Anime reaction creators Nicholas Light, Rice & Ginger and others say a wave of DMCA takedowns from Remove Your Media is threatening their YouTube channels with deletion.
Nicholas Light, who has around 1.3 million subscribers, raised the alarm in a September 6 video titled “My Channel will be Deleted Today.” He said Remove Your Media had issued more than a dozen copyright strikes against his channel, temporarily removing over 60 videos.
YouTube later removed the strikes and told Light that his channel would not be deleted. He followed up with another video thanking viewers and other creators for drawing attention to the dispute.
The situation has also affected other anime reaction channels. Ron and Michelle Jackson, who run Rice & Ginger, said their account had been flagged hundreds of times and could be deleted within days. The couple described the situation as “one individual making hell for basically all of us.” Their channel remained online as of September 10.
Why reaction channels are being targeted
Anime reaction videos typically combine commentary from the creator with edited, blurred or otherwise altered footage from a show. Creators argue that the format is transformative and protected by fair use, while Remove Your Media says many channels are effectively uploading entire episodes and directing viewers toward paid Patreon versions.
Evan F. Stone, a legal representative for Remove Your Media, told The Verge that “commentary, in this context, does not make the use transformative.” He said the company reports thousands of allegedly infringing links every day and considers the use of full episodes behind paywalls to be harmful to licensed anime distributors.
Remove Your Media has identified Viz Media and Crunchyroll as two of its biggest anime clients, although neither company confirmed that relationship to The Verge.
YouTube policy communications manager Jack Malon said the platform does not decide who owns the rights to content or whether a video qualifies as fair use.
Instead, YouTube removes content when it receives a valid legal takedown request, while creators can submit counter-notifications if they believe their videos were removed incorrectly. A YouTube support thread has also collected complaints from other anime reaction creators.
Light has argued that reaction channels provide free promotion for anime, particularly for series that struggle to reach audiences outside Japan. For now, the affected channels remain online, but the dispute has renewed questions about how YouTube handles mass copyright complaints and where reaction content ends and unauthorized episode uploads begin.
The controversy echoes previous YouTube copyright disputes, including Lofi Girl’s channel being hit with false takedown requests and AnneMunition receiving bizarre claims over random numbers.
