The hype surrounding Attack on Titan's Final Season has led the streaming platform, Crunchyroll to crash. This is not the first time Attack on Titan has crashed a server, this has happened previously with Funimation and Crunchyroll itself. Considering that this is the final installment of arguably the most popular anime of the decade, this crash was anticipated by fans and authorities alike.
Crunchyroll servers crash due to 'Attack on Titan' Final Season part 2 traffic
It was previously announced that the subtitled version of the first episode of Attack on Titan Final Season part 2 would be aired a little later than the unsubtitled version which was aired on NHK TV in Japan. This is why the opening and the ending were available on YouTube and Twitter ahead of the episode. However, immediately after the premiere of the subtitled version, Crunchyroll servers became unresponsive.
After 3 hours, the authorities managed to rectify the problem and get the platform back up to function smoothly. However, the first episode of the show's final season, episode 76 overall, was still not available on Crunchyroll for quite a few hours, which made it inconvenient for a lot of fans.
At the time of writing, Episode 76, “Danzai” or “Judgement” has been made available on Crunchyroll. However, as Hulu and Funimation were also streaming the episode, fans were not left completely without a remedy. Crunchyroll crashing did make way for fans to flock towards some unofficial websites, many of whom had released an unofficial translated version of the episode earlier than official sites.
Crunchyroll has licensed both Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer this season, two of the most popular anime of all time. Demon Slayer Season 2: Entertainment District arc was already one of the most anticipated anime of the year. As both anime air on Sundays, the number of viewers was exponentially more on Crunchyroll this Sunday.
Where does this leave AoT fans?
The authorities and people in charge of the anime on Crunchyroll did their best to restore services. Episode 77, titled “Damashi Uchi”, roughly translated to “Sneak Attack”, will be airing on January 16, 2022, January 17 for some regions. The timing of the episode's airing is unknown as of yet, but it will be officially announced soon.
It can be expected that the subtitled version of this episode will be aired later than the NHK release time as well. Hopefully, fans will be able to access this episode without any more streaming platforms crashing.