Crunchyroll Disabled Comment Section Amidst AI Subtitle Allegations

One of the largest anime streaming platforms, Crunchyroll, found itself in the middle of AI-generated subtitles allegations. Crunchyroll has now taken down the entire comment section without prior notice for other reasons. 

This situation has given rise to an uproar in the anime community. Here are more details on why Crunchyroll had to make such a difficult move. 

Why did Crunchyroll Disable Comments? 

Crunchyroll recently posted that they disabled the comments because they “prioritize creating a safe and respectful community environment.” They disabled not just the comments but all the existing user-generated contents. 

Even though these are disabled, the user rating system still remains. The speculations about this move might be triggered by the sensitive comments that appeared in some anime. The comments under the currently streaming anime- “Twilight Out of Focus” might be one among them.

What was the Trigger? 

After Twilight Out of Focus was aired on the 4^th of July, certain sensitive comments bombarded its comment section. Being a BL, Twilight Out of Focus was attacked by some homophobic comments, which might have led to Crunchyroll taking down the entire comment section. It is not confirmed yet. 

Boys Love has always been a part of the vast anime genres. Twilight Out of Focus was at the wrong place at the wrong time, attracting the wrong audience. Sensitive and toxic comments are not something new either. Maybe Crunchyroll overreacted a bit, and disabling the comments was never a wise move. 

Here’s a post by Geoff Thew on the comments- 

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Comments are always a platform for the otakus to express their opinions and rant about their favorite anime. We all look for what other fans say about the show in the comments. At the same time, we should respect other people’s choices and the guidelines while commenting. Maybe disabling the comments for all anime went a bit too far on Crunchyroll’s part. 

Did Crunchyroll use AI-Generated Subtitles? 

There were allegations that Crunchyroll replaced its translators with AI-generated subtitles last week. Fans found that the subtitles for the anticipated anime “My Deer Friend Nokotan” were not up to the standards. The subtitles had mistakes in capitalization, punctuation, and spacing. Some translations failed to convey the accurate Japanese meaning and jokes. 

Following these, there were allegations that Crunchyroll was using AI-generated subtitles, replacing their translators. While this was happening on one side, some people believed that it was not AI but rather an incompetent translator’s work or the translation was rushed without proper editing. 

At the beginning of the year, Crunchyroll had confirmed that they were testing AI to create subtitles, but it’s not confirmed whether it has any connection with the recent incident. No official confirmation was released by Crunchyroll on this situation.