Last year, we wrote an article about Bilibili's largest passion-driven fan translation group, "Summer Phantom MCE," exploiting its employees, where the dragon-slaying hero eventually became the dragon, only to be confronted by a new hero, the "Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group." Unexpectedly, in just half a year, we reached an ending worthy of another article.
Before formally introducing the new developments, let's briefly review the story from last year for readers unfamiliar with the background.
In September 2025, Bilibili's largest new anime news fan translation group, "Summer Phantom MCE," exploded with scandal.
This account boasts millions of followers and is undoubtedly a top uploader in the domestic new anime news sector. It always manages to repost and translate the latest anime PVs, production decisions, mini-theaters, and other news at the earliest opportunity, making it the best channel for most anime viewers to learn about new series. In this niche, Summer Phantom MCE has almost no substitutes.
According to public perception, fan translation groups are known for working out of passion, so audiences naturally assumed Summer Phantom MCE was simply a large, selfless community.
However, core member Kamiya released a video exposing that each post on the account fetched between 200 to 500 yuan in sponsored deals. The group leader, "Summer Phantom," pocketed over 90% of the sponsorship income alone, while the twenty or so members who actually did the work sometimes earned only over 100 yuan a month, calculating to less than 4 yuan per hour. Even more absurdly, the leader himself didn't even recognize the Japanese syllabary, yet demanded members translate a PV within ten minutes to chase trends and gain followers for ads, resulting in frequent errors and omissions in translations.
Subsequently, the incident continued to escalate. Another pillar of the group, "Chihaya Anon dori," also announced his departure. This member's skills are rare even within the entire fan translation circle—he scored 698 on the EJU study abroad exam, ranking 120th in all of Japan. In the 14 months since joining, he translated nearly 300 submissions alone. Upon learning of this incident, he made the same choice as Kamiya, releasing a video condemning the situation, and ended the video with the phrase "A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall," before leaving the group.
After the incident, group leader Summer Phantom quickly changed his usual domineering attitude in the group—issuing an apology statement, enabling comment filtering, and starting to batch delete previous ad-related posts.
During the escalation of public opinion, a member who chose to stand by Summer Phantom MCE stepped forward. Like Kamiya investigating group employee salaries earlier, he asked the remaining old members one by one: "Even if there are no wages in the future, are you still willing to follow us to restructure into a new group?"
After receiving approval from most people, everyone jointly persuaded Summer Phantom to abandon the existing account and start anew. After much hesitation, Summer Phantom finally agreed.
But this compromise didn't last through the night.
Summer Phantom still couldn't let go of the account with millions of followers—he changed the password in the early hours and took the account back into his own hands. Those members who had been busy and waiting anxiously for a response during this period, after losing login access and having their trust betrayed, were thoroughly disheartened. They made the same choice as Kamiya and Chihaya Anon dori: release a video and leave the group.
The current situation is that the Summer Phantom MCE account has never stopped accepting advertisements.
But as mentioned earlier, Summer Phantom MCE has almost no competitors in this sector. If viewers want to continue watching related content, they seem to have no other choice. In other words, such public opinion attacks still appear somewhat inconsequential.
To break this situation, Kamiya joined forces with Chihaya Anon dori and other original members to form a new group—"Kamiya-Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group" (later renamed Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group)—to directly compete with Summer Phantom MCE.
Perhaps Summer Phantom himself didn't expect that his employee exploitation, concealed financial reports, and internal PUA would spontaneously create a competitor for him. Perhaps, seeing the establishment of Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group, Summer Phantom might have vaguely recalled how, many years ago, he defeated the "Jinli Le Fan Translation Group" during the Warring States period of the early Bilibili fan translation scene, swept away all rivals, and ultimately became the sole dominant force.
The hero who once slew the dragon was high-spirited, but ultimately lived to resemble the dragon himself. The new struggle will continue.
However, no one would have predicted that this new struggle, where "the hero will not become the dragon," lasted less than half a year.
On February 21, 2026, merely five months after the manifesto against the tyrant, Kamiya used the official account to launch another direct attack against Summer Phantom.
