diff --git a/server/providers/hianime.py b/server/providers/hianime.py
index 741879b..ff8442f 100644
--- a/server/providers/hianime.py
+++ b/server/providers/hianime.py
@@ -109,8 +109,13 @@ def _master_m3u8(ep_id, lang="eng"):
                 hosts.add(urlparse(urljoin(master, line)).netloc)
         STREAM_HOSTS |= hosts
         subs = j.get("subtitles") or []
-        if subs and (subs[0] or {}).get("src"):
-            SUBS[ep_id] = subs[0]["src"]  # first track is the english one
+        # the 'lang' field is useless (everything says 'en'); the real language
+        # is the label — and it isn't first (Chainsaw Man E1 leads with Arabic)
+        pick = next((x for x in subs if (x or {}).get("label", "").lower() == "english"), None)
+        if not pick and subs:
+            pick = subs[0]
+        if pick and pick.get("src"):
+            SUBS[ep_id] = pick["src"]
         return master
     return None