I remember back in the early 2010s everyone was downloading episodes through torrents, waiting for fan subtitles. Now we have Yandex.Kinopoisk, Crunchyroll and other services. But sometimes you come across anime that aren't licensed anywhere - you have to look in the old places. Do you do the same or have you completely switched to legal platforms?
I'm mostly on streaming now, of course - it's more convenient and faster than waiting for torrents. But yeah, sometimes I run into stuff that isn't available anywhere officially, especially like older episodes or obscure titles - then I have to go back to the old ways. I think a lot of people are in the same boat, if only because not all anime is licensed, even now.
Streaming is more convenient, yeah, but I wouldn't say it's a complete replacement. The catalog on Kinopoisk and Crunchyroll has genuinely expanded, but there are still gaps - especially with exotic titles or old series that came out in microscopic VHS runs back in the day. Sometimes even popular anime can disappear from streaming if its license expires and nobody picks up a new one.
Plus there's something a lot of people overlook: quality. On torrents you can find berries in 1080p or even higher, whereas streaming platforms often skimp on bitrate. If you're watching on a big screen, the difference is noticeable. So for anything particularly gorgeous I still dig into the old places, honestly.
Overall I've switched to streaming like 80 percent - it's fast, legal, convenient. But I don't see the point in completely ditching torrents until everything is actually available everywhere. So you're on the right track mixing both ways.
I switched to streaming three or four years ago and don't regret it, but the catalogs are still full of holes. Recently I wanted to rewatch some old shounen - it wasn't on Kinopoisk, wasn't on Crunchyroll either. Googling led me to some sketchy site packed with ads, and I figured it's not worth the hassle. Now when that happens I just look for different anime instead - life's too short to hunt down one specific title.
But the series that are on official platforms, I watch those more willingly: no need to wait for downloads, no need to hunt for decent subtitles. On streaming it's usually solid, video quality is stable. Plus, if I liked some anime, I'm more likely to come back to it - unlike torrents, where files are gone after six months anyway.
I think for popular and mid-tier titles, streaming has basically killed torrents. But niche stuff - old OVAs, spinoffs with a third-rate budget, or something that only came out in certain countries - that's still a black hole. In my opinion, that's the services' problem, not the people looking for unofficial sources.
I'm curious - have you ever run into situations where the "official" translation turns out to be worse than the fan version? I'm mostly on Kinopoisk and Crunchyroll, but I've noticed the localization quality varies wildly: sometimes the translators do a great job, sometimes it's clearly just machine translation. So I sometimes hunt down old fansubs to compare, especially for my favorite episodes. Plus yeah, same as what the other comments said - with rare and old titles there's just no choice, you can't find them officially anywhere.
I've mostly switched to streaming for a while now - it's just more convenient to turn it on and watch without messing around with torrents. But I agree about the translation quality: sometimes the official localization really loses out to fan versions, especially when the translators try to adapt jokes or wordplay for a Russian audience and miss the point. For rare titles I still have to dig up old sources, though the catalogs are way more complete than they used to be.
What kind of content do you usually look for - new releases or classics? It turned out that streaming services cover pretty much everything that's coming out now, but the back catalog is really a problem. Especially with anime from the 2000s or low-budget stuff - it might be that even on Japanese platforms it's already been delicensed, and there's just no legal source available anywhere. In those cases, torrents are the only option, and I don't see anything criminal about it if the content is de facto unavailable for purchase.
But it's not a cure-all, and I still periodically go back to looking elsewhere. What's especially annoying is when you find an anime you watched before, but now it's been removed from the catalog or geoblocked. Fine, if it's some new popular title, but when it comes to lesser-known or older series - total disappointment.
As for localization quality, I agree with the previous answer - it really is a lottery. On official platforms, sometimes you run into such a literal translation that it's uncomfortable to watch, whereas fans did it clearly. One lifehack that helps me: before I watch something, I peek at the comments on Kinopoisk or search for reviews on forums - people often write there about whether the translation is decent or if it's better not to waste your time.
I barely download from torrents anymore, mostly because I can't be bothered waiting for the download and then dealing with seeders, not out of any sense of nobility. But if some anime is just impossible to find legally - well, what else can you do, you have to look around.
The quality of localization - now that's a lottery, seriously. I found an anime on Kinopoisk where the translation was pretty mediocre, and then I randomly stumbled on a fan version with subtitles - night and day difference. After that, I started googling whether there are alternative translations before watching anything official.
Overall, I'm already living on streaming, and I don't want to go back - the convenience won out. But yeah, the catalogs are incomplete, especially for older shounen and rare stuff, so sometimes you really do have to look elsewhere.
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