Just watch anime legally, it's easy!*

*if you only want to watch very specific popular series, live in the US, can afford multiple subscriptions, watch before the licenses expire, can afford several hundred dollars worth of collectors edition blurays that release two years late.

Reminder that the anime industry is making more money than ever, that money doesn't go to animators and a major part of the revenue comes from overseas streaming.

Anime is doing fine regardless of piracy, it always has.

We should instead focus on how companies don't pay their animators fairly, don't make their series available widely and over-complicate how to access their series.

Here's the thing.

Most people who watch anime watch it legally. They watch the shows on Crunchyroll or Funimation and they do so because they live in regions that cater to them and like shows that are available at ease.

Convenience is always the main thing that makes people decide how to approach something.

If you make legal access to something more convenient than piracy, you won't suffer from piracy.

But right now that convenience is only something very specific lucky people are allowed.

It's enough to keep the anime industry grow wealthier and wealthier, so again, piracy clearly doesn't actually hurt them, but it also makes piracy lucrative.

Because unless you live in the right place, at the right time and make the right amount of money your access to anime instantly becomes so limited and complicated that piracy is the only reasonable option.

Companies can solve this, but that's on them, no one else.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is arguably one of the most well known anime TV series in the west.

It was not available legally on any digital platform until last summer.

Of course this means people would pirate it all those years prior.

Companies don't care to keep things available for a long time and they also don't care to make current things more available to a wider market if it means they have to sign more paperwork.

Wanna watch an ongoing anime airing right now, this season?

Well, if it's not available in your region then you have to wait for the physical release, which isn't guaranteed, might be region locked or limited and will release in two yaers.

Oh, and if it's from Aniplex it will cost you $300+.

But hey, you could import the Japanese blurays!

A full one-cour series of 12 or 13 episodes tend to ed up costing around $400.

Piracy does boost the size of fanbases that buy merch and stuff too, which is the biggest portion of revenue for anime companies so ... y'know, again, they're not being hurt.

There's no way Healing Good Precure would be on CR now without the piracy fanbase.

And yet it's only US.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.

If companies don't want your money, why should you be expected to give it to them?

I spent most of the past decade subscribed to Crunchyroll, and to Wakanim and HIDIVe on top of it, and *every single anime season* I was forced to pirate if I wanted to watch certain licensed series that was currently airing.

So miss me with the idea that things are just so easy and convenient thanks to legal streaming sites these days.

It's not for ongoing series and even less so for older series.

You wanna watch Nanoha legally?

First two seasons was released on DVD and are a rarity.

First three seasons were only available digitally for a year and had broken subs.

Fourth season has never ever been made available.

First two movies? No legal localized release, but you can import the Blurays as they have terrible English subtitles.

The next two movies? Only localized for digital release in some European countries such as France and a few Nordic regions.

At least ViVid Strike! is available in many regions digitally, y'know, the spinoff sequel series set after all he ones not available.

And the subs are bad and it's only on Amazon.

So yeah, good luck watching Nanoha legally.

And Nanoha is not an exception here, there are endless series that have suffered this fate.

Active IPs and old dead ones, old seasons and ongoing seasons.

Until companies make things conveniently available there's nothing wrong for you to pirate to access anime IMO.

And the same goes for non-anime.

Fuck you, Disney+.

This thread took off over night and now has thousands of likes and shares.

Awesome, I'm glad I was able to put into words how a lot of you felt! I would like to add a bit to it.

My thread only focused on anime localization into English, which is obviously only part of the market.

Things get even less convenient and available when non-English localization is taken into account.

I actually happen to be someone who collect and archive Swedish localized anime, because so much of it is only available on VHS and as such it's quickly becoming lost media.

Anime companies have no interest in maintaining these old dubs or subs.

And that sucks, because not everyone can or simply wants to watch stuff in English, and at best you'll only have a handful of options for other languages, such as French or German.

Again, if anime companies don't want to provide things that pirates might offer, then that's on anime companies, not on the pirates.

The ball is in their court and they're refusing to play.

I also want to add that while I appreciate hearing all of your stories about localization woes and how companies make it difficult to watch anime where you live, I did not write this thread as some anti-localization effort.

I support legal anime releases as much as I can.

The problem is that anime companies don't want to allow me to legally support them in convenient and affordable ways.

It's that simple.

Lack of convenience and affordability always means piracy becomes the more viable option.

That's what I wanted to add to this.

Again, thank you for sharing the thread!