Crunchyroll Troll? Or Gold?

The question is, did Shinji(the creator) do the right thing as alienating all anime lovers by making them pay for memberships whilst parts of the world can no longer watch the anime they want?

I used to love CR, in fact i was a member back during the golden days where everything was made for the members and only the members to enjoy the site.

However everything changed when CR decided to the "ally of justice" by siding with the legit companies. Which thus lead to it's ultimate downfall.

CR could have become the Fakku the second (anime-wise) but chose not to. I give creadit for Shinji. He by doing so earnt himself a living but in returned lost what made crunchyroll different from other anime sites.

I haven't been on crunchyroll since then which date about at least 3 years.

It's the move of a smart troll.

I started watching anime on Crunchyroll. It was cool for a while because Shinji gave everyone HQ for a month but then you had to pay. Then he added restrictions on what you can watch. Then you had to pay for everything. I don't know if he was pressured by the creators (since he did contact Gonzo very often) but if anyone from other parts of the planet really wanted to watch anime, they could buy it or search the internet. I wouldn't call Shinji a troll but... he did ruin the site a bit since their selection of anime is lacking and you have to pay.

Last I check, the site is still technically free. Just the anime membership grants you higher def and instant access to shows the day it's aired. Regarding the alienating thing, they went legit because of the constant nagging of the Japanese networks to stop broadcasting their works. Instead of facing possible lawsuits from various sources, Shinji decided to go legit and broadcast the most popular shows. If you fathom instant access, you can go for the special membership to fund the site.

I don't see why it's so bad, their video quality is still fairly good. (Subs are another story) Going legit gives them a sense of security of not getting an email or letter to tell you to stop this and that. I dunno if this is true but it gives them more stable income O_o? tho I find more ads now than before legit.

Yeah the site lost popularity, its still got loads of members.

Anime lovers will ALWAYS find alternatives to find what they need and want.

Well if i have to decide between watching crunchyroll subs and raw I'd go with the raw. But I'm guessing that the largest part of their customer base isn't that good in Japanese so they won't actually notice if it's crap or not.

But then again if i had an easy way to earn money...

Well I've never been big on streaming anime, but I can't really say it was a bad decision. In the heat of the moment, we may want to blame Crunchyroll and other anime-affiliated sites (e.g. fansubbers) but when their back is against the wall with legal concerns and pushes there really isn't much choice. Just a tad wrong to ask them to put their neck out for some anonymous group of people.

Not sure if legal woes was even the concern here, but I wouldn't be surprised. Oh well, at least there are plenty of other ways to access streaming anime if that is your choice.

I always download my anime anyway, but I did use Chrunchyroll in the past. It was such a good site. Too bad seeing it go like this, but I don't think Shinji had any choice. He's living better now so you should at least give the man credit. v.v

It's a bit annoying though, since the easiest way to watch Shugo Chara in highest quality is to go to CR... and the limit is a bitch.

well to tell you my story I was originally part of a small rebel group on CR called the /AMP/ or /MOT/ but however the mods are fucking trolls and they, a few months ago finally took all of us down from the inside.

I only go to crunchyroll nowadays cause of my friends there. I remember when there was a whole plethora of anime to watch and now we can only look at stuff companies allow us to

Well I only venture in those forbidden land to retrieve ancient mots to be treasured.

Where to start... I can't remember the exact words that were said to me so correct me if im wrong with anything. Also I suck at explaining.

Crunchyroll is a legit streaming site that has backings from many anime producers in japan and licensees in America. It became a pay site because they teamed up with legit companys to release streaming anime the day of release. It costs money to license shows. Although they hire fansubbers to do their subbing work which is lol imo. Paying for fansubs cool idea, but this is a step in the right direction towards legal subs (Fansubs are and forever will be our replacement for legal subs. That is why fansubs were started way back when). Although groups like horriblesubs are preventing this (Dont download from them seriously >.>) They ruin things for everyone and also change lines from the CR version to make them look bad.

I wouldn't call it trolling people have to do things because japan says so. Contrary to popular belief companies end up doing things the way they do because japan tells them to and that includes CR. That's why you pay.

From what I know about the subbing process japan sends them a 100 x 100 small video so it cant be leeked or if it is then it looks really bad and no one will care. They say this is why they cant typeset or do other things (I beg to differ but whatever). Also any changes to the script must be approved by japan even the slightest one letter change. Not much I can remember off the top of my head.

Related video from otakon about this. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/video/4077/

Crunchyroll isn't that bad. They could do better but its because japan makes them. I also have never heard of Crunchyroll licenses sending out a C&D. Funimation is a different story...

The management of a company (a web-based one is this case) has to make decisions all the time and some of these decisions may not go down well with some of their customers. On the other hand, there are times when companies have to bow down to the pressure placed upon themselves by other organisations (usually larger ones, such as governments).

At the end of the day, one still hopes to survive and make ends meet, so certain decisions could be inevitable.

I would consider him to be "trolling", the site offers a small selection of anime, most of which should never be watched by anyone, and charges for their "service" despite that fact that almost every other anime streaming site offers, not only better quality videos and sub's and a larger selection of anime but, is free.

Indeed, he is a troll but an unsuccessful one.

the golden age of amp i have almost all of the mots/amp saved on my pc, dam those trolls for the porn and start of the rebellion that led to its demise. the last day of amp was a warzone( i was in it lol)

I lol'd.