It’s Ironic writing this post because just the other week I talked about:
- How almost 200M+ people use Aniwave compared to Crunchyroll.
- The reasons why pirate websites are still so popular.
- And how the industry has failed to address many issues causing piracy.
Yet here we are a week later talking about Aniwave shutting down permanently, as shown by their website.
Is there a way to confirm this?
Aniwave’s goodbye message
“Hi,
You know, it has been a long journey since Aniwave (9Anime) first appeared. Creating better products that provide an improved user experience and fostering competition to drive the market to enhance products is something we are very happy about. Now that everything has improved… it is also time for us to say goodbye…It is difficult to part with something we have invested so much effort and passion into, but it is something we need to do. Thank you for standing by and supporting us throughout this time!Every game must have an end…and life is about experiences. Every mistake teaches us lessons that help us grow.
If possible, please use legal paid services. It’s something we should do to show our respect for creators and content producers.
Good bye!” – Aniwave
They finished the message by adding a song by Wiz Khalifa entitled “See You Again”.
They also left a discord message, but it seems like it’s not the owners and is more the associates of 9Anime/Aniwave.
As they quote:
No, we here on the discrd don’t know what’s going on. The site owner has always been prety disconnected from us, rarely giving us a heads up or any information in advance.”
The rest of the message elaborates on this important point, meaning everything is up in the air and the shutdown of Aniwave is almost guaranteed.
And the Reddit announcement which came later was the nail in the coffin, or extra nails in the coffin making it overkill.
And that’s all she wrote.
The point about respecting legal services is hilarious after they profited so heavily off not giving a fuck about the creators and copyright holders.
ACE Takedown notice?
“Enclosed is a subpoena compliant with the digital millenium copyright act. The subpoena requires that you provide information concerning the individuals offering infringing material described in the attached notice.”
This is half of the message in the image, but you get the point of the quote.
ACE has always been on a mission, especially since the pandemic, to cleanse the world of anime piracy. It’s unsurprising that Aniwave, the biggest pirate after KissAnime was on their list.
It’s also not surprising that it was only a matter of time since copyright holders have been targeting 9anime (now aniwave) and this isn’t a first.
What does this message mean?
In clear words, it simply means Aniwave is shutting down for good and they will never return. But if you really dig deep into what they are NOT saying, it indicates something serious must have happened behind closed doors.
It’s no secret that Aniwave has been:
- Targeted.
- Attacked.
- Threatened.
And that copyright holders wanted nothing more than to shut down the website permanently.
Websites like TorrentFreak always reported on many pirates being targeted through Cloudflare to find their private details and to force Cloudflare to hand them over, and Aniwave (previously 9Anime.to) was also a target.
Copyright holders will be celebrating tonight
While it’s obvious that pirate anime websites still exist in the dozens, including:
- Manga pirates.
- Anime pirates.
- Light novel pirates.
And so on, Aniwave was the biggest ever since KissAnime was shut down during the pandemic, making pirate sites somewhat “smaller” now.
Maybe a site like GoGoAnime will inherit the traffic from Aniwave, similar to how 9Anime (now aniwave) inherited a lot of traffic from KissAnime’s demise in 2020.
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The Anime Industry Has A SERVICE Problem, Not A “Piracy” Problem
