u/dct-bk201

These two screenshots from the exact same episode and timestamp show the technical regression happening right now at Crunchyroll as they transition their localization teams away from Aegisub to a paid, cloud-based software called OOONA.

• Left (Italian - Aegisub / .ass): Proper typesetting. The translation is seamlessly integrated over the Japanese sign with matching fonts, positioning, and styling.
• Right (Portuguese - OOONA): Generic broadcast-style closed captioning. A clunky box slapped over the video, breaking immersion and cluttering the screen.

Beyond the obvious visual downgrade, the operational logic behind this shift is completely backwards:

1. Killing .ass capabilities: Aegisub has been the gold standard for anime subtitling for decades because .ass scripting handles complex sign translations and overlapping dialogue effortlessly. OOONA is built for rigid broadcast captions, stripping away proper typesetting tools.
2. A broken "Cloud" workflow for simulcasts: Management pushes OOONA because it's cloud-based, yet it locks the file so two people cannot work on the same episode simultaneously. During a tight simulcast rush, translators, editors, typesetters, and QC need to work in parallel. With lightweight local .ass files in Aegisub, splitting and merging scripts takes seconds. OOONA forces a sequential bottleneck that guarantees rushed quality or delays.
3. Paying for a downgrade: Aegisub is free and open-source. Crunchyroll is actively spending money on expensive enterprise licenses for OOONA to deliver an objectively worse product, rather than putting that budget toward paying translators and typesetters fairly.

It’s another textbook example of paying customers getting a degraded experience while official platforms actively hamstring the people trying to deliver quality work.