Japan Anime And Manga Sites Take Down Services After Data Breaches
The rollback of access at Animate, Gamers, and Melonbooks shows the overseas users these platforms spent years courting are now the first thing cut when the security response begins.
Reporting from 1 source: Animenomics.
A wave of cyberattacks has reached Japanese e-commerce sites selling anime and manga. NTT Solmare took down Comic C'moA, a digital manga platform with 40 million monthly users, after a breach. Renta! shut its Japanese and English sites after its own breach. Dai Nippon Printing blocked non-Japanese IPs at Honto after a breach at vendor Ymirlink. Animate, Gamers, and Melonbooks blocked foreign IPs with no breach reported.
The takedowns arrived over four days. NTT Solmare pulled Comic C'moA voluntarily on Thursday for security updates. Renta! followed with its Japanese and English storefronts after finding a breach on Sunday. On Wednesday, Dai Nippon Printing began blocking access from outside Japan at Honto, a marketplace tied to a breach at email software vendor Ymirlink.
Three retailers, Animate, Gamers, and Melonbooks, have blocked non-Japanese IPs while updates are made and report no breach. The wider count the article cites: more than 650 cybersecurity incidents reported by Japanese companies this year, per Trend Micro, above the 2024 record.
- Comic C'moA (NTT Solmare): Taken down for security updates after a data breach; 40 million monthly active users
- Renta! (Papyless): Japanese and English sites taken down after a breach found Sunday
- Honto (Dai Nippon Printing): Non-Japanese IPs blocked after breach at vendor Ymirlink
- Animate: Non-Japanese IPs blocked during security updates, no breach reported
- Gamers: Non-Japanese IPs blocked during security updates, no breach reported
- Melonbooks: Non-Japanese IPs blocked during security updates, no breach reported
- Toho: Overseas anime streaming revenue up over 62 percent to a record 9 billion yen for the six months ended in August
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Animenomics Cyberattacks hit Japan anime, manga websites