In his video, Kamiya claimed that Summer Phantom MCE plagiarized his translation draft while translating the PV for "Witch Hat Atelier." He compared similar sentences line by line, speaking with certainty. Summer Phantom MCE immediately responded with their own line-by-line comparison document, insisting there were significant differences in wording and sentence structure, denying any plagiarism, and demanding an apology from the other party.
Actually, this battle was baffling. Fan translation groups essentially repost official content; the source materials are exactly the same, so translation overlaps are inevitable. Furthermore, copyright belongs entirely to the animation producers, so how can reposted translations be considered plagiarism? Of course, as beneficiaries who enjoy the "cooked meat" (translated content), we greatly respect the labor of every member in passion-driven fan translation groups (even if they take ads to earn some "milk money," no one complains). But the problem is, without official authorization and without concrete evidence of plagiarism, such full-force accusations seem somewhat ridiculous.
Thus, many netizens who originally supported the Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group began to wonder why they were so persistently launching attacks.
Looking back at the operations over the past six months, we can see that the official Tangxin Dan account has expressed emotional outbursts against Summer Phantom MCE more than once. This wasn't anything major; everyone just assumed Kamiya and others were deeply hurt by years of PUA-style exploitation by Summer Phantom and acted on impulse.
But acting on impulse once or twice is understandable; doing it repeatedly makes people wonder if it's never-ending. After all, the audience comes for new anime news, not to chase idols. Since the subtitle group has started to operate normally, shouldn't sticking to their duties and doing good translations be the original intention of its establishment?
And on February 21st, when netizens were confused, Chihaya Anon dori, who had previously worked with Kamiya to establish the Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group, released a video explaining the truth to the audience:
He pointed out in the video that the plagiarism accusation against Summer Phantom MCE was entirely Kamiya's unilateral action, and the video had not undergone any prior discussion within the group. As for why he attacked Summer Phantom multiple times—it was likely because Kamiya wanted to completely overthrow Summer Phantom MCE and take its place.
Afterwards, group members got into a dispute with Kamiya in the subtitle group chat.
In Chihaya Anon dori's video, besides responding to the backlash from netizens over Kamiya's unauthorized plagiarism accusations, he further exposed various outrageous behaviors Kamiya committed as the leader of Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group over the past six months—posting translated videos as original content to run ads for profit, and openly arguing with netizens in the comments section, among other things.
Facing dissatisfaction from group members, public accusations from second-in-command Chihaya Anon dori, and questions from netizens, Kamiya loudly complained in the subtitle group chat the next day about suffering too much undue pressure and stated he was willing to hand over the account to "whoever is capable."
However, on February 23rd, he again posted a new PV without the consent of group members. After another round of arguments erupted in the group, Kamiya left the group with his main account, leaving only his alt. That day, he posted a formal apology statement on his Bilibili dynamic.
However, according to other members who revealed in the announcement's comment section, this announcement was also made entirely by Kamiya alone, without any involvement from others. Later, after being repeatedly mentioned by group members, Kamiya left these few sentences in the group using an alt account, then changed the password for the "Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group" (as in the previous story where Summer Phantom changed the account password without permission) and completely vanished from the public eye.
The reason Kamiya dared to confidently claim in his apology statement that "he handled 90% of the work himself over the past two months" is simple—most of his translations were assisted by AI. Relying on AI technology, he no longer needed to recruit new people, nor did he need to rely on those members who had once fought alongside him.
According to Chihaya Anon dori's recollection, before Kamiya officially mastered AI techniques, the whole group survived on the hard work of its members. For urgent translation tasks, videos still had to be uploaded within a very short time, and members originally responsible only for translation had to learn timing from scratch due to staff shortages. During those days, Kamiya, as the group leader, instead of setting an example, constantly released negative emotions within the subtitle group.
Chihaya Anon dori, who had been diligently maintaining the Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group, finally couldn't bear it anymore after this baffling plagiarism accusation: "Tangxin Dan's development to this point is not your sole achievement; it relies on the fans who once believed in and supported you, as well as the translators and timers who contributed to Tangxin Dan. Those who follow the right path get much support, while those who stray get little. Let's part on good terms."
