For years American readers and pundits have been pining for an English translation, with The Comics Journal «s Dirk Deppey openly endorsing reading
scanlations in the absence of an official English - language release.
Lissa Pattillo has summed up many of the arguments for and against
scanlations in this «quit doing -LSB-...]
They also have the ULTRA coming out soon, which has a camera built into it, and was designed with
scanlation in mind.
In my opinion,
the scanlation in question was more correctly translated and professional then the legal translation (which I brought anyway).
Not exact matches
The site is all
in Japanese but you can find the list of websites
in English on pages 11 and 12 for manga
scanlation sites, pages 13 - 15 for video hosting sites (Youtube, Dailymotion etc.) and pages 16 - 18 for torrenting sites.
So I'm guessing it's more likely we'll see it for an assortment of SJump series that are not
in Shonen Jump USA at the moment, but have big online followings, or are newly launched
in Japan, thus allowing VIZ to pull a Rinne, and capture the online market for the title
in it's entirety, and not have to compete with
scanlation sites that also host copies of it.
I imagine they'd be more likely to offer titles viz Kindle, Comixology, EManga or other ebook services that are already operational,
in business, and don't have a past as a
scanlation site.
Keep
in mind that like pirated downloads of movies and music,
scanlations give nothing back to the original creators.
Oh, and another possiblity - VIZ's minions have killed off or are
in the process of killing off a number of
scanlation sites who haven't dropped or added back their titles.
I have to confess, that is the one answer I loathe seeing
in scanlation debates, and it appears every time.
Putting apps on the iPad is not going to slow down
scanlation sites
in the least bit.
After two years of double digit declines
in sales of manga, American manga publishers have formed a coalition with their Japanese counterparts to battle the illegal Internet distribution of unlicensed manga via
scanlation sites where translated versions of manga often appear just days after publication
in Japan.
A Google search for «manga» returns seven «
scanlation» aggregators and zero manga publishers
in the top ten, while searches for «comics,» «books,» and «graphic novels» turn up stores and publisher sites, and even a search for «anime» turns up mostly legitimate sites.
Scanlation site Manga Helpers, which was
in the news last year for trying to reach out manga publishers, has simultaneously announced it will stop hosting
scanlations and will start a new business model called Open Manga.
As she says, Online manga should be aiming to offer readers what
scanlations are always touted as providing
in their purest intentions — manga the reader can't get
in their language or
in print at all.
Case
in point: I recently wrote an article for Otaku USA about Hana no Keiji, a glorious manga that was partially released
in the US several years ago for which there are not even any
scanlations.
The publishers, on the other hand, say that readers turning to
scanlations is a reason why they can't or won't license certain titles or,
in the case of the Japanese publishers, why a series is being axed early.
Premium members may be able to buy a couple of chapters a month to fill
in the holes
in their digital collection, but it still doesn't take on the unbeatable price of all chapters free on some
scanlation sites.
in high school on a
scanlation site and was intrigued by Toriyama doing a color comic, which was part of the deal for doing the weekly again, that they'd let him do it
in color.
One of the greatest contributors to the growth of the war against
scanlations are the many aggregate sites that present free scanlated material while remaining profitable thanks to ad revenue, donations, and
in some cases user memberships.
They will all be working
in concert with US manga publishers Vertical Inc., Viz Media, Tokyopop and Yen Press to bring legal action to a slew of
scanlation sites.
It looks like the time for battle draws nigh, as US and Japanese manga publishers are banding together
in an attempt to deal a mighty blow against their greatest adversary:
scanlations.
By doing the 2 -
in - 1 omnibus speed up, Yen Press can catch up the series faster (presumably to reduce the need for
scanlations), and fans can keep up with it with out the major payout of money and shelf space.
The big
scanlation aggregator sites are blatant pirates (some also sell bootleg merchandise), but most small scanlators aren't actually trying to screw over their favorite artists, and manga publishers don't have to be stupid, like Paramount
in the»90s trying to stamp out Star Trek fansites.
The distance between the US and Japan may make
scanlation seem less piracy - like than uploading a comic drawn by someone who speaks the same language and lives
in the same country.
From what I've seen
in officially published manga, the
scanlation community (at least, the high - quality groups) is more advanced and generally faster than official manga.
BL fans tend to be consistent manga buyers, always looking for the latest
in their genre, while also maintaining a dedicated
scanlation community that focuses largely on unlicensed material.
Another site that hosted
scanlations has bowed to legal pressures and taken down all of the manga from members
in the coalition.
Jake Forbes and Deb Aoki discussed
in detail the particular permutations of the large «
scanlation» community of manga readers that grew specifically out of the unavailability of so many Japanese comic books
in English.
Pretending that
scanlations are something you can justify, or something that is morally correct
in any way, shape or form, is a joke.
Knowing this and you still want a «
scanlation - like» action
in your life?
If there's interest, I could do a full
scanlation of the relevant material
in the future.