Anime streaming giant Crunchyroll has been exposed using artificial intelligence for closed captions after a technical error in Episode 6 of The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest revealed the company’s partnership with Ollang, an Israeli AI localization service. The discovery, first reported by digital producer Daiz on November 26, directly contradicts the company’s October denial that it had adopted AI or new vendors.
The metadata in the English dub’s closed caption file explicitly identified Ollang as the generator, according to Daiz, who has worked as a UX designer and developer for online manga publishers. Ollang markets itself as a platform that “effortlessly localiz[es] your text, video, and audio content at scale with flexible agentic AI workflows”.
Contradiction to October Statement
The revelation puts Crunchyroll’s October 7 statement under scrutiny. When addressing widespread subscriber complaints about subtitle quality issues during the Fall 2025 season premiere, a company spokesperson told media outlets: “These were caused by internal system problems — not by any change in how we create subtitles, the use of new vendors or AI”.
The October statement came after what subscribers called a “full-blown production failure” during the Fall 2025 season debut, which included delayed releases of major titles like My Hero Academia‘s final season and Spy x Family Season 3. “October has been an unmitigated disaster for Crunchyroll,” one subscriber wrote on the platform’s Reddit forum. “Subtitles are barely readable since they removed the TYPESET. The shows have been delayed all week”.
Pattern of AI Controversies
This marks the second time in 2025 that Crunchyroll has faced AI-related backlash. In July, the German subtitles for Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show included the phrase “ChatGPT said” in the actual captions, which Crunchyroll attributed to a third-party vendor violating its agreement.
The distinction between closed captions for English dubs and subtitles for Japanese audio has become a focal point. While Crunchyroll’s statement addressed subtitle creation methods, the Ollang discovery involves closed captions—text generated from English voice acting rather than translated from Japanese dialogue.
Anime Corner reached out to Crunchyroll for comment on its past, present, and future use of AI and Ollang, seeking to resolve apparent inconsistencies in the company’s stance on artificial intelligence in localization. As of publication, Crunchyroll had not responded to the November allegations.
The controversy continues to fuel debates within the anime community about AI’s role in localization and whether automation compromises the quality that paying subscribers expect from professional streaming services.