KissAnime, the popular anime streaming site, and its sister manga site, KissManga, will be shutting down. The sites, which have been an endless source of free – sometimes pirated – anime and manga to fans for close to a decade, announced that its decision via its official Discord channel, is closing off with the words “Thank you for your support, Thank you for those years”.
KissAnime’s support team also announced that the shutdown was due to Japan’s crackdown on the piracy of one of its most popular exports. In adherence to the country’s laws, all files and anime episodes on KissAnime and KissManga were struck down by respective copyright owners.
Japan’s ban hammer on piracy should come as no surprise to the vast majority of anime fans, and it isn’t the first time this has happened; the country’s current government revisited its piracy law in June earlier this year, with its parliament having put into effect a revised copyright law. That punishes individuals who knowingly download illegally uploaded or pirated anime, manga, and other printed works, academic or non-academic.
Aside from KissAnime and its sister sites, the Japanese government has also shut down other platforms that host free manga scans permanently, with Manga Rock being one such site. Suffice to say then, the community that virtually grew up with both KissAnime and KissManga are definitely devastated with the news.
For now, there are obviously going to be alternative sources of free manga and anime online, but we do advise caution when visiting these sites, as some of them could simply be phishing site and could therefore infect your PC if you’re not vigilant.
And with that, we would also like to say: Thank You KissAnime and KissManga. It’s been a wild 10 years and we’ll definitely miss you.
(Source: Reddit, GeekCulture, TechTimes)
