Scanlation Community in turmoil
Confusion, chaos and caterwauling.
I return from a hectic exchange year in Japan to find that (in my neglectful absence) our lovely niche yaoi community has experience quite the violent shake-up.
I am torn; an avid manga fan who was introduced to many genres solely through scanlation and would never have started her collection otherwise and an adult who understands that undermining the industry is not the action of faithful devotees.
However, to start by targeting a (relatively) small niche market, namely the Yaoi fans, appears to me to be an error.
As I am writing a dissertation on the move towards digital publishing and the scanlation industry I have spent the last few months emmersed in sources, interviews, quotes, copyright lawbooks etc.
The scanlations which undermine the industry in the most blatant and severe manner are undeniably the mainstream shounen (and sometimes shoujo) titles (including Naruto, OnePiece, Bleach etc) that are hosted on aggregator sites who have had no hand in the translation but recieve advertising fees etc etc. Appropriate legal action has been taken by the relevant parties since June this year.
However, Yaoi, Yuri and doujinshi are quite another kettle of fish. Whilst there is an increase in available market titles in English, it comes nowhere near the annual published figure in Japan. Also, as a long-standing member of the yaoi community (fine, perhaps drifter is more appropriate but I spent 5 months teaching myself mIRC before working out that LJ existed - some credit please) it is blatantly obvious to me that the small community scanlation teams are respectful, distribute discriminately, remove licensed titles attentively and generally provide a service to the non-Japanese fan community.
The comments I have read over the last few months paint a bleak picture. Whilst I am sure the flaming will continue elsewhere, many forums and communities appear to be overshadowed with a sense of gloom and futility and frustration; I fear that this community has been shaken to its core and that, whilst hard-core fans are not doubt stalwart as ever, the great potential for spreading love for manga to new-comers and others alike has been badly damaged.
As appears to be the census elsewhere, we are left with the waiting game. Hanging in limbo, watching to see what the next move of our favourite mangaka, favourite scanlator and the publisher will be!
I return from a hectic exchange year in Japan to find that (in my neglectful absence) our lovely niche yaoi community has experience quite the violent shake-up.
I am torn; an avid manga fan who was introduced to many genres solely through scanlation and would never have started her collection otherwise and an adult who understands that undermining the industry is not the action of faithful devotees.
However, to start by targeting a (relatively) small niche market, namely the Yaoi fans, appears to me to be an error.
As I am writing a dissertation on the move towards digital publishing and the scanlation industry I have spent the last few months emmersed in sources, interviews, quotes, copyright lawbooks etc.
The scanlations which undermine the industry in the most blatant and severe manner are undeniably the mainstream shounen (and sometimes shoujo) titles (including Naruto, OnePiece, Bleach etc) that are hosted on aggregator sites who have had no hand in the translation but recieve advertising fees etc etc. Appropriate legal action has been taken by the relevant parties since June this year.
However, Yaoi, Yuri and doujinshi are quite another kettle of fish. Whilst there is an increase in available market titles in English, it comes nowhere near the annual published figure in Japan. Also, as a long-standing member of the yaoi community (fine, perhaps drifter is more appropriate but I spent 5 months teaching myself mIRC before working out that LJ existed - some credit please) it is blatantly obvious to me that the small community scanlation teams are respectful, distribute discriminately, remove licensed titles attentively and generally provide a service to the non-Japanese fan community.
The comments I have read over the last few months paint a bleak picture. Whilst I am sure the flaming will continue elsewhere, many forums and communities appear to be overshadowed with a sense of gloom and futility and frustration; I fear that this community has been shaken to its core and that, whilst hard-core fans are not doubt stalwart as ever, the great potential for spreading love for manga to new-comers and others alike has been badly damaged.
As appears to be the census elsewhere, we are left with the waiting game. Hanging in limbo, watching to see what the next move of our favourite mangaka, favourite scanlator and the publisher will be!