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Technological advancements have still not found a way to stop online leaks, and the latest addition to this list has affected Netflix and the anime community in the worst way possible. This alarming development has become a dangerous stop on the international streamer’s journey to expand its anime catalog.
While fans were counting down the days to the upcoming official release dates of TV anime shows such as Ranma ½ Reboot, Dan Da Dan, Terminator Zero and other anticipated titles, an unprecedented crisis broke out on August 6. Everything came crashing down when pirated content streamed with blurred watermarks on sites like BitTorrent and 4chan. With each passing hour since late Tuesday night, only more names have expanded the reach of what is now being considered one of the worst potential anime leaks in history.
Netflix anime breach: Japanese animated projects leaked ahead of their proposed official premiere
The long list of leaked content includes anime adaptations of Rumiko Takahashi’s Ranma ½ and Yukinobu Tatsu’s Dan Da Dan manga.
In the former’s case, the first half of the rebooted anime was targeted, while the first two episodes of Dan Da Dan bore the brunt of the downward slide. The latter project’s release was disrupted two months before its official premiere schedule. Following this, emerging reports mentioned that all 12 episodes of the Ranma ½ anime and episodes 3-6 of Dan Da Dan have also been leaked.
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Theatrical screenings of the first three episodes of Dan Da Dan are set to begin in Asia on August 31. In addition, its English dub was set to world premiere at Anime NYC on August 24. Its Japanese premiere is set for October 5, after which Netflix will also follow with streaming accessibility.
The Netflix leak also caused huge losses to Crunchyroll and GKIDS. While the former is set to stream the series with well-known anime platform Netflix, the latter has acquired the rights for digital transactions of Science Saru Production. The acquisition of various rights to the series also marks GKIDS’ first involvement with a newly released anime series.
Meanwhile, the Re:ZERO season 3 premiere has also joined the list of upcoming leaked anime projects. The 90-minute first episode of the series was supposed to be exclusively showcased by Crunchyroll at Japan Expo in Paris in July. However, the event was eventually cancelled “for reasons beyond Crunchyroll’s control.” The Re:ZERO episode surfaced online with much better visual quality than other recently leaked episodes. Including French subtitles, the season 3 premiere also has a “Japan Expo 2024” watermark.
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Earlier this year, Crunchyroll’s Tower of God Season 2 premiere screener suffered a similar leak after it was showcased at Anime Expo 2024. To make matters worse, several other spring anime titles this year, including Konosuba Season 3, As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, and others, were also leaked ahead of their official release dates.
In addition to the massive breach on Netflix, the entirety of Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain — the first film in a planned trilogy — was released on torrent websites.
Although Netflix has not yet officially committed to its acquisition, the SAG-AFTRA signatory database listing has already confirmed their agreement for the dubbed version of the film. The animated supernatural film released on its home turf in Japan on July 26. Its international release date is awaited to be announced.
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According to recent revelations by Anime News Network, all eight episodes of Skydance Animation and Production IG’s upcoming anime series Terminator Zero also fell victim to piracy. This massive animation was scheduled to release on Netflix on August 29.
Netflix is yet to officially release any statement regarding the unexpected leak of all the most-awaited titles that are set to release soon.
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