Mangageddon- Meet the Scanlators

While researching my article on aggregator sites, I came into contact via Twitter and various forums several members of scanlation groups who had something to say on the matter of the current Mangageddon. Now scanlators are nothing new, but what began in the 1970′s as a few otaku who shared work in small circles blossomed thanks to the internet into groups small and large with members across the globe. Scanlators come in two flavours.

The first type is the fan who scanlate only unlicensed works, often choosing obscure titles or unknown mangaka, in a desire to publicise their works. They
don’t share outside of their circle knowingly, and voluntarily desist when a work becomes licensed, or if asked to by the copyright holder. They often buy the manga they are going to scanlate, or get scans directly from someone who has. While this remains piracy, it does not, at the moment, seem to be the current focus of the publishers working together against scanlation sites.

One such popular Boy’s Love scanlation group agreed to a Q and A to introduce themselves, and their thoughts, on the current events facing the manga world in regards to the action against
scanlation.

1. What got you into scanlating, and what are the motivations and goals of your group?

What got me personally into scanlating was computer graphics work and being a art major for most of my young adult life. I loved American comics but when I stumbled upon Japanese manga, it opened my eyes to an entirely new world that was pretty much uncensored and more fantastic than American comics (different). When I became the head of the group, my main goal was to continue the original intent of the founders to push out [un]known mangaka as much as possible in the most artistic and accurate way possible and we do this out of respect no matter how others might view it.

2. You scanlate some explicit stuff. How does your group go about verifying the
age of members who join to read the works?

Well, we don’t ask for ID or anything but we do ask them upfront before they even get to work on anything, you would be surprised how honest people are when you don’t TELL them the age they should be. We turn away anyone under 18 years of age. I just had to turn away an awesome editor who was only 14 the other day. Believe me, I could use the help!

3. Many works that are unlicensed in English are licensed in other languages, such as German and French. I believe your group only do scanlations into English, but how do you handle people who wish to use your scans to translate into other languages?

We normally turn these requests away because its not like there is just one or two groups in varying languages out there. There is probably quite a few of each and it becomes a hassle to keep track of who is using what. Right now we only work with about two other language groups for scan donation exchange. It’s a great way to make friends though don’t get me wrong, its just a lot of work.

4. How do you source the manga you scanlate? Once you have found a manga and begin to scanlate it, how do you source your scan material?

If you mean how do we hand out the work, we normally will look over the manga and see what kind of genre it is [silly, fun, serious, smut] and choose a translator who fits or enjoys that type of manga, then the translation is proofed and then passed along to an editor and then we go through a two quality control [QC] stages where revisions are made and then the manga chapter is released.

5.What do they think about the current Mangageddon crisis with the aggregators?

Tite Kubo, mangaka (Bleach)

I don’t condone sites that take our work and get paid off of it. Because they are getting doubly paid by both the mangaka’s sweat and our sweat. And they did nothing to earn that money. If we don’t get paid, why should they? So I think it’s the right thing to do. But as a scanlator who can only focus on providing joy to the non-Japanese speaking masses, I don’t see myself as a “criminal or scum or slime or the lowest of the low” as we are known to be depicted by some because if I am working on unlicensed work that people apparently don’t seem to care enough about to publish and I DID purchase it with my own money or received from a generous scanner from their manga collections, then I should be able to express this intent. The day something reasonable comes along that makes me perk up and want to join a group like DMP [although I think they are living in la-la land currently with their ideas towards yaoi scanlators], I will be all for it or just stop scanlating.

6. Your group has a no share outside the group policy, yet I believe your efforts were recently found on a few aggregator sites, such as AnimeA and MangaFox. Uploads on these sites are done by users who read manga on site. How did your group feel about this, and what happens to embers who are found sharing the manga on sites like this?

We felt scammed and we felt highly agitated because if our work is up there, it indicates our approval and it could lead to some high-brow thinking we are making money off of our non-profit scanlation efforts and that’s just unacceptable.
We don’t know who uploads these items to these types of websites so it’s a needle in a haystack – they are definitely members of that community not ours.

