From November 1, 2021, Mantra Co. , Ltd., which develops a research group for the multilingual translation system “Mantra Engine” specializing in manga, has added Mantra to the manga magazine app “Manga One” provided by Shogakukan Co., Ltd. Started translation support using Engine.
As the first step of translation support, we produced the English version of ” Kengan Omega” published in Manga One, and contributed to the suspension of updating and withdrawal of some pirated sites .
Table of Contents
- “Mantra Engine” enables high-speed multilingual development of manga
- More than 100 million PV damage due to piracy
- Conversion of translations by overseas manga fans into official versions
- “Kengan Omega” Successfully stopped distribution of overseas pirated editions
“Mantra Engine” enables high-speed multilingual development of manga
Mantra Engine is a corporate cloud service for publishers and manga creators and distributors that enables high-speed multilingual development of manga.
Mantra Engine, which was officially released in July 2020, has been introduced to manga distributors, translation companies, and publishers in Japan and overseas, and is used for multilingualization of about 10,000 pages per month (50 books in terms of books). It has been.
More than 100 million PV damage due to piracy
Unofficially translated versions of manga produced by manga fans around the world, known as “ foreign pirated editions ,” lead to loss of sales opportunities for regular editions of manga, and pose a major challenge to the overseas expansion of Japanese manga. increase.
According to the company’s own investigation in 2021, it was found that among the manga published by Shogakukan , about five times as many overseas pirated editions as the regular edition translated and published with the permission of the copyright holder are in circulation . In particular, Manga One’s “Kengan Ashura” and “Kengan Omega” series have suffered great damage, with more than 100 million PVs confirmed on overseas pirate sites .
According to a survey conducted by the company on overseas pirated producers, it was found that the biggest motivation for producing pirated editions was that “the manga that I wanted to recommend to others was not officially translated .”
Conversion of translations by overseas manga fans into official versions
Manga One has suffered a great deal of damage due to the release of pirated editions overseas, but in collaboration with Mantra, we will utilize the power of enthusiastic manga fans to produce official translations of works such as “Kengan Omega”. started .
Using the following features of Mantra Engine, we implemented high-speed translation and simultaneous distribution of the Japanese and English versions.
- Secure data exchange : Manga fans can engage in translation and typesetting work on the browser without directly sending and receiving manuscript data to publishers
- High work efficiency : Production time can be reduced by approximately 50% with functions that support translation and typesetting work using AI technology and a mechanism that streamlines communication between workers.
In this initiative, Mantra will conduct individual interviews, and only those who request cooperation will use Mantra Engine to create a translated version based on automatically translated and phototyped images. The produced English version will be released at the same time as the Japanese version on Comikey , a manga distribution service for English-speaking countries.
“Kengan Omega” Successfully stopped distribution of overseas pirated editions
With the release of the official translations of Kengan Ashura and Kengan Omega, a group of overseas bootleggers (English) have announced that they will stop bootleg production and withdraw the released episodes .
This initiative was able to reduce the damage caused by overseas piracy through simultaneous multilingual distribution, and is expected to continue to be an effective countermeasure against overseas piracy in the future.
