Of tranlators and scanlators

David Brothers discusses why he doesn’t care for the new translation of Yotsuba&! at 4thletter.

Lissa Pattillo rummages around the listings and comes up with a few possible new yaoi titles and a Darker than Black omnibus from Yen Press. And she notes that Digital’s eManga online manga site has added some global titles.

Patrick Macias has posted the audio of his one-hour lecture on the development of manga at Temple University Japan Campus. (Via the Icarus Blog.)

Deb Aoki runs down today’s options for NYAF, including the Del Rey party, the Eureka Seven movie, and your last chance to buy tickets online.

The scanlation group MangaHelpers reaches out to Viz, looking for a mutually beneficial partnership. There’s more here, with an opportunity to comment. This was a big topic of discussion on Twitter last night, where I think Lissa Pattillo was the first to post it.

Tina Anderson, who is a former Yaoi Press creator, puts Yamila Abraham’s arrest in perspective in a comment at the Icarus blog.

Chris Butcher posts some anime and manga ads he spotted on his latest trip to Japan.

News from Japan: Spice and Wolf creator Hasekura Isuna has divulged his investment porfolio online. Shin Takahasi is resuming work on Kimi no Kakera after a two-year break. KimiKiss artist Taro Shinonome is starting a new game series. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Kate Dacey has some short reviews of the first volumes of Bloody Kiss, Maria Holic, and X-Men: Misfits at The Manga Critic. Salimbol has an appreciation of Samurai Deeper Kyo at The Chocolate Mud Wyvern Presents. At Manga Live, Park Cooper discusses his recent reading. Other reviews of note:

Clive Owen on vol. 6 of Black Lagoon (Animanga Nation)
Joy Kim on vols. 1-6 of Dokebi Bride (Joy Kim)
Greg Hackmann on vol. 2 of Faust (Mania.com)
Marc on vol. 1 of Fleurs Bleues (French edition of Aoi Hana) (Okazu)
Kris on vol. 2 of Future Lovers (Manic About Manga)
Carlo Santos on vol. 3 of Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (ANN)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Happy Happy Clover (Comics-and-More)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 5 of Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time (Manga Life)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 14 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs (Comics Worth Reading)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Karakuri Odette (Tangognat)
Julie on vol. 2 of Kimi ni Todoke (Manga Maniac Cafe)
AstroNerdBoy on The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Millennium Prime Minister (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Nabari No Ou (Graphic Novel Reporter)
John Thomas on vol. 1 of Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project (Comics Village)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Nephylym (Manga Xanadu)
Ed Sizemore on Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals (Comics Worth Reading)
Julie on vol. 3 of Otomen (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Julie on vol. 2 of Tower of the Future (Manga Maniac Cafe)

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Comments

  1. I missed the conversation about MangaHelpers last night but wow… I’m just floored that any scanlation group would offer to form a partnership with a legitimate publisher based on the group’s track record of stealing and repackaging the company’s intellectual property. Now that’s what I call chutzpah. Worse still are the comments at MH forum. Folks are hating on the editorial staff at big companies… because they get paid for the work they do? It boggles the mind.

  2. Mangahelpers isn’t a scanlation group. It’s a place where people upload scanlations and raws to. Kind of like Crunchyroll in the old days.

  3. Garrett Albright says

    Remember the tale of Crunchyroll? A web site that violated intellectual property left and right, and somehow got rewarded with millions venture capital and legitimate distribution deals. I’m betting MangaHelpers is looking to do the same; capitalize on the popularity of their pirate site by going legit to the tune of a cool few million. And apparently that article wherein they bloviate about how great they are is somehow going to convince Viz to reach deep into their pockets at an economic time like this. What a crock. Sleaze, sleaze all around.

  4. I find it amusing that in the followup post, Taylor has to reiterate twice, in bold red type no less, that it isn’t his intention to give away the work of scanlators without their written consent. Not to belittle the hard work or the scanlators, but shouldn’t the actual creators get that courtesy? :P

  5. Manga Helpers either has incredible cajones or incredible delusions. Unfortunately it looks like from the comments that their users are all living on the same planet far far from Earth. “Scanlations are by fans for fans”.

    http://mangahelpers.com/news/details/255#comment_5124

    Has Viz responded (I am assuming the above link is faked.

  6. Wow, that Mangahelpers thing is pretty surprising…but it mostly seems like they’re looking to cash in on the popular website they’ve created, and possibly avoid getting in trouble (something happened with Kodansha recently, right?). It is a bit out there, though. It wouldn’t really help Viz much. The crowd that goes there, for the most part, are looking for free manga, and anything that would involve a subscription or something would send that group out the door. For the rest, who simply want their manga faster…they might stick around. Even if this did happen for some reason, it’s not Viz’s consent they would need. The international market isn’t Viz’s concern, but Shueisha’s. They would need the consent of Japanese publishers, and pretty much all of them, at that, since they post way more than just Viz/Shueisha manga.

  7. MangaHelpers…I hope that site gets burned to the ground for their arrogance. I’m not completely against scanlations, but people are indeed there for free manga. Not for finding things to buy. But I guess readers of this blog wouldn’t be supporters of such sites anyway.

  8. Wow, that letter to Viz sounds like what the Mexican drug cartels would send to their country’s police forces. “let’s make beautiful money together, come on, just you and me, Viz.” Make a deal with the devil. “leaked” my butt. they leaked it on purpose just to get some attention. Probably a lot of their “users” will stop using the site because they sold out to the man.

  9. Man, I would so love to see a candid response from someone at Viz. But they’re so darn professional. There certainly are personalities working at Viz, they just so rarely express themselves online in connection with the company…

  10. Reading the comments it looks like some people actually think that Manga Helpers group has a meeting with Shueisha and Viz in Tokyo.

    I’ll have what they are smokin’.

Trackbacks

  1. […] Former PCS colleague David Brothers critiques the Yen Press edition of Yotsuba&!, arguing (persuasively, I might add) that its literal-minded translation drains some of the magic out of Kiyohiko Azuma’s charming series. “It’s more accurate and exact,” he explains, “but I don’t think that that is a universally good thing. It leads to too many jokes ending up explained, rather than allowed to breathe.” A lively discussion is beginning to shape up in the comment thread; go, participate. (Via MangaBlog.) […]

  2. […] read. Or wait until you get home, then go read. Either way, you should also go read the lively commentary on the subject at […]

  3. […] Twitter, the letter sounded more like an extortion threat than a partnership.  Manga Blog has some interesting comments, and the indomitable Simon Jones of Icarus Publishing (NSFW) adds his two cents.  But what’s […]