Kissanime Shut Down! Community Reacts

The anime community has been hit with a huge reality check. It’s time to support the anime industry — legally.

Both Kissanime and Kissmanga, two of the largest anime piracy sites, have finally been taken down.

I’ve decided to focus solely on how the community has been reacting to the death of Kissanime. I’ve also formed some key takeaways that anime industry hopefuls can incorporate to better serve their fans.

Let’s jump into it!

Why Anime Fans Pirate Their Anime

The fact that anime pirating sites exist is one thing — but the fact that so many people use them is another! I wanted to explore some reasons that stuck out while reading through various /r/ threads.

Although this list isn’t exclusive, I hope it captures some of the core emotional and practical motivations for why anime fans take the risk of pirating anime.

Nostalgia

For many in the community, Kissanime is what allowed viewers to become anime fans in the first place, so it holds a lot of reverence in the hearts of its fans. Legality is no match for sentimentality as these fans hold gratitude and respect for the illegal pirate site on its deathbed.

Check out this redditor’s comment that clearly displays this nostalgic and emotional connection.

Access

With legal anime streaming being fairly new in the States, pirating online used to be the only way to get access to many titles. Although there has been stark improvements since then, there are still many titles unavailable legally.

See how these users express their disappointment because of content that existed on the site that is not yet available in the U.S.

And those are only a few! It truly shows just how important having a large library of anime content is to the anime community — for newbies and hardcore fans alike.

Too Many Services

Furthermore, there are anime fans who simply don’t want to pay for multiple anime streaming services to have access to all of the anime that they’d like to watch. Presumably, this is probably in reference to how Funimation, Crunchyroll, and others are constantly competing in the space and working diligently to ensure that their platform acquires and maintains exclusive rights to stream titles.

Again, here’s an upset redditor who very directly expresses this concern, as well as a more calm respondent who expressed a roundabout solution.

So in essence, although competition is good for innovation, it might be worth considering how exclusivity is hurting consumers by forcing them to hop from one platform to another to watch their favorite anime.

Community

A last idea to note is that some fans loved Kissanime for the feelings of community that it evoked for them. It turns out that for many, little things like comment sections on a streaming platform can make a big difference.

Check out this user expressing a deep sadness for the loss of comment sections.

Kissanime Alternatives?

There are alternatives to Kissanime that have not yet been taken down. The key word there is yet.

I won’t be listing other anime piracy sites that are available today because I truly believe that the crackdown is only going to get worse. Not to mention that after the fall of a player as big as Kissanime, there is bound to be an uptick in scammers taking advantage of this new pool of lost and wandering fans.

For now, I recommend sticking to the legal means until alternatives pop up. Existing places that you can legally stream anime titles:

• Crunchyroll
• Funimation
• Hulu
• Netflix
• Disney+
• Viz

I’ve also heard talk about a YouTube channel (Anilog) that will eventually open up in the States that will be streaming some amount of free anime content (with the permission of the Japanese studios themselves!). Presumably this is to keep pulling in new fans while allowing a free alternative where the original creators can benefit from ad revenue. So definitely keep checking back as I’m sure to write more about them!

All in all, It’s evident that there is a huge appetite for legal Anime worldwide. If a company can provide a single complete catalogue where users can find and stream all titles, archives, etc while truly giving the original studios the credit and earnings that they deserve, both the anime enthusiasts and the anime industry, as a whole, will thrive! Takedowns like this might just give the industry the push it needs in that direction.

For now, check out the legal sites offered in this article to stream your favorites, and give suggestions in the comments below for how the Industry can better serve its fans, and vice versa! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Adventure on, Anime enthusiasts!