diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index bea7415..b92f0bb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -106,3 +106,5 @@ dist
 
 .npmrc
 types/
+.murasaki.json
+*.jsonl
diff --git a/src/modules/init/InitController.ts b/src/modules/init/InitController.ts
index c9a5337..fae50d4 100644
--- a/src/modules/init/InitController.ts
+++ b/src/modules/init/InitController.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import {RouteHandlerMethod} from 'fastify';
 import {CreateDownloaderParams} from '@modal-sh/murasaki-core';
 import {InitService, InitServiceImpl} from './InitService';
+import {constants} from 'http2';
 
 export interface InitController {
   downloadDataset: RouteHandlerMethod;
@@ -12,7 +13,11 @@ export class InitControllerImpl implements InitController {
   }
 
   readonly downloadDataset: RouteHandlerMethod = async (request, reply) => {
-    const result = await this.initService.downloadDataset(request.body as CreateDownloaderParams);
-    reply.send(result);
+    try {
+      const result = await this.initService.downloadDataset(request.body as CreateDownloaderParams);
+      reply.send(result);
+    } catch (err) {
+      reply.status(constants.HTTP_STATUS_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR).send(err);
+    }
   };
 }
diff --git a/src/modules/init/InitService.ts b/src/modules/init/InitService.ts
index 581f9e3..2e78f0f 100644
--- a/src/modules/init/InitService.ts
+++ b/src/modules/init/InitService.ts
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ import {
   RadKFile,
   createXmlToJsonLines,
 } from '@modal-sh/murasaki-core';
-import { createWriteStream, readFileSync } from 'fs';
+import { createWriteStream, readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'fs';
+import { PassThrough } from 'stream';
 
 export interface InitService {
   downloadDataset(params: CreateDownloaderParams): Promise<ManifestData>;
@@ -22,7 +23,6 @@ interface ManifestDatasetEntry {
 type ManifestData = Record<string, ManifestDatasetEntry>;
 
 export class InitServiceImpl implements InitService {
-  private manifestWriteStream?: NodeJS.WritableStream;
 
   private readonly manifestFilename = '.murasaki.json' as const;
 
@@ -40,71 +40,66 @@ export class InitServiceImpl implements InitService {
     }
   }
 
-  private async commitDatasetMetadata(): Promise<ManifestData> {
-    return new Promise<ManifestData>((resolve, reject) => {
-      this.manifestWriteStream = createWriteStream(this.manifestFilename, {
-        flags: 'w',
-      });
-      this.manifestWriteStream.on('error', reject);
-      this.manifestWriteStream.write(JSON.stringify(this.data));
-      this.manifestWriteStream.end(() => {
-        resolve(this.data);
-      });
-    });
+  private commitDatasetMetadata(): ManifestData {
+    writeFileSync(this.manifestFilename, JSON.stringify(this.data), { flag: 'w' });
+    return this.data;
+  }
+
+  private static getParserStreams(type: CreateDownloaderParams['type']) {
+    switch (type) {
+      case Kanjidic.SOURCE_ID:
+        return createXmlToJsonLines({
+          entryTagName: 'character',
+        });
+      case JMnedict.SOURCE_ID:
+      case JMdict.SOURCE_ID:
+        return createXmlToJsonLines({
+          entryTagName: 'entry',
+        });
+      default:
+        break;
+    }
+
+    return new PassThrough();
   }
 
   async downloadDataset(params: CreateDownloaderParams): Promise<ManifestData> {
     const downloader = await createDownloader(params);
 
     return new Promise<ManifestData>((resolve, reject) => {
+      const parserStream = InitServiceImpl.getParserStreams(params.type);
+
       const out = createWriteStream(`${params.type}.jsonl`);
 
+      parserStream.on('error', (error) => {
+        try {
+          this.commitDatasetMetadata();
+        } catch {
+          // noop
+        }
+
+        reject(new Error(`Error when parsing dataset: ${params.type as unknown as string}`, { cause: error }));
+      });
+
       out.on('finish', () => {
         const now = Date.now();
         this.data[params.type] = {
-          ...this.data[params.type],
-          createdAt: this.data[params.type].createdAt ?? now,
+          ...(this.data[params.type] ?? {}),
+          createdAt: this.data[params.type]?.createdAt ?? now,
           lastUpdatedAt: now,
         };
 
-        this.commitDatasetMetadata()
-          .then(resolve)
-          .catch(reject);
+        try {
+          this.commitDatasetMetadata();
+          resolve(this.data);
+        } catch {
+          reject(new Error(`Error when committing metadata for dataset: ${params.type as unknown as string}`));
+        }
       });
 
-      switch (params.type) {
-        case Kanjidic.SOURCE_ID: {
-          const jsonlParser = createXmlToJsonLines({
-            entryTagName: 'character',
-          });
-
-          downloader
-            .pipe(jsonlParser)
-            .pipe(out);
-        } return;
-        case JMnedict.SOURCE_ID:
-        case JMdict.SOURCE_ID: {
-          const jsonlParser = createXmlToJsonLines({
-            entryTagName: 'entry',
-          });
-
-          downloader
-            .pipe(jsonlParser)
-            .pipe(out);
-        } return;
-        case KRadFile.SOURCE_ID:
-        case RadKFile.SOURCE_ID:
-          downloader.pipe(out);
-          return;
-        default:
-          break;
-      }
-
-      this.commitDatasetMetadata()
-        .then(() => {
-          reject(new Error(`Unknown dataset: ${params.type as unknown as string}`));
-        })
-        .catch(reject);
+      downloader
+        .pipe(parserStream)
+        .pipe(out);
     });
   }
 }