Scanlation Thread

Did you work on something while the site was down?

Yes, I am translating at this very moment. I have been quite productive since the Anon Babble outage.

No, I only released a new chapter after. I only have three series right now, all caught up, two of which publish less than once per month now and when those are all done I will be free at last.

Then my only interaction with this wretched world will be this thread and challenging you all to answer, without context what:

私にはわからない

Means.

No, I have instead grown a conscience and came to the realization that facilitating the piracy of a mangaka's lifework for the sake of a bunch of ungrateful EOP was morally wrong.

I feel like Magical Girl Eggs(Mahou Shoujo no Tamago-tachi) is supposed to be a reference to something. Is anyone here familiar enough with the magical girl genre to know what it might be? I might be able to translate this better but if nothing else, I'll just go with "Magical Girl Eggs".

Anon pls. Read all the meanings of tamago in a dictionary.

I'm looking for issue #6 of Weekly Shonen Champion 2015 for a oneshot. Any chance it's already scanned somewhere or do I just have to haunt auction sites until I die?

3 more chapters and I'll catch up on the latest release. Just need to wait on my TL to send scripts to me
What are you working on?

Oh wait, I think I get it now. Would "newborn magical girls" work here then?

Yuyushiki because the last guy dropped it 7 months ago. I'm almost finished with the volume.
I started working on it solo, so I'm still looking for proofreaders and a typesetter, but no one in the yuyushiki thread responded.

What's the name of the oneshot?

but no one in the yuyushiki thread responded

Sad, but expected

No? If they're at a magical girl school the tl should be

there's so many future magical girls!?

but like almost every bubble is wrong so you might as well freestyle this one too for consistency sake.

黒緋 by こーへー

She referred to the Magical Girls as being early in maturation with two lines providing each other context so I thought to make the dialogue reflect that.

I think he is talking about your translations in the bottom right which are very liberal.

the series I'm working on has too many fucking words

inou_battle.mp4

Redraw all the bubbles into background and tell the readers the author intended for the show, don't tell approach

facilitating the piracy of a mangaka's lifework for the sake of a bunch of ungrateful EOP was morally wrong

If you translate it, maybe one or two people will buy the raw tankoubons to support the author. If you don't, surely no one will buy anything.

What? You think I should just go all machine translate? I want to make it sound good in english.

Anon please just refrain from translating for two more years while you study up and read more.

Eh, rookie will do, I knew there was a word I was trying to think of but missing. But anyways, I'm practicing and if I have trouble somewhere, I can get a proof reader to help. This is just one part I had trouble with anyway.

Seeing how you don't even know what こんなに means you'd probably get better result with chatgpt.

I'm practicing

okay but don't upload it

Don't waste your time on translating when you barely understand the original text.

98 percent of scanlation translators do it to improve their Japanese you dimwits.

Depends on what you mean by upload. I wasn't going to send it straight to a reading site anyway.

I mean keep it to yourself and don't put it on the internet. putting out a terrible translation is disrespectful to the author. people rarely ever go back and re-scanlate something that's already been "scanlated", even if the translation is illegible.

Yes, and we always throw insults at them.
What's that? You don't want us to throw insults at you? Get fucked, faggot.

So, uh, you mean you're being respectful to the author when you make illegal translations and distribute them?

"We" as in you alone. Don't include others in your autism.

Who knew the line that I asked for help on was a line I had trouble with. In any case, I don't think anyone else is picking up this series so it's best I do it than no one. I'm already half way through the first chapter anyway and once I'm done I'll have a proof reader or something.

That was my first time replying to you. and makes three of us.

Sorry, it's not the finished product. I just like seeing words on the page.

Don't listen to them, most likely they're just here to dissuade people from working on scanlations in the first place. They're probably the same guys as the ones in scanlation school recommending groups to have at least six people.

