Automatically transcribed from the podcast audio, cleaned of detected platform advertisements, and passed through Alie’s quality checks.
Episode Notes
It's over for the world's biggest anime piracy site... at least, if you believe the message currently displayed on the fallen website. "It's time to say goodbye. And thank you for a wonderful journey with great moments." That's the message currently displayed to anyone trying to access HiAnime, which was once regarded as one of the largest anime piracy websites worldwide. However, according to HiAnime's Discord, the illegal streaming site is only temporarily down. "Greetings, everyone," the Discord post reads. "There appears to be an issue with the website at this time. Kindly refrain from panicking or disseminating unofficial or unverified information.
We will provide updates regarding the situation in due course. Rest assured, we are not going anywhere." Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2 just released a generational anime episode that will certainly be remembered for years to come. But as soon as the episode's critical acclaim arrived, the initial hype around it was replaced by a serious debate about the real source of Frieren 's success. Frieren Season 2, Episode 8, “A Magnificent End” marked the conclusion of the highly anticipated Divine Revolte Arc with one of the most hyped anime fights of the year. Even before the episode dropped, a leaked staff list had fans excited, because it featured many of the biggest names in Japanese animation.
This included Chainsaw Man and JJK veteran animator Kouki Fujimoto, legendary FMA and Mob Psycho animator Yutaka Nakamura, and even Tatsuya Yoshihara, the director of both Black Clover and the recent Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc film. And they absolutely delivered. The episode debuted with a near perfect 9.7/10 score on IMDb, making it the series’ new highest rated episode so far. Unfortunately, that achievement brought with it a controversy that few could've seen coming.
Reader Version
In this episode, the host Roos discusses two major topics in the anime community: the shutdown of the popular piracy site HiAnime and the recent buzz surrounding Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2, Episode 8. Starting with HiAnime, Roos acknowledges the site's significance as one of the largest illegal anime streaming platforms, which many fans relied on due to its extensive catalog and the financial relief it provided amid economic challenges. However, he also recognizes the downside of piracy, emphasizing that it ultimately harms creators and production companies by cutting off essential funding needed to develop new anime projects.
Roos reflects on the ongoing battle between large corporations and piracy sites, describing it as a cat and mouse game where shutting down one illegal site only leads to the emergence of several others. He expresses skepticism about the motivations of big companies, suggesting that their focus on maximizing profits often results in stretched out franchises and multiple movie parts designed to milk audiences financially. He also critiques adaptations like Netflix’s One Piece live action series, which he finds inauthentic compared to the original manga and anime, viewing such projects as cash grabs rather than genuine creative efforts.
Despite his mixed feelings, Roos maintains a balanced perspective, admitting he has been a "50-50 advocate" on piracy due to its advantages and disadvantages. However, with the recent crackdown on sites like HiAnime, he leans more toward seeing the disadvantages, especially as the industry pushes for more control over distribution and revenue. He reassures listeners that while HiAnime is down, other similar sites will likely appear, and the struggle between fans seeking affordable access and corporations protecting their profits will continue.
Shifting focus to Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Roos praises the anime’s recent episode titled “A Magnificent End,” which concluded the Divine Revolté arc with a highly anticipated fight scene. He notes that the episode featured contributions from renowned animators and directors known for their work on popular series like Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Mob Psycho. The episode received a near perfect 9.7/10 rating on IMDb, marking it as the highest rated episode of the series so far. However, Roos points out that this acclaim sparked controversy within the community, though he does not delve deeply into the specifics of the debate.
He personally enjoyed the episode and commends the quality of animation and production, even if he doesn’t consider it the most hyped fight compared to other anime battles he has seen. He encourages viewers to watch Frieren, starting from Season 1, and hints at plans to create more content and reviews related to the series and other anime in the future. Throughout the episode, Roos maintains a conversational and candid tone, sharing his personal opinions while acknowledging the complexities of the anime industry and fandom.
He invites listeners to engage with the podcast and supports the community’s shared passion for anime, despite the challenges posed by piracy crackdowns and differing opinions on adaptations and production choices.
Automatic Transcript
Basics. Alright, what's going on guys? It's your boy Roos. And welcome back to another episode on the podcast. This is my first time recording on my baby. My lovely, lovely MacBook Pro. And I want to get into more, should I say, remote podcasting. And yeah, let's just push forward with that. I've got two news that I want to talk about quickly. One is about Hi Anime and how streaming piracy websites have been taken down. Now we know that that has been like the government's plan, especially the western side of the country in the world. They just want big corporations like Disney, I don't know, Warner Bros, Netflix to just be the ones that's mainly in control of the distribution of anime.
So that's why they're taking down anime illegal websites. Obviously we love anime illegal websites because they have a mass catalogue of anime series that we can watch. But also because it takes out that price point of having to pay money out of our own personal pockets when the economy in of itself is not matching the wages. So that's a big, big, you know, advantage. But it's also a big disadvantage for those creators to get the main support of influx of funds so that they can go ahead and make more different ideas in terms of anime series and support the production companies that they work for.
Now I've already said that I've always been a 50-50 advocate, mainly because of the advantage but also because of the disadvantages. But at this point it's more like 100% disadvantage if the big corporations are actually planning or they are actually shutting down anime websites which are illegal, of course. Obviously once you take down one illegal website, there will always be like 5 more popping up and you can't just get away with it.
