Attack on Titan crashes Funimation & Crunchyroll, leaving fans outraged
Kodansha, Hajime Isayama / Funimation / CrunchyrollThe final season of Attack on Titan is finally here, but American viewers have limited options to watch the show’s highly-anticipated fourth season after Funimation and Crunchyroll crashed amid the hype.
Attack on Titan is quite possibly one of the most popular anime series of the modern age. Based on a manga of the same name by author Hajime Isayama, the show first aired in 2013, and has cultivated an impressive legacy for itself since then.
After seven long years, the show was said to begin its final season in October 2020. This date was pushed back two months due to the ongoing health crisis, and a new date of December 6, 2020, was penned.
However, English-speaking fans excited to catch the first episode of the anime’s long-awaited final season were met with disappointment after streaming services Funimation and Crunchyroll crashed — likely due to the sheer amount of viewers attempting to tune in.
Needless to say, this has sparked an avalanche of both hilarious and disappointed reactions across social media, with many fans finding the humor in crashing the service’s servers over sheer hype.
“About to go watch Attack on Titans season four”
Crunchyroll- pic.twitter.com/rAsGRc2ony
— sage (@mysticsage81) December 6, 2020
https://twitter.com/xDElectrix/status/1335689065333551104?s=20
https://twitter.com/brokenbibii/status/1335688361026211844?s=20
While there are memes aplenty joking about the situation, it seems that Hulu has remained viable, allowing subscribers an alternative route of watching season four.
Attack on Titan’s fourth and final season will notably only feature 16 episodes — a shockingly short timeline to wrap up events from the first three seasons, as most anime feature seasons of about 24 episodes in length. The show has a history of splitting up seasons into two parts, though, but it doesn’t seem that this will be happening for season 4.
Thankfully, Crunchyroll itself has confirmed that its services are now “recovering,” as told in a statement via Twitter.
Thank you for your patience: all Crunchyroll services are now recovering!!
— Crunchyroll (@Crunchyroll) December 6, 2020
Luckily, it doesn’t look like Premium Crunchyroll subscribers will have to wait too long to catch up (although this writer has to wait until the end of her shift to watch – no spoilers here!).