Teen allegedly used ChatGPT to wipe out 46,000 anime accounts
A self-taught cybercriminal.
Anime silhouette. Image by Cybernews.
- 15-year-old allegedly used ChatGPT to help delete over 46,000 Bandai, anime streaming accounts.
- The attack disrupted Bandai's service and prompted a major security investigation.
- Anime companies remain frequent cyberattack targets, with recent breaches also hitting Crunchyroll and Viz Media.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
A high school student aged 15 years old was arrested in Saitama, Japan, for reportedly using ChatGPT to help him delete over 46,000 streaming accounts on the Tokyo-based Bandai anime streaming channel.
The crime committed is of fraudulent nature, with the suspect even admitting that he created the source code himself, although adding that “since the processing was taking a long time, I asked ChatGPT and completed it in a different programming language.”
On top of that, the suspect added that he had no ill feeling towards the anime streaming service, but was motivated by the easy-access. The disruption was so strong that the streaming company had to freeze their website as the security penetration underwent investigation.
The accused even explained that he changed his IP address 30 times, after the Bandai company blocked his actions in the safeguarding process.
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In fact, the first red flag emerged when Bandai contacted Tokyo police, reporting that information from almost one and a half million accounts was leaked.
According to The Asahi Shimbun, the incident happened last November, with the teen also undergoing a recent arrest in June this year, for a series of other cybercrimes.
By teaching himself how to code at elementary school, the hacker was able to use his refined skillset, along with ChatGPT’s agentic assistance, to build his own program to gain access to the company's servers.
"We take this situation very seriously and will continue to conduct regular checks and strive to prevent any recurrence,"said Bandai in a press statement.
Bandai is not the only anime-related company to experience the severity of a cyberattack. Back in March, a threat actor linked to the ShinyHunters group managed to breach Sony's anime streaming service Crunchyroll, extracting around 100GB of data, including email address and credit card details.
Also, in October 2025, a high ranking staff member of Viz Media, the largest anime publisher in the US, was left exposed by hackers, through whose accounts were able to access corporate business plans, non-disclosure agreements, as well as employee social security numbers.
