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Scanlation: Distributed Manga
IronicGrin writes "Just alerting you to a story I wrote for SFGate.com about the emergence of manga as a cultural and commercial force in the U.S.; in addition to discussing the fact that manga has begun to appear on national bestseller lists (volumes of Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin both cracked the USA Today Top 150), I also discuss scanlation communities--that is to say, distributed groups that use the Internet to translate and distribute as-yet unlicensed manga works--comparing this form of culture hacking to other open source development efforts. Do you think the comparison is apt? How many of you guys read manga (as opposed to watch anime), anyway?"
this just goes to show information is unstoppable, whether it's open source, comic books, or anything else. people want to share.
Why people should stop translating manga or anime once something becomes licensed. It makes no sense to me that a foreign book or tv show can suddenly become un-sharable when a company buys the rights to it in the US. These are japanese books/shows, not US version. They should be free to trade. And yes i know about the WTO Tripps treaty, which makes no sense (are they even elected officials who make treaties?).
Do you even have any familiarity with the field? Would you know the difference between Masamune Shirow and Rumiko Takahashi? Have you ever even seen an issue of "20th Century Boys?" If you have actually looked into the genre, saying that you "hate this stuff" and are convinced it all "looks crappy," isn't sufficient. What about it is crappy? What is it that you hate that is common to ALL manga? Saying "manga looks crappy" is like saying "comic books are for kids." There's no way that they are all alike or share a single esthetic; there's far more variety in Japanese mass-market comics -- in artstyle, storytelling techniques, intended audience -- than in the US product. Unless you can lend some further depth to your remarks, you are simply a troll.
That was my point. I don't know why I think it looks crappy, I just do. It's like asking why a fart smells bad...it just does. (to me) I wasn't saying it *is* crappy, only that I think it looks crappy.
You'll have that sometimes...