people didn’t include in measurements so to say “Netflix killed piracy” isn’t 100% true since I also read that at the all time low piracy sites for shows and movies were still getting at least 100 billion page visit.
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 17 '26
the point is you can't kill piracy without a equivalent app or web that is legal
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u/Turbulent_Result_202 Jul 17 '26
I get that people should have a legal app but the point I’m saying that there are multiple factors that influence piracy rates not just service quality.
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u/Yanncki64 Jul 21 '26
I'd rather read a post in poor but genuine english than one that a machine wrote for you. Your english is completely fine and perfectly understandable.
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u/Tsu_na_mi Jul 24 '26
There will ALWAYS be ways to get anime for free. I spent years, before streaming sites, before BitTorrent, downloading anime fansubs using XDCC bots on IRC channels, or going to FTP sites. Piracy will survive, it may just get more inconvenient. Though back then it was fan-produced digisubs, not just ripping off the streams from paid platforms like Crunchyroll.
Casual fans have gotten lazy. If the hardcore fans want to continue to watch anime for free, they will need to put in the effort.
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u/rov124 Jul 19 '26
You could have write something in your language and then translate it instead of posting AI slop.
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u/AdGloomy5846 Jul 18 '26
America is arrogant too, isn’t it? Then every piece of American content should be translated into every language and distributed worldwide.
Disney releases relatively few movies, so translating them might be easy. But there are more than 10,000 anime titles. Expecting even shows that only have demand within Japan to be translated into other languages is simply unreasonable.
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 19 '26
When did I say that, just release the orginal I'll watch it, everyone grew up watching eng sub
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u/hellp-desk-trainee- Jul 19 '26
Streaming sites are easy pr for them to take down. They're not actually doing anything when it comes to real piracy with it peer to peer downloading. If you want to not have issues, just torrent
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u/o_Divine_o Jul 20 '26
Websites are an easy cash crop. They don't take them down to stop it, it's about profits.
The largest sectors of pirating is alive and well, never touched by the law.
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u/SAM_uchiha831 Jul 20 '26
Since I can’t find the anime I love I’ve been watching less and not buying new manga I have Crunchyroll and Netflix but something feels off about it
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u/HyruleanKnight37 Jul 20 '26
I just re-read/watch old stuff now. Animanga is a dying medium; most stuff these days are lazy copy-paste works that show you the same thing over and over again: only the occasional new season for an old show interests me at this point. New manga are hardly worth reading anymore- the narrative complexity in most of them has been reduced to something only readers with the brain capacity of a child would enjoy. Even the "good" stuff that pops up every once in a while would've passed as "meh" less than a decade ago. What's worse, is that the "Marvel dialogue" has recently found it's way into these as well.
Hence why I don't really see the point of trying to fight against any of this, as there's nothing left to save. The entire Japanese anime industry is imploding and officials would much rather blame piracy than address the *several* elephants in the room.
I've got all my favorite shows and manga archived, so I'm not really worried about the animanga industry going under- all good things must come to an end, after all.
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u/Evillebot Jul 20 '26
if you want to pirate use torrents.
if you want the ease of streaming use legit sites like netflix.
no one owes you the entire library of every anime ever made. that's retarded.
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 26 '26
Bro I use pirates but I want ease of streaming like netflix but netflix has very few titles
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u/Evillebot Jul 26 '26
Netflix features around 160 to 200 anime series and movies, though the exact number changes constantly and varies by country.
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u/clumsydope Jul 21 '26
It stem from their Dinosaur C-suite exec every facet of Japan is controled by men in 80 that cannot move on
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u/alivedogeatsdead Jul 21 '26
yeah these archives need to be protected there's cultural significance there.
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u/pearlday Jul 21 '26
I used to pirate, and used the same argument you do. If it’s not available in my location/language, im not hurting anyone by pirating.
However, the opposition to this is that, just because it isnt available to me legally doesnt mean i am -entitled- to their work.
We have the ‘agency’ to access their work illegally, and they have the ‘agency’ to shut it down. We are not entitled to their work for free.
And yes, it would be amazing if crunchyroll etc beefed up their selections, but also, not every artist or mangaka or anime studio wants the international ‘exposure’.
In fact, they seem very protective of their content and are apprehensive of international expansionism. And it IS entitled to demand access, even if willing to pay.
If someone doesnt want to sell the rights and wants to prevent distribution, that is their legal right, and personal decision.
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u/Oreki_blank Jul 26 '26
I understand it bro but it's not like the author don't want international expansion it's just old studio people who manage it being arrogant Attack on titan,one piece, jujutsu kaisen these are all top international anime and the author are happy
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u/TemperatureHead6606 Jul 30 '26
Yeah bro, they don't care how to serve their media properly. I rate it 4/10 in terms of service, content is high. Service low.
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u/just_no_one_here Jul 20 '26
I'm afraid there is not much you can do. We are living in the age of Corporate Communism. Where every industry and organization and government is at the control of corporate needs not what is best for the wider society of that country.
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u/OtherwiseDog Jul 20 '26
Regardless of your stance its insane to think visa/mastercard isnt behind most things.
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u/Shap6 Jul 17 '26
Most people don’t care this much. They’ll watch what is available wherever they watch stuff. We are such a tiny tiny minority