7. Would you work with a publisher on a co-operative basis such as the one DMP suggested if actual projects and terms were laid out on the table openly, and you saw a title or mangaka you were interested in?

Like I say above, I would but it would have to be realistic pay wise. Lots of people still find the yaoi genre “icky” and they are infantile in their opinions on what homosexual love is which is just that: LOVE. DMP would be hard pressed to find sufficient titles that would titillate the ever evolving interest of the female mind when it comes to yaoi manga and still remain mainstream to their other readers. Sure there is loyal fan base but we are still a rare breed indeed.

BL Mangaka Makoto Tateno

8. What do you say to fans who say they want file shared manga, both scanlation efforts as well as scanned uploads of copyrighted English language, to continue large scale because they can’t afford to buy all the manga they want, don’t like some of the translations they see, etc.?

I say grow up and get a damn job, then. All of us who volunteer and do this work for them to enjoy have real lives, families, and JOBS. We know what it takes to make it all work and apparently anyone who can’t take the five minutes to just go to the source for a free download or purchase a $3 manga tanko on sale causes me to lose brain cells.

9. What titles are you looking forward to publishers releasing this year in English, and intend to buy as a must have?

Maiden Rose, Underground Hotel, and a few others. To be honest, I edit so much it can leave little room for reading but when I take a break on go on a all-out manga buying spree ^^ I am still waiting for more volumes of the The Summit…its holdbacks like this one that makes me very upset at the publishers punishing us when they cannot keep on track licensed titles they say they are going to publish. Also Man of Tango pre-orders have disappeared, that was another I was looking forward to this year.
10. Anything else you would like to say?
Just thank you so much for staying on top of all of this news wise for us out there. Its hard enough being in the middle of it!

While operational practices of groups like this may raise eyebrows and cause dismay in many quarters, the distress levels to the publishing world and fans is nothing compared to when they come across works by the second type of scanlator. This is the fan who feels they are owed a quicker turnaround than English language publishers are providing for a licensed series, or misguidedly think they are providing a public service. Often, they believe people will will go out in droves and buy the licensed work while their freebie exists in the wild, usually happily shared with permission on aggregator sites like MangaFox, AnimeA, OneManga, and others.

Take for example, the scanlation group Harudaki. Vertical recently acquired the license for Chi’s Sweet Home, the cute tale of an abandoned kitten finding its happily ever home with a family, and the adventures they share.

Unlike groups such as I previously mentioned, Harudaki is of the second sort; they acknowledge freely the title is licensed, but continue scanlating and uploading chapters to the web, including outlets such
as MangaFox, wher today they uploaded yet another chapter. Nor is it a case that the group merely REALLY REALLY REALLY lemon squeezy loves this one manga, and simply can’t wait to see what happens next, as looking at their recent entries, one can see they have advertised they will be picking up Viewfinder and knowingly scanlate other licensed titles in current print production, such as Kitty Media’s Crimson Spell , and DramaQueen’s Audition.

Other groups do the same thing, though they can have the mistaken idea that if a title has been licensed, it only holds for volumes announced for publication and near release, say, volumes 1 and 2, so they will take down those links, but continue scanlating the rest of the series. One recent case that I came across Digital Manga’s own forums , and that is still continuing with an update during the past week , is the continued scanlation and distribution of their property Maiden Rose . This is not as objectionable though as the persons who knowingly scan actual printed editions of translated into English manga and light novels and upload them wholesale onto sites such as MangaFox and Manga Reader who do not police this sort of thing at all. For popular manga such as Junjou Romantica, the turnaround from Japanese to English is not that long, and aggregator sites will host scanlated recent chapters nestled next to actual book scans from the publisher.

Scanlation is a many headed hydra that the publishing industry will have to reckon with.

With its many faces, from the relatively benign to the outright bootlegger of already translated and published licensed material, it is obvious the source of the aggregator sites material is many, and all with different goals. How they deal with each remains to be seen, but it is fairly obvious that the solution will not be a one size fits all.