D-addicts stops hosting torrents

Ah, well. It was bound to happen sooner or later. As someone who watches a lot of j-drama, the one thing I’ve come to accept over the years is the fact that sites hosting TV shows will, eventually, vanish. Sometimes with warning, sometimes not. Silent Regrets, My Asian Cinema, Asiator, and a load of sites listing links to Megaupload all vanished eventually. And now one of the largest, D-addicts, has announced that it will no longer be hosting torrents, and will only carry fansubs for videos that have to be found elsewhere.

Of course, this has caused a lot of sadness, even amongst me. The site was the first place where I downloaded a J-drama (Loss Time Life) and got into this whole thing. Before the torrent comments section was deleted, I checked, and my first comment on the forum was in 2008. Alas, it was a complaint. It would have perhaps been nicer if my first words were more positive, but never mind.

The next issue that this has brought up is, where next? Other torrenting sites are being discussed, but it’s clear that the future of watching J-dramas will be much more diffuse. It’s already getting that way, with a lot of stuff coming hosted on jdramacity.

I’m lucky in that I got registered on Asiatorrents, otherwise I’d be in a bit of a fix. One thing that I did think about was looking again at legitimate sites, like Drama Fever, Viki and Crunchyroll to see what kind of selection of J-dramas they have.

Drama Fever mostly has Korean stuff, including Running Man, but that's region locked, so I can’t watch it. Viki has stuff from around the world, but little stuff from Japan, and what they do have is a few months behind schedule.

Crunchyroll is mostly anime, with some live action dramas. And, like Viki, it’s mostly quite old, although Nobunaga Concerto and Hero 2014 are up. But there are a lot of adverts on that site unless you pay, which makes it kind of tough to sit through.

To my surprise, I also found Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou on there. Not with my subs, I hasten to add. They must’ve got a professional in. It was quite addictive watching it with their subs and checking what I wrote line by line. Certainly their subs are more accurate, but I think mine are funnier. Mind you, I would, wouldn’t I?

It’s a real pity about D-addicts dropping the torrents, but not the end of the world. It'll just make things a little more inconvenient. Just focus on how much joy it brought, and let’s hope it continues as a successful host for fansubs.