Netflix Is Taking Legal Action to Find Source of Fall Anime Leaks

It looks like Netflix is now taking the necessary legal steps to find out who is responsible for the major anime and live-action leaks of their shows that hit ahead of the Fall 2024 anime schedule. Earlier this Summer, anime fans were shocked to see that full episodes of some of the upcoming new Fall anime releases such as Ranma 1/2, Terminator Zero, Dandadan, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- and even films such as Mononoke had been leaked to various social media and piracy sites online. This had been one of the biggest anime leaks to date with such a huge amount of time before their official premieres as well.

As reported by Anime News Network, The Northern District of California court has issued a subpeona to Discord to share information that could lead to the reveal of the identities of those who might have been behind the leaks. Netflix had filed the subpeona on November 15th, and referred to a leaked image of the currently unreleased Squid Game Season 2 posted by a Discord user with the handle “@jacejohns4n,” who is allegedly tied to the leaks.

Netflix Hit By Massive Anime Leak Ahead of Fall 2024

Earlier this Summer, Netflix had been hit with one of the biggest leaks of their anime releases to date. This included full series runs of Terminator Zero, a few episodes of Dandadan, a few episodes of the Ranma 1/2 remake, the first episode of Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-, and Netflix then later revealed shows such as Arcane, Heartstopper. Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld, and even films such as Plankton: The Movie, Spellbound, and Mononoke had been leaked in full as well according to later reports. It was undoubtedly the biggest anime leak seen in years.

Netflix then shared an official statement revealing that one of their post-production partners had been compromised and led to the leaks, “One of our post-production partners has been compromised and footage from several of our titles has unfortunately leaked online. Our team is aggressively taking action to have it taken down.” The statement given then skews it further towards outright theft then something “accidentally” shared online. Therefore it has yet to be revealed what further action Netflix might be taking in this manner following this subpeona from The Northern District of California court.

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Why You Should Avoid Anime Leaks

The desire to watch a new anime as soon as possible is understandable given that the wait for many of these releases felt like a long time, but you should avoid watching any leaked anime footage. Not only is it illegal as it’s outright theft, but it also directly harms all those who are behind each anime production. Watching a series is the only way to gauge interest from fans, and it’s the only way that a series you like will get more releases in the future. It’s the only way to show your support.

If you want to watch an anime and be a part of the conversation each week, then the best time to do so is to watch when everyone else is watching legally. By waiting for legal releases, you get the best quality release possible at the same time as all the other fans are seeing it. Therefore you won’t really be missing out on anything, and waiting for the legal release means you also won’t have to wait longer for future episodes. Watching something illegal and early would only dig your hole in further.

HT – ANN