Crunchyroll Announces the Removal of Its Comment Section Across All Platforms To 'Reduce Harmful Content'

bigotry of some fans made crunchyroll decide this btw https://x.com/G0ffThew/status/1809576707151507963

@deg Yikes... the timing seems a bit too obvious now. I guess this was always in the books, but the review bombing must've expedited the closure.

@Daviljoe193 yep i guess the bl review bombing is the perfect excuse to do this plan

This just makes me appreciate what the MAL devs still to this day go through with Ishinashi (and other situations like that) even more.

This just makes me appreciate what the MAL devs still to this day go through with Ishinashi (and other situations like that) even more.

@anime-prime is ishinashi completely neutralize now? or he is still around? because i do not see him on the forums anymore

@deg Ishinashi is still around. He moves around to different areas on MAL to try switching things up and be sneaky, though it's never exactly what anybody would call subtle.

@deg Ishinashi is still around. He moves around to different areas on MAL to try switching things up and be sneaky, though it's never exactly what anybody would call subtle.

@anime-prime He now only tries to harass people on their personal pages, since his appearance on the forum will instantly expose him. For example, he recently insulted me because of mention of gay side couple in one of the recent anime about youkai.

@RobertBobert Which Youkai anime has a gay side couple??? And was it actually gay or just left up to interpretation/speculation?

@Dauphine Tonari no Youkai-san. I won't go into detail because it is revealed gradually through a series of scenes and is not immediately stated directly. But this is clearly not fanon or headcanon, they even directly confirmed the sexuality of one of the characters to make it as clear as possible.

@RobertBobert Oh...ok, thank you for telling me, i thought it was just a case of people putting on their fujoshi glasses again.

It’s honestly about time Crunchyroll removed comments across the board. For years I have seen people leave comments that they never should’ve made on shows and on news articles. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I do not believe any other streaming services allow for comments. There are other plenty of social sites (MAL, Reddit, Twitter, etc.) where fans can connect and find a good community to share their thoughts with.

Seeing the constant barrage of blatant abuse, harassment, hate and homophobia on Crunchyroll has been absolutely devastating for me and I am sure others as well. There is absolutely no excuse for anyone to behave like that. Regardless of your views or beliefs, queer people (and animals) have been on this planet since the dawn of humanity, just like every other human being. If everyone would treat one another with respect, empathy and kindness, then this world wouldn’t be such a crappy place and we could have nice things.

@Multilynx Social media has all these things too. Even in large quantities, especially twitter. Should we close them too? If so, where do you share your opinion? I doubt that Crunchroll, being such an old and well-known resource, did not have any moderators who could handle it.

@RobertBobert

I do not believe that social media sites should be closed. So long as they maintain adequate moderation that is as fair and as equal as possible. Social media is there for people to share their thoughts. A streaming service or news site not allowing comments is perfectly acceptable.

I think people have gotten too comfortable sharing their opinions all the time without giving much thought or consideration to how their opinions might affect someone else or how their words may impact their own lives. Everything in moderation, even moderation.

There was a time when the only way to share one’s opinion was by calling someone on the phone, seeing others in person, or mailing a handwritten letter. 😉

@Multilynx Then why should Crunchroll close comments over things that aren't difficult to moderate? This is not a vague dispute about ships, this is literal homophobia with the gay show being declared "gay propaganda." Imagine if MAL shut down all discussion because of Ishinashi.

@RobertBobert Admittedly I have no knowledge of the inner workings of Crunchyroll, so I’m not certain why they would close the comments section. Perhaps CR found it too difficult to manage? Or maybe the comments were so full of inappropriate remarks that CR felt like they were no longer adding value? The comments were not turned off because of a single show. Again, there’s been plenty of inappropriate comments on myriad shows and news articles for years.

bigotry of some fans made crunchyroll decide this btw https://x.com/G0ffThew/status/1809576707151507963

@deg I don't know if it's more disgusting or more pathetic

bigotry of some fans made crunchyroll decide this btw https://x.com/G0ffThew/status/1809576707151507963

@deg
Guys, no. This is highly likely not the reason for takedown. The past couple of days CR caught flak because they were allegedly using AI subs for that deer anime. CR already talked about using AI for their subs in the future here: https://www.polygon.com/anime/24092569/crunchyroll-ai-subtitles-funimation-account-updates-interview

...and already got caught and taken down a bunch of comments and an episode for a different anime back in Fall 2023 for it here:https://nichegamer.com/crunchyroll-criticized-over-awful-subtitles-for-the-yuzuki-familys-four-sons/

They have been allegedly pulling this trick to their less popular shows for a while now. But now this deer anime, which became unexpectedly popular, didn't have good professional subs to go along with it. So it's speculated that the bad subs are a third party translation team CR hired on the spot that made these crappy translations. This negative attention caught up with a bunch of entertainment news sites here:https://www.cbr.com/my-deer-friend-nokotan-viral-subtitle-controversy/
This also created a disgruntled audience that voiced their opinion en masse in various comments sections. So instead of closing down just that one show's comment section like they had before, they shut down every comment section on the site.

The negative rating/comment-bombing on gay shows is order of magnitudes a smaller controversy. Bleeding paying customers because of cheap/AI translations are more likely to make CR pull the plug this quickly.

@foxsurprise i will take your word for it since im just reading the news article i link in the first post

Ironic, cause I've seen a lot of anime pirates praising them for using AI subs, so I thought that was what people wanted....

https://x.com/NerdAthleticz/status/1810115373120753876
https://x.com/jeoc42/status/1810155478141305290
https://x.com/kurufal/status/1810341942619992575

Ironic, cause I've seen a lot of anime pirates praising them for using AI subs, so I thought that was what people wanted....

https://x.com/NerdAthleticz/status/1810115373120753876
https://x.com/jeoc42/status/1810155478141305290
https://x.com/kurufal/status/1810341942619992575

Ironic, cause I've seen a lot of anime pirates praising them for using AI subs, so I thought that was what people wanted....

https://x.com/NerdAthleticz/status/1810115373120753876
https://x.com/jeoc42/status/1810155478141305290
https://x.com/kurufal/status/1810341942619992575

@MadanielFL
I know these types of people. I've seen them on social media. They want AI because they believe that it'll remove all the biases translators have towards "wokeness" bs. Sometimes, perfectly understandable. But these vocal minorities is just that, a minority. That's not to say that there isn't a sizable chunk of an audience that, at minimum, rolls their eyes on said biases. But as long as the rest of the translations are cohesive and it's not truely intrusive in the "woke agenda" beyond a line or two in an episode, most won't pick up a pitchfork.

However, those loud minorities do seem like the majority when they say they prefer AI...until the clunky, incoherent mess of a translation makes people struggle to even understand what's going on. Then the silent majority has a bone to pick. Remember, incoherence and deep biases that affect the entire episode will result in massive backlash. Hence, CR pulling the plug on comments section.


Keep in mind that this is all speculation on my part, can't exactly prove that this is the case beyond some personal observations.

edit *I use "woke" in quotes because it's a cringey word that lost all meaning. A lot of irrational and/or overreactive people use that word nowadays. But I used it like that to provide examples.*

Well, anyone who knows anything about the industry, would know that CR subs are far better than most other services out there, and this is not just me saying, experienced anime pirates and fansubbers all say the same thing.

Most of the "woke localizers" that people hate actually work for Hidive and not CR.