Vice has an interesting article up on scanlation
apparently mangahelpers actually went to shueisha at some point to try and joint venture. it's pretty interesting.
i'd love to write a paper on this field. maybe in five years.
I actually remember the mangahelpers staff putting up an announcement that did mention they wanted to go legit once they had taken the step to remove all scanalations from their site (even though they host translations still, as far as I'm aware, they no longer keep scans on the main site). That ambition to be a centre for English speaking manga had always been there I suppose.
Pity learning it never amounted to much, but not surprising sadly. I do understand the reason they weren't all that keen with working with the very people they had been competing against in an unwinnable battle (you can't beat the people who get the magazine before the street date), but I think it wouldn't have hurt to try.
Japanese company releases have been super lame too.
I can't figure out how to access older chapters on Mangabox, even for premiums. Comicwalker only releases Ptolemy's Singularity and Gundam these days. Bookwalker releases are inconsistent.
In general, it honestly feels more like an obligation to keep up with Mangabox or Comicwalker at this point. I honestly think Maoyu is the only reason I keep checking Bookwalker, because of how lacklustre support had been.
I think the current situation is far better than earlier efforts like J-manga which was absolutely atrocious. A lot of publishers are on kindle now. Bookwalker has good prices but its app it still quite janky.
J-Manga was a study into what not to do when trying to make a successful online platform for anything, let alone manga.
I still remember how the Japanese companies wanted people to jump through hoops to buy a virtual currency in order to "rent" manga that you can only stream.
I am honestly surprised I had not seen any written report about that clusterfuck of a site ever since it went under. I would imagine that working there must have been nightmarish due to the insane restrictions from the publishers.
I just wish Shonen Jump wasnt the only magazine translated.
I think it is sad as well that Shuiesha/Viz was the only one to make use and try out the anthology magazine format. It is so far the best (not saying much given the competition in the English market) out of all other platforms, since Crunchyroll's trying to emulate scan aggregates had been a wash (to the point where a lot of their series no longer update on time) and the lack of visibility to updated manga or less popular series makes it hard to keep track of them.
The anthology magazine at least allows for people to check out manga they wouldn't normally read or are not as popular as other manga. That and the interaction and feedback given from the team at English Jump at least helps makes it clear they are listening and responding to what their customers are saying/writing to them, even if the answer isn't always positive. Yen Press seems to be similar, though I haven't been keeping with their online stuff as much as I have with their physical releases.
While with Crunchyroll, it's like talking to a wall when it comes to any manga inquiries.
It's getting there, for sure, but it still feels that with the progress made, it's still not enough.
Perhaps more companies ought to put their manga on comixology
It would make things more convenient for sure.
Though region locking continues to be an issue.