More importantly than that, almost nothing gets picked up for an official translation before a scanlation unless it's really big.
It's a big gamble for them to do so and they use scanlations to decide what to pick up. In general, popular scanlations are what's picked up. Two of the titles I scanlated, by far the biggest two I ever did got picked up for an official translation. They never contacted me either to ask me to stop by the way, I actually learned in the comment sections of both that it had an official one that was going on for like a month already.

Or well no, that's not true. I remember a third one also got picked up for an official translation after the scanlation already finished and I also suspected it to actually be axed but that one wasn't handled by a foreign company but seems to have been translated directly by Square Enix itself, as in it's on Square Enix's own Manga-Up website which also has some things in English so I guess they work differently.

No, you are the one that's alone.

illegal translations

none of these people were ever a potential customer. people in the west do not buy raws for a language they can't read unless they were a super-fan. it's the classic piracy argument.

besides, scanlation = increased popularity and buzz = increased chance for anime adaptation and/or merch = fame and fortune

Obviously they'd learn the language if translations didn't exist.

I only want to dissuade retards from working on scanlations, not everyone.
Having six people in a group is a terrible idea, because it raises the probability that none of them is a retard to the sixth power.
A scanlation group should be two people, a translation master and a photoshop slave.

Translation is more difficult than reading, so why do so many people who can't read try to translate?

Thanks, I'm only slightly discouraged but I'll recover. It's kind of hard to gather six people to work on some random series anyway. I think it helps to have someone do most of the work already to kick things off.

While I agree with the sentiment, a proofreader is invaluable to get a better English formulation. Most translator's think too much about the original phrasing.

Great try at justyfying yourself. Next, write how piracy is a service problem, not a pricing problem. Have you noticed how almost everyone and their mother boycotted K-manga and manga-up because they think it's too expensive, and they expect to get fucking everything for free? Scanlations make expectations for people that manga is something that's supposed to be free and that you don't have to pay for.

Yeah, just don't take them too seriously when they say that a scanlation needs to at least be better than professional level and that all sfxs should be redrawn. These guys are not out to help you or cheer you on, they're here to make you quit. Probably paid to do it too if I had to guy.

This thread is of to a great start!

Because they need translations to read.

Proofreaders will show up in the dump threads and mangadex comments. You're not a professional sending things to get printed once and for all, you don't need a proofreading pass before you make an initial release of a chapter, you can always edit it later.

and they expect to get fucking everything for free?

thank you for agreeing with me that they were never a potential customer

I'm kind of sad that readers these days get pissed when manga get official translations. Back in the days we cheered. These days they go "oh no muh free scanlations, wut will happen to them" and don't think about buying the manga at all. Sad state of affairs.

My last release was back in December, I still don't want to go back to doing scanlation. :3

Had my first release after half a year hiatus yesterday, withdrawal side effects are real.

How are there so many people so poor they can't afford manga? They're like $5 on Bookwalker and buying them supports the series so you'd be making contributions to see more of it.

They're not poor, they don't want to pay. They don't get or they don't care that their favorite manga get canned if people don't buy them.
That's the biggest downside of scanlations, people have become accustomed to that manga is something you're entitled to get for free.

Because they translate for themselves to be able to read it the finished product.
They don't exactly first read something interesting in Japanese and then decided to translate it to show it to others. They came across something, couldn't really read it but thought the images looked interesting, and painstakingly tried to figure out what the text might mean and then slapped their gueswork on the bubbles.
Honestly, even my first translations were all things I had read in Japanese before but in hindsight they were pretty bad. I severely underestimated just how much “This makes sense so it's probably true.” isn't true at all and how much nuance in both grammar and vocabulary is just so easy to overlook and I will probably think the same of what I'm currently translating, which is far harder, when my Japanese gets better.