But at the end of the day, it just feels like it's more of like a cat and mouse game where they're always going to try and chase down illegal websites so that they can keep as much revenue as possible and milk our pockets so that they can make franchises like Demon Slayer and make movies that's like within parts, like part 1, part 2, part 3. You know, that's been the new trend when it comes to anime successful series slash movies slash any form of entertainment media. They just stretch it out and they just make it long for no reason so that they can gain as much money as possible from the viewers and audiences.
Me personally, I don't like watching things twice so if I really do enjoy it, then yes, I do enjoy it and I will watch it more than once. But I feel like when it comes to naive people, like for example, the Netflix series of One Piece, I've also realised that it isn't really that good, okay. Majority of the time it's really cringe especially because I know the actual raw material and it doesn't really come off as authentic. Yes, it's authentic in terms of its own story of it being portrayed how it is on Netflix and for those who are new to the series, they probably watch it and think, oh, this is a cool watch and that's cool for them.
But for those who are, you know, hardcore supporters of the original content which started off as a manga and followed up into the anime and anime portrays the characters so well, we all know that that is basically just a cash grab in terms of just trying to milk the audiences for their entertainment and for their enjoyment which in my case isn't happening because, you know, I ain't spending no money especially when I'm able to find illegal or should I say other alternatives to watching the medias that I'm involved in that I enjoy. Now, apologies to those who use HiAnime as their main source of income in terms of anime entertainment. You know, it is a sad day and there will always be more websites, okay.
But just like how there used to be websites like KissAnime and just different varieties of the same titled anime linked domain, there's always going to be more. So, even though HiAnime has gone down, there will always be another version of HiAnime. And this illegal slash piracy thing slash battle going on with big companies and the little man, it's going to keep going until there's actually like a full on some form of like understanding between the two because we don't own anything. Nobody wants to pay for something that they feel like isn't even going to the right places or they're getting less than what they actually want for their money. Do you know what I'm saying?
You might as well just get it for free or actually pay for what you actually want in terms of the content that is being portrayed on the site or the distributing or the distribution that's coming towards you. So, yeah, that's part one of what I wanted to talk about. Okay, shout out to HiAnime. Shout out to those who used to use it. But there's a lot more websites to find entertainment in terms of anime and movies in that category. And the battle between us and them is going to be a long one but a hard headed strong one. Okay, all right. Now, don't forget to follow the podcast, okay. I've been saying this from like a good two weeks, right, where the goal is to hit 2,000 watch time hours.
So far, we are very close to 800. I'm a liar. So far, we've hit 800 hours, okay, 800 plus hours. We need 200 more hours to get 1,000. And I believe we can actually do this within a month, okay. It's not a guaranteed position where we would get monetized. But from my point of view, from the content that I do make, I do believe that we should have no problem getting monetized once we hit the goal. So far as well, we are on 238 followers. So if you guys could please follow the podcast so we hit 240 followers, it would be highly appreciated, especially because this is not just my podcast. This is our podcast. Do you know what I'm saying?
And it's something that I really do have a passion about and something that I really do love doing on a day to day basis. Now, in this article, it says Freiren Season 2's new highest rated episode is now its most controversial too. If you haven't been watching Freiren Season 2, I advise you to go watch it, let alone Season 1. Okay, start from Season 1 first. I have been watching Freiren, and maybe I'm making a mistake of not reviewing it. So I may just do that.
But the reason why I haven't done it is because I've got so much content to do in terms of the manga, then the animes that I missed, sorry, then the animes that have come out in each season that I've missed, and then the ones that I make anime news updates about. But don't you worry, I am a man of promise, and I will be doing so much more content to the point where I will catch up to everything that I'm interested to putting out and the latest updates so you won't miss out on anything, okay? So yeah, turn on notifications. Says here, excuse me, Freiren Beyond Journey's end Season 2 just released a generational anime episode that will certainly be remembered for years to come.
But as soon as the episode's critical acclaim arrived, the initial hype around it was replaced by a serious debate about the real source of Freiren's success. Freiren Season 2 Episode 8, titled A Magnificent End, marks the conclusion of the highly anticipated Divine Revolté arc, with one of the most hyped anime fights of the year. Cut myself off there. The fight was good. It wasn't the most hyped fight, but Freiren is so good, and the animation was good, the production was good. You just got to give it its praise. Cool, moving forward. Even before the episode dropped, a leaked staff list had fans excited, because it featured many of the biggest names in Japanese animation.
This included Chainsaw Man and JJK veteran animator Koiki Fujimoto, legendary Fullmetal Alchemist and Mob Psycho animator Yutaka Nakamura, and even Tatsuya Yoshihara, the director of both Black Clover and the recent Chainsaw Man Rizei arc film. And they absolutely delivered. The episode debuted with a near perfect 9.7 out of 10 score on IMDb, making it the new series' new highest rated episode so far. Unfortunately, that achievement brought with it a controversy that few could have seen coming. Okay, these are the images. Frickin' fire. Now that I'm seeing it, I really enjoyed this episode. I don't think it was anything crazy compared to JJK or any other animes that I've seen, but it