Knights of the Rebellion

Scanlators. A more super sentai version of Robin Hood.

Hail Mighty Morphin Power Scanlators. In this post, I’m going to talk about scanlators and the scanlation’s future that recently seems to be threatened. I felt the need to do it since it’s undeniable its importance in the worldwide manga community.
This article is merely a critic. No harm to entities or parties involved intended.

Let me put this clear: Internet is possibly the most powerful tool for proliferation. Of anything at all. It is a breath-taking highway. And it’s thanks to it that it was possible to establish the current worldwide manga community. Manga was spread freely from the east to the west too, where it would find more fans. And so we encounter scanlation groups, the parties who made possible this: assure that manga reaches every corner that is neglected. Online manga sites function as an index, allowing you to view scanlations and search for them, fast and easy.

Due to this, as manga fan, I’m sure you are aware that recently the publishing companies made a movement against online manga sites (more info here). The main question I ask is why so? So, I decided to make an analysis of some possible sayings:

• Watching manga online for free shouldn’t be allowed – Let’s be frank. I like to know what I’m buying. Isn’t it one’s habit to read the book’s summary before buying it? Are you forbidden to go to a bookstore, pick a comic you fancy and read it, despising the fact of buying it or not? If it’s allowed, why can’t I comfortably open my computer, go to an online manga site, pick a comic and read it for free?
• Online manga sites put the manga’s merchandise/profits at risk – Not at all. By the contrary. As I said before, it was due to the establishment and proliferation of such fan communities and sites that manga reached a worldwide status and made favourable the advance to this potential market. You can’t directly conclude online manga decreases merchandise. The consequence of online manga is, as I stated above, you can read it and from this you can conclude that, probably, this will save you from buying something you don’t want to waste your money  on after all. Now tell me, isn’t that inconvenient (chuckle).
  I’ll be honest, before I thought like that too. However, since manga appeared in the surroundings and I went to the little store nearby, I couldn’t help but to want to buy it (notice that these I firstly saw online and fancied them). Not only because I wanted to support the mangaka or show my appreciation for the manga but also because the real thing is independent and a companion, and I want to treasure something I am fond of (chuckle). It’s different from online manga I assure you (3D indeed). Actually, I recently bought vol.2 of Pandora Hearts and vol. 3 of DOGS. I would have bought more but, unfortunately, there were no more volumes besides those. (sadface)

But it’s also true that we should be respectful towards the copyright holders. They did bother to get the rights and translate (though has already been done), get it in a book format and make it available for you. Of course they don’t make it for free, but after all trees cost you know. And in fact, various scanlators stop distributing commercially licensed series and advise fans to buy the official translation.
However, there’s another issue. If this does happen, what will happen to the rest of the worldwide fans? As you are aware, english is the global language, and it’s an essential factor, it’s no wonder that the large part of scanlations are in english (as anything on the net, really).  It’s true that national translation is a hypothesis, but so many fans to attend will be hard to keep the process satisfactory or even enable the process itself.  What will happen to the fans, that want to take a look when they don’t have the possibility to go to a store nearby, and can’t go to their online happy place either?

Conclusions can be made:

• An online manga site has to exist – It just has, there’s no doubt about that. Now, one favourable solution would be the publishers sites to have their licensed manga available to read online. I know that atleast Tokyopop has this service that allows you to read about 20 pages from the volume for free (have no idea if it exists in more publishers). Well, I think you should make them fully available to view. And every single publisher should. As I said in the beginning, in spite of buying or not, you are still free to read books at your wish on a bookstore, right? Innovation makes part of evolution, doesn’t it. That will possibly boost and certainly decrease the need to go to an online manga reader to check all of manga (spoilers ♥). This will leave no justification for the read manga online sites to host the licensed manga or put the international fans aside (and you even gain a wonderful amount of potential costumers).
• Don’t bash existent online manga sites – Establish a connection with them. Why make enemies when you can make allies? Get in touch with them, keep them updated of your licensed projects (they may even provide link to you) find out what it’s popular among the fans for future projects, it’s not a bad idea to try to fulfill their wishes. Concluding, be considerate of them. I’m not so sure about this though… (sigh)

There’s also a project Mangahelpers team (I believe) is developing called OpenManga, and I think it’s just brilliant. Click here for more info.

[...] Our goal was to create a platform that allows manga authors and artists to publish and earn money from their work, while still reaching a multi-lingual global audience. A platform that promotes and allows artists (and eventually interested publishers) to work directly with translators and scanlators to publish their work while still remaining in control of their creations. A platform that supports an artist’s need for an income, with the possibility of free availability to the fan. A platform that is a completely new and separate entity from MangaHelpers, losing the restrictions and barriers that MangaHelpers had while retaining the ideology and opportunities we saw with our first attempt. [...]
Source: http://mangahelpers.com/news/details/377

I’m always delighted when I see power of will and genuine passion. Fortunately, the manga community is based on it so I’m sure we will be able to surpass and solve future obstacles for better solutions for all. There are scanlation’s groups sites; guess we’ll go back to the IRC; if the publishers’ site includes online manga as I said before, it will bring benefit.
Concluding, Scanlators are not bad people. They are just love-spreading rangers, each of them with its skills. They will keep doing their poses even if you tell them they are doing it wrong. . And how we love them for that. (bold > quoting, imo). GEKIRANGER! (super sentai ftw)

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Tags: analysis, japan's digital comic association, knights of the rebellion, scanlation future, scanlations, scanlators

• June 24, 2010
• Miscellaneous
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