The Piracy Problem: Why Is It Still So Hard to Watch Anime Legally in 2025?

It is late 2025. The anime industry is a multi-billion dollar global phenomenon. More streaming services exist than ever before: Crunchyroll (which absorbed Funimation), Netflix, HIDIVE, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video are all competing for a piece of the market.

And yet, a problem persists and, in some ways, has gotten worse: anime piracy.

Millions of fans worldwide still turn to unofficial websites. The common assumption is that this is because people don't want to pay. However, the data and community frustration point to a different conclusion.

The main problem with anime piracy in 2025 is not morality; it is logistics. The legal services, in their attempt to compete, have created a fragmented and frustrating user experience that piracy sites solve.

The Myth of a Centralized Solution

A few years ago, the industry seemed to be consolidating. When Sony (owner of Funimation) acquired Crunchyroll, the community hoped for the arrival of a definitive "Netflix of Anime": a single platform where the vast majority of anime could be found for a single monthly subscription.

That reality never fully materialized. While Crunchyroll remains the largest library, the competition intensified. Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video began investing billions not just in licensing anime, but in funding exclusive productions for their platforms.

This leads us to the three central problems a legal fan faces in 2025.

The 3 Key Problems of Legal Anime Streaming

1. Fragmentation and "Exclusivity Hell"

This is the biggest problem. To be an anime fan and keep up with the current season (Fall 2025), a single subscription is no longer enough.

Let's look at the current situation as an example:

• To watch 'My Hero Academia' and 'Spy x Family S3', you need a Crunchyroll subscription.

• To watch 'Sanda' (from the creator of Beastars), you need a Netflix subscription, which holds it as a global exclusive.

• To watch 'May I Ask for One Final Thing?' and other niche series, you need a HIDIVE subscription.

• To watch catalog anime or specific exclusives, Disney+ (with its Kodansha deal) and Amazon Prime have their own series.

To legally watch the top 5 or 6 series of this season, a fan needs to pay for 3 or 4 different subscriptions. The cumulative monthly cost can exceed $40 or $50.

A piracy site offers the same 5 series in a single browser tab, for free. From a user perspective, the illegal option offers a superior "one-stop-shop" experience.

2. Regional Blocking (Geographic Licensing)

The second problem is geographic. Just because an anime is "licensed legally" does not mean it is available to you.

Anime licenses are sold by region. A series might be on Crunchyroll in the United States, but on Netflix in Mexico, and completely unavailable in Spain or Argentina. Fans in Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe often get the worst of it, with much smaller libraries.

When a fan hears about a popular new series but discovers they cannot legally watch it in their country, they face two options:

1. Sign up for a VPN service (an additional cost) and violate the platform's terms of service.

2. Visit a piracy site that has no regional blocks.

3. "Simulcast" Delays and Subtitle Quality

"Simulcast" is the industry's promise: watch a new episode just one hour after it airs in Japan. But in practice, this often fails, especially for non-English-speaking audiences.

Subtitles in Spanish, Portuguese, or French can be delayed by hours. Furthermore, unofficial fan groups (fansubs) often release high-quality translations hours before the official platforms.

When the illegal option is faster and, at times, offers a more accurate localization (with translator notes that official platforms omit), the incentive to wait for the legal release diminishes.

The Archive Problem: Where Are the Old Anime?

Finally, there is the vast catalog of anime from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

Thousands of these series are not available on any legal platform. The licenses have expired, the original materials are hard to find, or there is simply not enough financial incentive for a service to pay for digitizing and subtitling a niche 1995 series.

For an entire generation of anime, piracy is not an "alternative"; it is the only form of preservation and viewing that exists.

Conclusion

Anime piracy in 2025 is not a problem of morals, but a problem of service. Unofficial sites thrive because they offer a superior product in terms of user experience:

• Catalog: Everything in one place.

• Access: No regional blocks.

• Cost: Free.

• Archive: Availability of old series.

Until the legal streaming platforms find a way to collaborate (either through bundled subscriptions or less restrictive licensing) to offer a service that is genuinely more convenient than the illegal alternative, fans will continue to take the path of least resistance.