Talking About Scanlation Links Is Unbecoming Behavior

August 7, 2008 in Commentary by Tom Langston (calaggie) | 5 comments

Last week, I finally added an overdue comment policy explicitly telling readers not to post or request links to illicit material after seeing yet another comment asking where one can read the Karin (Chibi Vampire) manga online:

OMG Can enyone tell me where i can get Chibi on line!!!! its driving me crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the unspoken rules of participating in viewing fansubs/scanlations is to not publicly ask for where to obtain such illicit goods. (Another is not to monetize it through donations or subscription fees but that’s another subject.) If you really want to read or watch content for free, then do your own damn research – it’s not that difficult, sadly. While I don’t believe that scanlations have as severe an effect on the manga industry as fansubbing does to anime, it can still breed the feeling that one deserves to read something for free.

I personally have not read or looked for scanlations for about a year and that was just to see what Shirow Miwa’s Dogs and Sakae Esuno’s Mirai Nikki were about by reading a few chapters. I will try to check Dogs out further whenever it hits American shelves along with Maid-sama, Shinji Ikari Raising Project and some others I can’t recall at the moment.

That short list of my anticipated releases says something about my limited interest in the manga scene, which makes my authoring of this post a bit strange from my standing as a fringe reader. I never understood the rationale of complaining that something became licensed in your region because that means it becomes more easily accessible; this is more so for manga than anime because you can now read them in paper form, assuming you couldn’t read Japanese and didn’t have a Kinokuniya nearby. You can even sit on a couch in a bookstore and read whole volumes – I don’t care, just stop complaining that you cannot access a series or, worse, brazenly continue to do so.

Saying that you’re reading it in a browser and not downloading is a faulty excuse just as watching an licensed anime series on YouTube, Veoh, or even Crunchyroll is – you are still consuming the media in a non-sanctioned manner assuming it hasn’t been uploading by the actual rights holders.

I have since removed the comments that involved links or requests but you can read them in chronological order after the jump, with the links obviously taken out.

It’s such a great manga, but unfortanetley I can only read Volume 1 and 2.
Can anyone sell me the other Volumes? Or show me a download-website?

Chibi Vampire’s my favorite manga. It’s very funny, very creative, and I really love the characters. Vols 1-5 are in American stores, and at least one group, [group expunged], have scanlated up through vol. 6 ch.25. Just read vol 6 ch 26 earlier today from some group called [group expunged]. Can find the downloads at [site expunged] or [link expunged]. I recommend buying it, though. Normally, I wouldn’t bother spending 10 bucks on manga, but it’s more enjoyable then a lot of American stuff out right now and you can take it on long trips ;)

If you go to [site expunged] they have up to chapter 27 of Karin and more will be coming out I am sure they update everday so check back often. I just got done reading chapter 27 of volume 7 and am looking forward to reading the three next chapters. Its refreashing when an author can take something like vampires and find a cool twist. So go to [expunged] and enjoy.

TT.TT

I was really sad when I found out Chibi vampire was licensed. Now, [site expunged] and [site expunged] are not allowed to have it on their site. Nor can I find any other sites with it, without downloading -_-

I have only been able to read the first volume, because I bought it.

Dun let it spread too far but you can read Chibi vampire vol 1- 7 and chap 31 – 35 in vol 8, on [site expunged] … no downloads required and I dun want tokyopop findin out so ssshhh so I can read it all!!!

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kuromitsu on August 8, 2008 at 12:38 am

Re: “I never understood the rationale of complaining that something became licensed in your region because that means it becomes more easily accessible;”

It’s because it doesn’t necessarily become more accessible. Sure, some manga are only a few volumes, and if people simply can’t wait a few months between manga/anime releases it’s their own damn problem and they should learn some patience. However, imagine that you’re reading say, One Piece via scanlations, then suddenly it becomes licensed. If you’re a good fan and stop reading the scanlations, you’ll have to wait for YEARS to see the story continued where you left off (whereas if you read scanlations you could’ve seen it continued the next week), and that’s only IF it’s popular enough not to be cancelled or something. Same with anime. Say you’re watching a show fansubbed and it gets licensed. You stop watching the fansubs and wait, wait, wait, and wait some more and maybe in a year or two you’ll see the story continued when it finally comes out on DVD/on local TV (TV is the better option because then you can see an episode every week instead of waiting who knows how long for the DVDs).

One local example: the Bleach anime was licensed in my country but due to the usual licensing limitations/practices, only the first 52 episodes were bought. These episodes aired, people watched them on TV, it was popular, they liked it. (Except for the usual “it’s dubbed, now it sucks” crowd.) Then the 52 episodes ended and people were left wondering now what. There’s still no info on when it will continue if it continues at all. The story was cut off at a very bad place, people were dying to know what was going to happen. So even those people who hadn’t watched the fansubs before decided to watch the rest via fansubs because god knows when we will see the rest on TV (well, I know but that’s because I… know).

Of course, few people are “good fans”… and many are just complaining out of habit. (“They’ll screw it up!” “It’ll be a disaster!” etc., never mind that they still have their fansubs and scanlations.)

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jp_zer0 on August 8, 2008 at 2:00 am

“Not in my backyard!”

I’ll never understand you intellectual property crusaders.

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blissmo on August 8, 2008 at 2:03 am

Too bad no one asks where to download things at Yukan :D

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CalAggie on August 8, 2008 at 5:55 am

kuromitsu: That’s a good point because it actually limits the general accessibility in terms of global reach. As an American, I didn’t give a thought about other parts of the world. I also should have narrowed my focus specifically to manga since it spawned from that.

However, I didn’t explicitly advise people halt reading/watching a series because it has been licensed. I know I have been burned a few times when watching a series like Madlax and its license gets announced just before the final episode. If you are very invested in a big storyline like Naruto or One Piece, I would support you in continuing to read it to its conclusion but would also ask you to the creators some of your admiration in your own personal way. My main contention was people not being resourceful enough to find the material on their own and relying on comments on my blog and forums to the sleuthing for them or actively promoting sources. I would rather such activity not happen at all but if it has to occur, I’d like it more under the radar.

jp_zero: While I may not be as steadfast a IP protector as industry people meaning I still download fansubs, I want to preserve the rights of creators to be properly compensated for their work by readers who enjoyed their productions. (Protecting your ideas is a tenet of capitalism after all.) If someone reads a book or manga in a store and doesn’t buy, then they don’t buy it for whatever reason – not liking the artist’s work, being cheap, both, or another reason. Just simply support the creators financially if you can do so within your means and if not, then tell other people about it and hint that they should support it if they like it.

blissmo: That’s probably because they know not to mess with the Yukan blog crew. :P

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Anja Flower on January 5, 2009 at 11:11 pm

Frankly, many of my favorite scanlated series will probably never be published in English, because they’re too avant-garde, too fringe, too strange, too controversial, or simply don’t have enough of a market. And since my tastes diverge significantly from those of the majority, and the majority keeps the industry afloat, my only way of reading these manga and understanding what the hell they mean is scanlation. I do also buy untranslated books by authors whose work can be appreciated purely for its visual qualities – Takaya Miou and Suehiro Maruo, for example – but until I learn Japanese well enough to read manga, which may not be for some time, scanlation is my only chance to read and understand some of my favorite comics.

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