David Bridges
At the beginning of last year, Crunchyroll’s President, Rahul Purini, shared with The Verge that the company was “deeply engaged in exploring” generative AI tools specifically designed for subtitling and captioning speech-to-text functionality. This statement arose shortly after the streamer had to remove the first episode of one of its latest series, The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons, due to significant viewer complaints regarding the quality of the subtitles provided. Viewers noted that the translation was filled with errors and lacked clarity, with many sentences missing essential punctuation. At that time, several fans speculated that the company had employed AI technology to generate the subtitles for the episode. Recently, allegations resurfaced when an episode from a new anime series displayed signs that ChatGPT was utilized to produce its subtitles.
A user on Bluesky, known as Pixel, identified a problem with the German subtitles for Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show, one of the new titles being streamed by Crunchyroll this anime season. The subtitles were not only poorly executed but also included a line that began with the phrase “ChatGPT said…” during a critical moment in the show’s first episode. Engadget independently verified that the episode indeed contained these AI-generated subtitles. If you’re interested, the quality of the English subtitles was similarly lacking, as illustrated in the accompanying screenshots.
In a statement to Engadget, a representative from Crunchyroll acknowledged the situation, stating, “We were informed that AI-generated subtitles were utilized by a third-party vendor, which contravenes our agreement.” The spokesperson confirmed that the company is currently conducting an investigation into the matter and is actively working to correct the issue. This acknowledgment comes in response to widespread concern from viewers regarding the quality of the subtitles.
It is understandable why viewers are frustrated with the current state of subtitles. Crunchyroll offers subscriptions starting at $8 per month, and since being acquired by Sony, it has become the leading platform for anime streaming outside of Japan. One user, Pixel, expressed their discontent in a post that has since been quoted over 300 times and shared widely across social media. They questioned, “How can we be expected to pay for a service that clearly doesn’t care about the quality of its products?” Many fans have reported turning to unofficial fansubs, labeling the official AI-generated translations as “unwatchable.” Similar sentiments have been echoed by users on Reddit, who also voiced their frustrations.
Interestingly, when Purini initially disclosed that Crunchyroll was exploring generative AI tools for subtitles, he mentioned that one of the primary motivations was to combat piracy. He argued that leveraging this technology would enable the company to release new, translated anime episodes almost simultaneously with their original Japanese debuts, thereby reducing the delay that often incentivizes fans to download pirated versions.
Update 3:58 PM ET: Added comments from Crunchyroll regarding their investigation.
If you have any tips for Igor, feel free to reach out via email, connect on Bluesky, or send a secure message to @Kodachrome.72 on Signal for a confidential chat.
Daniel Mercer
