This story is being continuously updated (check update sections in the content)….

Just a few weeks after Tumblr announced a blanket ban on everything adult/NSFW/explicit, popular Japanese adult entertainment service Hentai Haven has also been shut down.

Yes, the service is dead. The official Twitter handle is also gone, although Facebook page exists. The official website wasn’t responding initially, but now it has the following message:

HH was born during a time when fansubs were pretty much dying. New shows were subbed weeks after release, most sites had lackluster interfaces and didn’t give a crap about the content they were putting out.

HH changed all that.

But as a wise man once said, every journey must come to an end – and unfortunately, it ain’t the happy kind this time. There’s plenty of options out there now. Fansubs are faster than ever. Streaming sites are better than ever. There’s no longer a real need for HH. We’ve done our part. Now it’s up to the rest of you to carry the torch.

Thank you for visiting and supporting us over the years. It’s been a wild ride. And you will all be sorely missed. Sayonara.

Of course, those who follow the service – a very large number of people I must say – are in for a shock. Many of the fans are taking to social media platforms like Twitter to share their thoughts on this sudden shut down. Take a look:

https://twitter.com/SparkdeCake/status/1075980159809916928

https://twitter.com/cytoscourge/status/1075978918002335744

But why?

Of course, there is this question that why this sudden shutdown? We at PiunikaWeb did some research for you, and found an anime news blog claiming that Russia could be behind this shutdown.

Yes, the website cites its sources who claim the Russian government did this in order to prevent their people from accessing Hentai adult content. The step was taken after Pornhub – world’s biggest adult entertainment site – recently revealed Russia is the biggest consumer of Hentai in the whole world.

Of course, there’s no official word from Russia or any credible source on this at the moment.

Moving on, a Twitter user shared a screenshot containing some text allegedly from the HH owner. As you can see in the screenshot below, the owner funnily claims the site is being shut down as they need to repay loan for their new fursuit.

Of course, this is least likely to be the real reason, and is possibly even not from the HH owner as well. So we suggest you don’t believe this.

Update 1 starts

Moving on, someone who claims they frequent a Discord group (where HH related discussion happen) said they got to hear this:

Well I’m in the discord server and we’re told the site will stay down and we all should stop asking about it. No joke, he basically told us to shut the f*&^ up and stop asking. We have been fed no info as to why it has been shut down as financial and struggle of power have been debunked many times. Doesn’t help that the Facebook and Twitter have also been deleted, so there is no way anyone can ask them what’s going on, let alone go to the Discord as they have disabled the ability to invite people in the Discord

hh-shut-down

Zom is reportedly one of higher ups at HH.

Update 1 ends

Update 2 starts

More screenshots containing info seemingly from HH discord community mods (click/tap to view full size):

hh-shutdown-2

hh-shutdown-3

Update 2 ends

Update 3 starts

The shut down could be because of legal reasons, as a few months back the service announced the demise of a tag due same reasons (screenshot courtesy Hartvigen):

hh-shutdown-4

A legal issue sounds more probable than a financial one because there’s no point of shutting down or purging social media accounts due to lack of money.

Update 3 ends

Anyway, fans of YouTube’s most subscribed channel PewDiePie have been sharing these evidences for past few hours now:

When "sub to pewdiepie" meme gone wrong from PewdiepieSubmissions

This is why HH is down from PewdiepieSubmissions

Update 4 starts

A Hentai Haven alternative is already in the works, check out here (NSFW alert).

Update 4 ends

Update 5 starts

Seemingly, an anonymous 4chan member revealed that HH servers were hosted in Australia, and due to pornography content laws getting stricter in the country, the service is being shut down.

hh-sutdown-5

Image courtesy Zacza.

Update 5 ends

Update 6 starts

Turns out Google has been receiving quite a lot of copyright complaints against Hentai Haven lately.

hh-copyright-notices

Could this be one of the reasons behind the shut down?

Update 6 ends

Update 7 starts

The official HH merchandise store page has also been removed. So it seems like Hentai Haven has been almost completely wiped out from the Internet. We place our bets on legal issues being the reason.

Update 7 ends

Update 8 starts

Good news, the service may not be dead after all. To know more, head here.

Update 8 ends

Update 9 starts

Here’s PewDiePie’s reaction to HH shut down:

https://twitter.com/pewdiepie/status/1076178466737917952

Update 9 ends

Update 10 starts

Good news: Hentai Haven manages to stay alive, moves to new domain name. Details here.

Update 10 ends

Update 11 starts

We have some credible information that says sites like HentaiHaven.me are fake. Details here.

Update 11 ends

Update 12 starts

Someone has uploaded a large collection of Hentai Haven videos on cloud. Check out our latest news story to learn more on this. Head here.

Update 12 ends

Update 13 (May 13)

Good news for Hentai Haven lovers. The site – hentaihaven.org – is now up and running.

We are keeping a tab on the situation, and will let you know as when we have some more news-worthy information on the matter. Until then, let us know what you think about this shutdown in the comments section below.

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.

Himanshu Arora
359 Posts

My interest in technology and writing started back in 2010. Since then, I have written for many leading publications, including Computerworld, GSMArena, TechSpot, HowtoForge, LinuxJournal, and MakeTechEasier to name a few. Here at PiunikaWeb, I started with covering smartphone related breaking stories as well as some other interesting stuff, but now I have switched over to more of a leadership role. I also take care of several operational aspects of the website. Some of my current responsibilities include business development, and working with Piunika to make sure we’re progressing as envisioned. If you want to get in touch, I am active on LinkedIN, and also available on Twitter/X.

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