Anime Pirate Sites, And WHY They Continue To Thrive In The Anime Community

I don’t wanna support anime pirate sites. In fact – I don’t wanna pirate anime at all. I’d rather contribute to the anime community by paying for streaming.

When I pay for anime streaming (and anime products in general):

Anime creators get paid.
Anime studios get paid.
And money flows back into the anime industry.

Eventually that money directly and indirectly starts to put MONEY into the pockets of people that matter.

That’s what happens when we pay for anime legally, and buy anime products without “bypassing” the system.

But this isn’t realistic in 2019 and beyond

Everything I’ve said so far is idealistic. It would be great if that’s how simple and straightforward it was… But it’s not.

There are MAJOR problems in the anime industry that stops people like me, you, and everyone else from going 100% legal.

anime, legally.

That’s why pirate sites are so popular and common.

With that said, there’s a couple of reasons why pirate sites are still around in 2019.

Let’s get into it.

Why Anime Pirate Websites Continue To Thrive:

1. Unbeatable catalogue of anime shows

You can’t beat the insane catalogue of anime shows on a site like KissAnime. These anime pirates might be hated in the industry, but fans love them.

The reason being is:

Almost every anime on earth can be streamed on pirate sites.
It has a full list of OVA’S, ONA’S, movies and series.
No legal streaming site can compete with the massive catalogue of shows pirates have.

It’s common sense. If you want to watch a LOT of anime, pirate websites have everything you’d ever want AND more.

It’s hard to watch a lot of anime on legal sites as it is, and usually for other reasons I’m about to mention.

2. No licensing restrictions, regardless of country

It doesn’t matter what country you’re based in… you WILL come across licensing restrictions, eventually.

Usually it’s a message that says “this isn’t available in your country”.

I’ve seen this so many times, even in the UK. So I can’t imagine how much worse it is in countries like:

India.
Philippines.
Pakistan.
Australia.

And other countries outside of Japan and the USA (the best countries for anime).

That’s why anime pirate sites exist.

There’s no restrictions on the anime you wanna watch.
No weird messages trying to “block” you from watching.
Peace of mind.

And this is a big selling point that makes anime pirates relevant in the industry. Compared to legal sites.

3. Available 24/7, 365 days of the year without issues

The same can’t be said for legal streaming sites. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to watch anime WITHOUT issues at some point.

Whether it be:

Licensing restrictions.
The streaming platform “playing” up.
Or anime not being available anymore because of licenses expiring.

This is even true for a website like Crunchyroll, despite being the biggest anime streaming platform with the most subscribers online.

This isn’t really the fault of legal streaming sites, but the fault of the anime industry and Japan itself.

The service is in desperate need of improvement. It’s the key to bringing down piracy and bringing up revenue for creators and companies.

4. If you wanna watch older shows, there’s no comparison

I started watching anime at some point in the late 1990’s. Aside from shows like:

Pokemon
Dragon Ball Z
Yu-Gi-Oh.

And a few more, I didn’t start watching and getting into “anime” until late 2014.

Guess what websites I had to use to watch older anime I missed out on?

That’s right, pirate sites like KissAnime.

The general rule is: the older the anime, the more likely you’ll NEED to use a pirate site.

Older anime from:

1970’s.
1980’s.
1990’s.
2000’s.

You can’t watch the majority of these on legal streaming sites. This is the case EVEN for anime after the 2010’s.

The thing with legal streaming sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation is:

They usually air “brand new” shows on their platform. Simulcasting is the method these days.
And they’ll have a dozen (if that) older anime to watch in their catalogue.

But most of the time they focus on brand new anime series, NOT older anime. In fact – this is the main appeal of sites like Crunchyroll.

But for brand new anime fans getting into the industry, and anime fans who want to watch “older” series, even if it’s just a few years older, will always have to use KissAnime or the alternative.

Licenses run out after a few years. Sometimes less, sometimes more. And that’s why it’s hard to find older shows on legal anime streaming platforms.

Not to mention the costs associated with buying and renewing a license.

The funny thing about this list is…

Even though everything I said is a problem, it’s also the solution.

If all the 4 points I’ve made were somehow implemented into legal streaming sites, everything would change.

It’s a challenge and innovation is in desperate need of attention. But if it can be done, or even if 2-3 of these things can be fixed, that should make a huge impact on piracy.

And then people like me will go 100% legal without hesitation, assuming the service is not just up to par, but even better.

Legal sites STILL have a lot of work to do in the anime industry

The anime industry still hasn’t reached that point where legal money and services is outdoing the pirates. To the point where piracy is no longer a real issue or threat.

The music industry managed to pull it off and make things better since the early 2000’s. So did the video games industry.

Anime needs to follow suit, solve the problem, and stop blaming anime fans for their own faults.

Nothing will change until then.

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