Many of them think the fan-translation is better because it leaves some more honorifics untranslated and thus more accurate, not realizing just how much of a patchwork of guesses and fanfiction it is. Not that official translations don't constantly miss nuances. It's honestly scary how many official translators don't even seem to know what contrastive-は is and how often it results into awkward lines.

shut the fuck up innit

Also, they read so much that they would legitimately not be able to afford to buy it all.
Many of those people literally lead 30 chapters per day or something if not more. That starts to ramp up quickly in terms of finances

When you read magazines it's a lot more affordable than volumes obviously, also, I like the variety of it.

So tell me, are you a virgin and do you on top of that have bad to no Japanese and have you never once in your life had an actual conversation in the language?

Scanlations make expectations for people that manga is something that's supposed to be free and that you don't have to pay for.

Nearly every manga I've translated released the latest raws for free. Only for a limited time of course, generally about a month, but they don't expect readers to blindly buy the volumes. Scanlations didn't invent the model most of the industry follows. Westerners are deep into learned helplessness where they act like they have no onus to buy the manga themselves yet blame the Japanese for not buying every time the manga gets axed.

You don't really need to buy everything, Japanese even don't do that. They can read magazines in stores and borrow from friend. The main point is that they buy and support the things they really like that they want to continue. Western audience don't understand something as simple as that, they're leechers that just blame the Japanese if something gets axed, and don't even consider that they could've bought and supported it just as easily as they do.
It's a shame really. Tons of great manga could've continued on if only cheapass readers would contribute a little. But they're greedy, want everything for free, and justify themselves with garbage like that they don't want to support the greedy corporations or they're not Japanese so it's not their problem or something else completely retarded like that.

noooo clearly you should be creating some convoluted coin system for old chapter rentals that authors don't even see a fucking cent from

Translation is more difficult than reading, so why do so many people who can't read try to translate?

98 percent of scanlation translators do it to improve their Japanese you dimwits.

I fucking hate these new coin groups so god damn fucking much.
People please snipe asmotoons, nikatoons, art lapsa, rithar scans, and KDT scans. Fucking vermin.

Scanlations are free forever though.
The trick they employ is making the first and latest chapter free, hoping that people who stumble upon it will buy the others, also. They obviously try to make it hard to rip them so that even people who read it from the start might still buy it just to have it all in one go.

You don't really need to buy everything, Japanese even don't do that. They can read magazines in stores and borrow from friend. The main point is that they buy and support the things they really like that they want to continue. Western audience don't understand something as simple as that,

Well, it's just not a mathematically feasible thing. It's the classic prisoner's dilemma. Sure, if everyone were to coöperate it wouldn't get axed, but one can't control others, only oneself.

To be honest, the big reason I buy is simply that most of what I read just isn't piratable to begin with. It's not on Nyaa or anything.

I always found that such a silly thing. You improve your Japanese more by just trying to read in Japanese and having conversations. They do it because they want to read it.

I think it makes sense, most people who are fluent in japanese just engage in the japanese community as they read their japanese only manga and laugh at muricans who don't even know the manga exists.

The trick they employ is making the first and latest chapter free, hoping that people who stumble upon it will buy the others, also. They obviously try to make it hard to rip them so that even people who read it from the start might still buy it just to have it all in one go.

They're usually not that hard to rip though. But most Japanese don't even have pcs to begin with.

To be honest, the big reason I buy is simply that most of what I read just isn't piratable to begin with. It's not on Nyaa or anything.

I buy everything I work on, and even physical volumes. I buy some of the ones I like too otherwise, but usually only digital since shipping is expensive. I prefer to do my own rips to get the best quality.

I always found that such a silly thing. You improve your Japanese more by just trying to read in Japanese and having conversations. They do it because they want to read it.

Places like r/learnjapanese even suggest scanlating as an alternative learning form.

To be honest, the big reason I buy is simply that most of what I read just isn't piratable to begin with. It's not on Nyaa or anything.

