Last year, Crunchyroll’s President hinted at a high-tech future: AI-powered subtitles. Rahul Purini told The Verge that generative AI was being tested for subtitling and captioning. This announcement came shortly after the streaming service fumbled the debut of “The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons,” pulling the first episode due to fan outrage over its subpar subtitles. Was AI the solution, or part of the problem waiting to happen?
The translation was a train wreck of gibberish, riddled with punctuation potholes. Whispers of AI translation circulated among scorned fans. Now, the rumors have teeth: Crunchyroll appears to be feeding new anime episodes into the ChatGPT grinder, and the results are predictably disastrous.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
Crunchyroll’s latest anime offering, “Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show,” is already making waves, but not for the reasons they hoped. Eagle-eyed Bluesky user Pixel unearthed a bizarre twist in the German subtitles of the series’ debut episode. In a crucial scene, the dialogue was inexplicably prefaced with “ChatGPT said…”
Engadget confirmed the unsettling intrusion of AI into the translation process. But the horror doesn’t end there. Screenshots reveal the English subtitles aren’t safe either, hinting at a widespread quality control issue plaguing the series. Is this the future of anime localization, or a cosmic error of Lovecraftian proportions?
Crunchyroll did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.
Crunchyroll’s reign as the king of anime streaming is under siege. Following its acquisition by Sony, subscribers shelling out $8 monthly are revolting. Why? The subtitles. “Unacceptable,” declares Pixel, a sentiment echoed by thousands online. Their post, a rallying cry against abysmal translation quality, has ignited a firestorm. Fans are abandoning ship, setting sail for the treacherous waters of torrented fansubs, anything to escape the horrors of Crunchyroll’s alleged AI-generated translations. Reddit is ablaze with similar tales of woe, painting a grim picture for the streaming giant. Is this the beginning of the end for Crunchyroll’s dominance?
Crunchyroll
Purini unveiled Crunchyroll’s AI subtitle experiment with an ironic twist: battling pirates with robots. His logic? Slash the time gap between Japanese airings and official translated streams. He argued this delay fuels torrenting, suggesting that faster, AI-powered subs could be the key to keeping anime fans legit.
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