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Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

animebythenumbers.substack.com

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Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#3
Crunchyroll’s major layoff just two months ago, during which most of their operations team was unceremoniously let go, included some of the longest-serving Crunchyrollers, adding up to a combined total of around 100 years of service to the company by my calculations. Is a new subcontractor and/or service the replacement? It seems that way to me.

And there's your answer. Bet they're replacing most of their artisinal subtitlers with AI.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#4
I’ve posted before about my half-in half-out life between Japan and Australia, and the media I consume is a product of this. Anime, while not a massive part of my watching habit, is certainly a weekly thing at least, and over the past few years it’s been getting harder and harder to support legal services outside of Japan.

In Australia, AnimeLab used to be the gold standard. It had a polished app and dedicated team, mainly because it started out as a piracy site and went legal, keeping the passionate team etc.

They got bought out by Funimation and the app was shelved in favour of Funimation’s far worse but still usable one. Then Funimation was bought out by crunchyroll and their app was also shelved for crunchy’s terrible one. I kept paying for a while after that but after a few instances of missing subs and poor releases I gave up and just kept my Japan side subscriptions going, while getting my Australian side content ‘elsewhere’.

I’m sad the market doesn’t seem big enough to support a new competitor with a focus on quality, but as mentioned in TFA, exclusivity deals make this even harder than it otherwise would be. Shame really, as lately the releases from even the various smaller anime studios have been rather excellent.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#5

Crunchyroll’s major layoff just two months ago, during which most of their operations team was unceremoniously let go, included some of the longest-serving Crunchyrollers, adding up to a combined total of around 100 years of service to the company by my calculations. Is a new subcontractor and/or service the replacement? It seems that way to me. And there's your answer. Bet they're replacing most of their artisinal s…

They're for sure doing this and have been caught: https://x.com/d0nut2x/status/1940107015533285646

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#6

I’ve posted before about my half-in half-out life between Japan and Australia, and the media I consume is a product of this. Anime, while not a massive part of my watching habit, is certainly a weekly thing at least, and over the past few years it’s been getting harder and harder to support legal services outside of Japan. In Australia, AnimeLab used to be the gold standard. It had a polished app and dedicated team,…

Corporate consolidation ruins products left and right. I wish we had a functioning regulatory body.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#7

I’ve posted before about my half-in half-out life between Japan and Australia, and the media I consume is a product of this. Anime, while not a massive part of my watching habit, is certainly a weekly thing at least, and over the past few years it’s been getting harder and harder to support legal services outside of Japan. In Australia, AnimeLab used to be the gold standard. It had a polished app and dedicated team,…

It might take a few more decades, but Google will ultimately win the streaming wars.

I'll be shocked if anime isn't available on YouTube.

You can also interpret that as I'll be shocked if AI doesn't result in every mangaka becoming their own small studio and distributing via YouTube.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#8

Crunchyroll’s major layoff just two months ago, during which most of their operations team was unceremoniously let go, included some of the longest-serving Crunchyrollers, adding up to a combined total of around 100 years of service to the company by my calculations. Is a new subcontractor and/or service the replacement? It seems that way to me. And there's your answer. Bet they're replacing most of their artisinal s…

Enshitification just being further turbo-fed by AI

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#9
post #7

I’ve posted before about my half-in half-out life between Japan and Australia, and the media I consume is a product of this. Anime, while not a massive part of my watching habit, is certainly a weekly thing at least, and over the past few years it’s been getting harder and harder to support legal services outside of Japan. In Australia, AnimeLab used to be the gold standard. It had a polished app and dedicated team,…

It might take a few more decades, but Google will ultimately win the streaming wars. I'll be shocked if anime isn't available on YouTube. You can also interpret that as I'll be shocked if AI doesn't result in every mangaka becoming their own small studio and distributing via YouTube.

I think you’re right for certain use cases. When I want to watch a specific movie, you can pull it up and rent it super easy on YouTube.

No fuss. It’s basically a 1-click operation. $2.99 or whatever to watch your movie in good quality.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#10
For at least the past year, subtitles under dubs have been horrendous. I’ve watched a handful of Gundam series over this period, and while the subtitles under the Japanese audio are usually fine, the captions that run under the English audio more often than not get every single proper noun completely wrong, and half the dialog in general.

A generous explanation would be that the localized subtitles under the Japanese audio are licensed for use with that audio only, but that’s pure conjecture, and even if that’s the case, there is no excuse for how terrible the captions can be.

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