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An article on HiAnime's death and anime piracy in general, from a former industry insider
(animebythenumbers.substack.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
18 points (90.9% liked)
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Less than 10% of anime viewers have an opinion on ever-encroaching ads, limited selection and AI subs? Are you sure about that? We're anime nerds. We have a LOT of opinions.
That's the thing, most anime viewers aren't anime nerds. They just watch Solo Leveling or Frieren or whatever the latest, most hype things is and call it a day. That's why a show whose main character barely has a personality took "Best Character" in the Crunchyroll Awards last year, even against what should've been stiff competition. A significant number of viewers didn't watch any of the shows with good characters. Just Solo Leveling and maybe some isekai slop.
Anecdotally, none of the people I know IRL care about any of this stuff apart from my wife.
https://xkcd.com/2501/
If they aren't an anime nerd, would they be using an anime piracy site?
Yes. They'll google something like "watch solo leveling free" and then click on whatever links show up. It's not exactly advanced.
If they're just watching a single show would they really pay for a service? Can't speak for where you live but I'm fairly certain that where I live no one would do that.
It depends. Netflix makes the math a little weird there since there are definitely people watching just one or two anime on Netflix, but then also using it to watch live-action stuff.
Ah yea, I think Netflix would be a lot more different when making this decision compared to Crunchyroll.