The Shutdown of Bato.to: The Timeline Reported by CODA

The Japanese association CODA published a statement on January 29, 2026, regarding the investigation of the alleged operator of Bato.to and a network of approximately 60 related sites. Its account makes it possible to separate the dates of the police action, the investigation, and the shutdown of the services.

The dates from the statement

• September 25, 2025: CODA's Beijing office filed a complaint on behalf of Japanese publishers.
• November 19, 2025: police searched the suspect's residence in China.
• January 19, 2026: according to CODA, the shutdown of the 60 sites had already been confirmed.

The statement indicated that the man had been arrested, questioned, and released on bail, and that the investigation was ongoing. That description does not amount to a final conviction, nor does it allow one to claim that there was a conviction as of that date.

What changes when reading it as an archive

A news report about an investigation must preserve the date to which its information corresponds. The procedural situation can change later, and a statement from an interested party does not replace the rulings of the authorities. Here, the communicated timeline is attributed to CODA, without presenting as a judicial update what has not been verified.

It is also worth distinguishing the shutdown of a specific network from the disappearance of all unauthorized manga distribution. These are claims of different scope, and this action alone does not prove the latter.

Finding a work after a shutdown

To locate an authorized edition, first identify the title and its publisher in your language. Check the publisher's catalog, its distributors, and the platforms it links to. Availability may vary by territory, format, and edition.

This version removes general conclusions about what cancels a series and avoids turning a variation in sales into automatic proof of causality. The value of the news lies in its documented facts and in a timeline that can be consulted without confusing 2025 with 2026.

Originally published on Anitsu by Kim Seo-yeon. Text reviewed and updated for DonOtaku on November 5, 2026; the original publication date is preserved.