The world of anime is not as unknown as it used to be a decade ago.
Every day, viewers and fans of anime are considerably increasing. However, the demand for manga and anime sometimes exceeds the limit of the officially available ones.
When official websites fail to provide anime or manga, consumers have no other choice but to shift to another source.
Unofficial or illegal sites have popped up everywhere on the internet to serve the gap.
Kissanime.ru was one of the most trusted among such unofficial anime websites. However, an announcement on the Reddit channel of Kissanime stated the shutdown of the site.
The announcement on the unofficial r/KissAnime subreddit shows the message that all the content on the website has been taken down by copyright owners and that the site had to be closed down. By the looks of it, the site might be shut down forever.
The manga version of the KissAnime website called Kissmanga has also been shut down at the same time.
“You’ve lost all the bookmarks, and they can’t be recovered”
A lot of readers might have lost their content, especially if it wasn’t already backed up.
KissAnime had been operating for years, and it had amassed quite some traffic. The sole reason behind the constant traffic was the free availability of a vast anime selection.
According to the new copyright laws, both users and operators of pirating websites will be heavily fined; other measures will be taken as well. This new law will be implemented in January 2021.
The anime industry in Japan is crumbling as we speak, mainly due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The only way for creators and distributors to survive through this is by strictly adhering to the copyright laws and hunting down any illegal distributors.
Anime content distributors are already thinking of releasing their content on a single YouTube channel for free. Although it is a plan which needs patience on the part of fans, it is our only ray of hope.
Other websites like gogoanime and 9anime are still operating, but a shadow of doubt looms large over them.
Even though sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation are available to stream anime, a lot of popular titles are not present.
Regional licensing, anime company politics, as well as other issues, block some anime from reaching viewers.
Kissanime has been a pirated site all along, but its users have fond memories of it. It has helped in promoting anime in countries where none is available.
All of us here love anime and manga, and sometimes resorting to such websites is inevitable due to the less content available in our region. However, it is high time that we set our selfishness aside and help the creators unless we want this art form to get diminished.
Source: Reddit and Kissanime.ru website
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