The age of streaming has brought us more anime than we could possibly watch in a single season, but some people are still hungry for more. Big shows like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen are prime targets for pirates and leakers, but Japanese companies have taken the unusual step of using US courts to pursue legal action against leak accounts on social media sites.
The companies involved include Aniplex and TOHO, who are both members of Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA). They have filed an information disclosure order in US courts seeking the identity of the owners of alleged leak accounts that distributed early footage and stills from anime series like Demon Slayer on X/Twitter. The initial filing is from August 20. On August 30, the courts formally served the order, so if you’ve noticed that some of anime leaker accounts have been suspiciously quiet for the past month, it is probably because they’ve got anime companies hunting down their identity.
The move marks the first time that CODA has taken anime leak accounts via the US court system and is a step up in their attempts to stamp out leaks since entire episodes of Ranma 1/2, Dan Da Dan, and Terminator Zero showed up online before their official debut. While Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer are two of the biggest shows mentioned in the court order, CODA has said that it has received similar requests from other studios.
While this move likely won’t mean the end of anime leaks, it does show an escalation in how Japanese studios prosecute those who distribute the material online. It is also worth noting that the order pertains specifically to the distribution of material ahead of their official release rather than pirating anime after it has become available online. That is a whole different (and much bigger) issue for anime studios to tackle.