Over at ICv2, American Shonen Jump editor Andy Nakatani explains the thinking behind the title’s upcoming day-and-date digital release with the Japanese print edition:
Going back, when you think about it, when we were doing the print magazine here we were something like two years behind the Japanese edition, and I think the fans, the readers they always wanted something more current. Plus the whole impetus behind starting (the digital) Shonen Jump Alpha last year was to catch the readers up and get as close as we could and we have managed to get within a few weeks of Japan. So for this year the next logical step was to go simultaneous with publication in Japan… I would say that the main objectives are increasing circulation and increasing our subscriber base for it as well as creating a buzz for the whole product line. As far as forestalling scanlation by going “simultaneous” we are trying to provide an alternative for those people who do want it right away. The fastest that we can release the material is when it officially releases in Japan. We can’t go before that. That’s the best that we can do.
The immediacy does defeat one of the traditional reasons behind scanslations… I wonder if it will mean a drop in the number of scanslation readers for the material?
January 22nd, 2013 at 6:58 am
It’s interesting to me that there’s such a big demand for Manga that’s so incredibly current in the U.S.
Surely a delay for a good translation is to be expected? Working as I do in the Japanese to English translation business, I know first hand that the average pay-rate for translation has been steadily plummeting over the past few years but devaluing it to the point that fast is better than good as a standard is -it seems to me- not a good thing… take into account too that the type of Japanese used in Manga (and Anime) is extremely …um…idiomatic? I suppose is the best way to describe it. Therefore a good translation takes even longer than it would were we dealing with conversational or business-level Japanese.
Aside from all of the above though, anyone who comes from a non – U.S. upbringing (as I do) will be well accustomed to waiting a year or more for televisions series and at the least; months for the release dates of some movies.
So what’s the rush?