I’ve been reading a few scanlations lately and the question of if they are justified or not has come up among my friends, well let’s talk about this old question.
First off we should define what a Scanlation is; Wikipedia defines it as the following
Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made scanning, translation, and editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done without express permission from the copyright holder. The word “scanlation” is a portmanteau of the words scan and translation
Now I believe creators should be given credit for their works and be paid, but there are sometimes things that don’t get official translations and there is no legal method for you to enjoy the content.
In this case after nearly Two Decades of being a fan of both Azumanga Diaoh and Tenchi Muyo you can only imagine my shock when I find out there is a 154 pages long anthology containing stuff Gag Comics based on Battle Athletes Daiundokai and for what’s important here Tenchi Muyo.
The anthology is penned by Azumanga Diaoh creator Kiyohiko Azuma.
These comics were only available in a Japanese anthology or the Japanese only releases such “Tenchi Muyo! in LOVE Theater Pamphlet” which you could only get by going to the theatre in Japan during the screening of the film back in 1996 or Techi Muyo Ryo-Oki LaserDisc boxset [Fun Fact: The Laser Disc set was mastered using THX which could be how they got the audio of the energy blades being a Lightsaber].
Stay on track; where was I? oh right I was talking about how I feel in a way scanlations can be moral if companies like VIZ, YenPress, Dark Horse or even Kodansha USA just refuse to pick up the series.
Sometimes creators will admit that scanlations help the popularity of their work, I am aware of a few but the one that comes to mind as I write this would be Nico Tanigawa a pseudonym for a Male (Author)/Female (Artist) duo behind the source of whole generations crippling addiction to Girlfailure [See: Reagan Ridley from Inside Job or Toko Fukawa from Danganronpa] “WataMote: No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!” thinks the series won’t be as popular if not for the fan translations.
Back in the early days it was an unspoken rule that once a series had an official release the scanlations would be removed and this worked when it wasn’t as spread out, but over time more and more people got into it the ability to delete it became harder.
You’ve also got the issue of poor translations as sadly a fair number of bad actors cause problems in the official releases; mostly in the early days but still happening, sometimes a series will be censored or modified for “the American market”
While not Manga… Who remembers 4Kids anime dubs? those where the dark times.
Some creators then will decide to just translate things using the Japanese RAW scans and attempt to keep it as close as possible without worrying about a Publisher concerned about the bottom line, as it’s a passion project more than anything for them.
Another reason you might read a Sanclations is unfinished series which I also think can be justified, for example you got companies who went under during the late 2000s due to the economy crashing due to the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
A great example of this would come in the form of TyokoPop which had a slow fireball like crash from 2008 to 2011 only to find out that somehow the came back in 2015 thanks to of all things Disney and Cracker Barrel; you know the Southern style restaurant… I don’t know, don’t ask me; the Mary Sue and GamesRadar reported that in 2021 TyokoPop made a deal with Disney and Cracker Barley to sell a Nightmare Before Christmas manga?
God, I got a stay on track.
Back in 2011 when TyokoPop went under it took the iconic Sgt Frog manga with it still having 12 volumes [131 chapters] left to translate, and Viz Media has just sat on it for the last decade doing nothing with it other than re-releasing the manga digitally not bothering to finish it; thankfully the fandom was able to complete it.
I’d gladly swap my scanlations for a nicely made professional translation if given the chance but seems that’s like hoping the lost Urusei Yatsura dub would be found or that Rion Vernon would release a completed “Toy-Monger” album after his retirement.
Let’s just be real, the more popular Anime and Manga got in the west, the more it became chasing the big franchises.
One of the few publishers I can think of that still willing to try on series that aren’t major series in the west would be Yen Press, which is owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group.
Yen Press is willing to publish things lesser known to the west due to the fact Kadokawa is a major publisher of series in Japan so they basically keep it in house, giving it to a subsidiary; I mean who else is going to publish the “When They Cry” franchise?
I mean maybe Dark Horse Comics; I mean they publish Hellsing, Berserk, Danganronpa and Elfen Lied so maybe Dark Horse would publish the first series in the “Why They Cry” the Supernatural horror mindfuck that is Higurashi When They Cry (When the Cicadas Cry).
In closing: If there is an official method to read something then go with the official version but if there isn’t an official translation or the translation is not worth the bits on a hard-drive then just find a good scanlation
Until Next Time
FlySafe
The Professor