Well that's just you being stuck with inferior consoomer mentality. Nips understand that if you want a work you like to continue you have to spend money on it. Don't tell me you haven't seen pics where some nip bought crazy amounts of one volume. Some manga even incentivize it by having different bonuses for each big book store.

Someone posted in English on that Love Bullet's artist's twitter that they'd bought 17 volumes to keep the manga alive. I think the artist was a little overwhelmed by the whole reaction.

I buy three physical volumes of the first volume of all manga I scanlate. First volume is usually the most important volume after all.

Yap, this is also one of the reasons I cut down significantly on translating. One of the reasons I did it was because it felt lonely at first, I was reading things and no one else was so I wanted to bring them in the open but it all feels less rewarding now that I got some Japanese acquaintances to talk with about it who are also far less obnoxious than comment sections in English, especially those on Mangadex [virgins] and Mango [moralfags].

They're usually not that hard to rip though. But most Japanese don't even have pcs to begin with.

If 50% of people can't rip it, that's still a significant increase in customers. It's about creating a barrier, not about making it theoretically impossible. Most people do not speak html or javascript.

Places like r/learnjapanese even suggest scanlating as an alternative learning form.

That place however is about as full of beginners as any Japanese learning forum full of bad advice. It's also full of people who actually buy

Muh Cure Dolly is a expert on Japanese who speaks fluent Japanese

Not even many Japanese native speakers can pass N1; it's such a high level.

Alongside many other things they say that indicates most the people giving advice on how to study only started studying 1 month ago themselves, or rather, the actually scary part: most of them have been in it for years but still aren't advancing due to terrible study methods. As in being too afraid to actually take the jump and interact with actual Japanese once in a while rather than watching infotainment Youtube videos in English and calling it studying.

Nips would be pirating more too if it were more available. The reason they don't is because it isn't.
That's just one absolute fanatic and not normal. Also, many of them borrow from their friends or just go to comic book cafés as well and try to find all sorts of ways to legally spend as little as possible, and so do I. I obviously buy many things on discounts.

Some manga even incentivize it by having different bonuses for each big book store.

I willingly fall for that shit every time

Nice gesture but it has to sell really poorly for 17 more or less to make a difference, which is again the prisoner's dilemma shit.
Also, on most bookstores, if things are on a discount one can't even refuse the discount because no one would do so so I think these really are outliers. If the price temporarily be cut in 2/3 then there's no option to say “I want to pay the full price.” there's also no donation system like “I really like this so I want to pay more.” which honestly would be really nice. If there were actually a donation system like that and all the extra money would go straight to the artist cutting out all middle men.

If there were actually a donation system like that and all the extra money would go straight to the artist cutting out all middle men.

Biggest reason to support a manga is to keep it ongoing though, and to do that you have to buy and pay for the things that keep the manga alive, which is volumes. Cool supporting the artist other ways but that won't do anything for the manga.

I mean that you can pay extra when you buy a volume.
And if the artist wants to do that then the artist can always just keep it alive by accepting a massive paycut for that extra money or pay the publisher with it to keep it alive, which is the same thing.

It got a reprint for the first volume so it sold well after the campaigning the TL and the artist herself did. That one just sounds like an attention whore faggot. Pretty sure the Japanese wouldn't announce that THEY have personally purchased hundreds of volume to the creator

I think haguhagu is doing something like that, I can't understand otherwise how sansha is ongoing with those atrocious sales.

Reminder that essential manga is still not scanlated, or only available flopped.

By leaving the original raw text visible in his scans, Innit is enabling genuine piracy more than the average scanlator

Have you guys noticed that comick has manhua and manhwa that's been going on for like two weeks to a year on Most Followed New Comics in 7 days? That place isn't trying to hide that it's just shilling for manhua and manhwa anymore.

They should first read to improve their reading, and once they reach a sufficient level, they can start translating to improve their translation.
I'll never insult novice translators who struggle with translation problems the way I insult retards who can't even read the manga they're trying to translate in the first place.