Welcome back to our deconstruction of the popular negative stances taken against Crunchyroll and its upcoming original series High Guardian Spice. To repeat what we said in part 1, our goal isn’t to attack people for not being drawn to a cartoon, we simply aim to address falsehoods and misconceptions behind a lot of this antipathy. There are entirely fair reasons not to like any piece of art or entertainment, but Honey’s Anime does not believe that these reasons are justified when they are based on incorrect assertions. With all that in mind, be sure to check out part 1 if you haven’t already and let’s dive right into it.

Crunchyroll Has Changed for the Worst and I Don’t Want to Pay Them if This is How They Use My Money

Of course, how one uses their money is up to the individual, but this is another head-scratching standpoint that has been echoed through otaku fandom. One of the biggest issues people take with the site's ostensibly new direction is that they are investing in their own brand instead of giving more money to the anime industry in Japan, which tends to be portrayed as some sort of false advertising on the company’s behalf. Crunchyroll, as far as we are aware, has never claimed to be some sort of anime charity that gives all of its money to the studios and admittedly criminally underpaid animators of Japan. Yes, the company has marketed its platform as a way to support the companies behind all of our favorite shows, but that promise was never for anything beyond providing a legal alternative to pirate sites by actually paying for the media hosted on their service. This is where the subtitle of this article becomes especially relevant, as there seems to be an overwhelming number of former fans acting as though Crunchyroll making its own entertainment just came out of nowhere, leaving people like we at Honey’s Anime wondering what site they’ve been using this whole time.

To give some perspective, when I myself left Crunchyroll in early January of this year, every other user I knew thought I was a total idiot and was not afraid to let me know. So now that hating the site has become trendy, all I can think of was how the writing was on the wall the entire time. The fact of the matter is that the platform has hosted plenty of original productions before High Guardian Spice. In fact, going to their homepage right now will reveal plenty of talk shows, interviews with American anime fans and even promotions with Rooster Teeth that they had been spending money on long before the announcement of their newest show. Let’s also not forget that they have paid for multiple conventions and industry award shows over the last few years. Of course, if people don’t like new original content as much as older ventures, that’s one thing, but claiming it’s the first time the company has done such a thing is patently false.