Addressing those involved in the spreading of the “First Squad” across the web, they wrote:

“You’ve made your contribution into damaging the reputation of the Russian distribution history at large, and of one particular project specifically.”

“First Squad” is the first-ever anime centering on the Second World War and only the second experience in the history of Japanese animation in which Japanese filmmakers have teamed up with a foreign studio to produce the anime together.

Image from “First Squad”

“First Squad” will be released to cinemas in 150 copies, which makes it the second-biggest anime released outside Japan after cult Japanese filmmaker Miyazaki.

According to the Russian creators of “First Squad”, Russian web pirates are helping Hollywood replace Russian cinema:

“It’s the first-ever time an anime was filmed on a mobile phone camera by ‘our compatriots’, right at the first festival screening. After the Moscow Film Festival, the film traveled to several more film festivals in Switzerland, America and Spain, but the ‘heroic deed’ of Russian pirates remains unbeaten. Our own countrymen have kindly uploaded the disk with the festival version of the film on to the Internet just ten days prior to the release. Right, guys, let the Japanese learn that there are only three big troubles in our country: the fools, the roads and the pirates, and – like in the time of the Soviet secret police agency, NKVD – there’s no hiding from them.”

They also wrote that by downloading “First Squad” from the Internet, they deprive themselves and others from watching the sequel to the anime, which was expected to be released in two years.

Directed by one of Japanese best animation artists Yosiharu Ashino, “First Squad” is a fusion of fact and fiction, and is not meant to serve as a lesson in history.