Aniwave and other anime piracy sites are saying goodbye

If you know about Aniwave, then you’ve definitely come across one of those free anime streaming sites. Aside from Aniwave, social media has been mourning the loss of several movie and anime piracy sites.

Currently, there’s nothing but a letter posted on Aniwave’s website. The content of the letter is a farewell to the site’s supporters, but it also has the music video of Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” at the end. It’s cryptic, but it might mean that Aniwave won’t be gone forever. Its founders might start over with a new site without any of us noticing.

Aniwave may be gone for now, but 9Anime is still up and running. That might not be for long, since other anime sites have also been shut down overnight. 9Anime has been trending on Twitter, and users worry that the site will be next in this chain of shutdowns. Fboxz, a popular movie pirating site, has also been affected by this hit.

Aniwave’s letter to its subscribers

Despite the uproar over these sites, nobody knows the real reason behind the shutdowns. The letter from Aniwave encourages their former subscribers to use legal means to support creators and content producers. It’s a good message, but it doesn’t address why they’ve shut down. The farewell message is also posted on Aniwave’s official Reddit thread.

Webtoon is also cracking down on illegal manga sites

Webtoon Entertainment also filed a subpoena against 170 pirate sites. MangaFire and MangaReader are among the sites that are part of subpoena. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, along with Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association and Korea’s COA, are banding together to crack down against piracy. It looks like sketchy sites won’t be up for long. There are several legal alternatives you can explore instead, if you’re among the affected manga readers or anime viewers.