Netflix Suffers One Of The Worst Anime Leaks Ever With Arcane Season 2 & More Shows [UPDATED]

Update: 8/9/24: A Netflix spokesperson commented on this situation, telling Variety, "One of our post-production partners has been compromised and footage from several of our titles has unfortunately leaked online. Our team is aggressively taking action to have it taken down." The company in question appeared to be Iyuno, "a media-localization service provider based in Burbank."

Update 8/8/24: We have confirmed that several episodes of the upcoming second season of "Arcane" have also leaked, continuing the bad news for the anime world. Our original article from August 7 continues below.

The anime industry just got hit with one of the worst leaks in history. Though spoilers and small leaks are relatively common, particularly phone-recorded leaks at big events like Anime Expo, production screeners of upcoming titles don't tend to leak very often. What makes this an especially egregious leak is that multiple high-profile productions suffered episode leaks — and of multiple episodes each.

The leak began with the opening and ending themes for anticipated titles like the remake of "Ranma ½," as well as the opening for the "Dandadan" anime adaptation. But then it snowballed and the leak is threatening multiple areas of the industry. According to AnimeNewsNetwork, the first four episodes of "Ranma ½," the first six episodes of "Dandadan," the premiere of "Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-" season 3, the movie "Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain," and even all eight episodes of the upcoming "Terminator Zero" anime have leaked online via 4chan and pirate BitTorrent sites.

Needless to say, a leak of this size, hitting multiple studios and distributors (Netflix is distributing both "Terminator Zero" and co-distributing "Dandadan" with Crunchyroll in the US, but not "Ranma ½" or "Re:ZERO"), is not ideal. 

Before you think of chasing down the leaks, be warned that these are in low-resolution (less than 400p). What is more important is that the leaks reportedly have visible watermarks and burned-in timestamps, meaning the person or persons who leaked these titles are relatively easy to track. Given how seriously these matters are taken in Japan, this is sure to be a rather big scandal that won't just end here.

Curiously, the premiere of "Re:ZERO" has a watermark for France's Japan Expo 2024 — which took place last month. Additionally, "Dandadan" screened its first three episodes at Anime Expo last month, too, while "Terminator Zero" is scheduled to premiere later this monthly on August 29, 2024. As for "Ranma ½," Viz Media and Hot Topic were slated to screen the premiere episode at Anime NYC on August 24, 2024. It is unknown if the leaks are connected to these events or if they came from people involved with the production or localization of the titles. Regardless, this is a huge blow to the anime industry.