Thus, before the incident on February 23rd, Chihaya Anon dori had already signaled his departure from the group again due to ideological differences.
In the following month, the Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group account continued to post new translation videos in an orderly manner, with few people truly knowing that there was actually only one person left behind it.
Eyes are black, heart is red; once eyes turn red, the heart turns black.
We are able to know these stories hidden behind the QQ group today thanks to Chihaya Anon dori, who continued to issue statements after leaving the group—he was willing to speak up for those bewildered old members at this time. Thus, he released this new video and kept uploading archives, allowing the truth to finally reach the public eye a month later.
At this point, the Tangxin Dan Subtitle "Group," which had struggled for half a year, existed in name only.
Ironically, just half a year ago, when Kamiya announced his departure from the Summer Phantom MCE fan translation group, he had also released a video vowing that he would not start another new fan translation group and would withdraw from the subtitle circle.
However, not long after, he joined forces with Chihaya Anon dori and other departing members to establish the Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group. To be honest, netizens at the time, including myself, were happy to see such a new force emerge and were relieved that they were willing to return and continue the fight despite having been betrayed.
But now, Chihaya Anon dori has stepped forward again—this time, he opposes the comrade who once joined him in crusading against Summer Phantom but has since changed his heart.
Naturally, some people will suspect with doubt whether the future Chihaya Anon dori will become the next Kamiya? Will this painful spiral continue to exhaust credibility and fish in drained waters?
If there were no mind-corrupting "Arkenstone" or "One Ring" from The Lord of the Rings universe involved in these two dragon-slaying incidents, I would still be willing to believe in Chihaya Anon dori.
After all, he once livestreamed 70 hours of Japanese language teaching for free under the Tangxin Dan Subtitle Group. Although not extremely professional, he diligently prepared lesson plans and gathered materials using his spare time after work, carefully conducting lesson after lesson for those netizens willing to trust their subtitle group. Out of curiosity, I secretly listened to a few classes. From the perspective of someone experienced, his livestreams were truly heartfelt.
Perhaps this is the price paid for bearing the name "Chihaya Anon." Both groups suffered betrayals and disintegration, yet in reality, he resembles that vain pink-haired character who laughs awkwardly—even in the disastrous second season, he still凝聚s team spirit for two bands, three groups, and even two other unrelated groups.
And today, he has been blocked by Kamiya using the official account, unable to watch his own live stream replays with his main account, nor see the danmaku interactions from those who once accompanied him.
No one expected it, nor did anyone truly want to see it—the dragon-slaying hero eventually became the dragon himself. And unlike dark fairy tales, the previous dragon had not fallen.
Although Summer Phantom MCE once dropped from 1.5 million followers by hundreds of thousands, the follower count has now returned to 1.49 million—just like when he defeated the Ying Lili Subtitle Group amidst numerous scandals back then, he remains Bilibili's largest new anime news subtitle group.
Along with fluctuations in follower count, the internal finances of the fan translation group also changed. According to the financial status disclosed by Tangxin Dan and Summer Phantom respectively in February this year, Summer Phantom now gives members 1000 yuan per month. Although it's not much, and it's obvious that Summer Phantom still takes the lion's share, it's considerably better than the previous "700+ over two years."
As for whether the situation will bounce back after Tangxin Dan's decline, following the famous quote—"After we leave, they will build schools and hospitals for you, and raise your wages. This is not because they have had a change of heart or become good people, but because we were here"—no one can say for sure.
After all, making subtitles is neither running a government organization nor a formal company with labor contracts. Members who feel their effort and income are unbalanced can naturally leave at any time.
Moreover, fan translation groups are originally clusters of selfless experts gathered by passion. If distribution according to labor isn't possible, then return to the original intention of "working for love." On this path stood the highly educated Chihaya Anon dori, stood Summer Phantom MCE in its early days, and of course, stood Kamiya, who was once shocked by ad fees but now sits alone on the throne of Tangxin Dan—
He used to be the one shaking milk tea in a shop late at night, mentally translating distant songs and the touching youth of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.
