Quick Post--Project Exclusivity

I just happened to read most of an "argument"/discussion between an "amateur" scanlator and a "major" scanlator relating to this whole "controversy" about exclusivity of projects on batoto. It's quite amusing to see this yet also sad since it shows how disturbed this phenomenon of exclusivity is. The "amateur" scanlator is doing pretty well in terms of translating and uploading chapters for a couple of mangas (one of which has become a recent favorite and both of which are historical genres outside of the japanese past). This whole "competing" thing sucks since it is as the person says, for the readers yet the "major" scanlator group was somehow insulted(?) by the fact that someone else is "speedscanning"? What?! Yeah....anyways, this exclusivity thing....hmm....

Sorry for being so generic. I don't want to be too direct about the individuals involved in this issue but check out Shoukoku no Altair on batoto if you want to see what I'm talking about. The "amateur" is Aizen-sensei and I just love the releases for Choukakou!

Check out my post(s) on the exclusivity thing and my thoughts about it~

• Exclusivity of Projects
• Why So Many Projects?

Why So Many Projects?

Hello,

These last few days I've been busy with life so I haven't had time to really think and write. I decided to extend from my last post on a topic-kind of food for thought?

Scanlators don't all have such a large group of people working on projects especially since there are a finite number of people who are willing to give up the time in their lives for the many jobs required for a "HQ" scanlation~ providing raws/translating/cleaning/redrawing/proofreading/QCing (that all?).

So...I've wondered for some time, especially with one group specifically (the name of which will not be provided), why do some scanlation groups take on so many projects? This one group has like about 100 projects (give or take 10 or so that they have dropped but haven't removed from the ongoing projects list). I don't know how many people are volunteering to work in that group but even so, that's a lot of projects. With so much to do for just one project as well, it begs me to question, why bother taking on so many different projects?

Possible Reason #1--I understand that some groups seem to take on projects based on the magazines they subscribe from but in my opinion, it just seems less efficient to do that since not all magazines continue to feature a manga to its completion (or is that just American manga magazines).

Yes, Magazines have their perks. One of which would be that there are multiple mangas in each magazine. They also are cheaper in the long run I suppose when you calculate the cost of each magazine you get from the cost of an annual subscription against one volume of a manga. There's also the factor that it's a lot easier to scan from too if you do the whole de-binding method/ripping the pages carefully. That just seems like all the perks there are to me. Nothing more and nothing less. (Maybe color pages are a perk as well? I don't know if volumes in the country of origin have color pages.)

But of course, all things good also have its bad. But it's easier to compare than to simply say the bad so I'm not going to say why to me it seems better to not rely on magazines.

For me, it makes more sense to take on projects that are already completed in the country of origin. Whether you obtain the raws by buying the manga in a foreign language or online from people who upload raws on their own free time, it makes a lot more sense to do that doesn't it? This way, there is no doubt that the mangaka will drop it or put it on hiatus despite it being not very probably but also, it seems like it would be better in that a group doesn't have to wait around that long for a new chapter for a project being worked on.

I also think having a manga in volumes is better too. Similar to the idea of it already being completed, you at least don't have to wait so long for another chapter. Yes, volumes take longer to compile and be released but it gives more control over how many projects to take on right? If a group gets a magazine, I feel as though they may feel obligated to do all the mangas featured with some strange idea that they'll get their money's worth.

Possible Reason #2--Other groups have so many projects just for the sake of variety and keeping the interest alive I suppose which does make sense and would work better if you have a large pool of people you can dip into for job distributions but again, finite people.

There is one group in particular that I think works well with a large amount of projects because it has a large pool of people to dip into for work. But the largest difference is that this group also takes time to encourage and train its people to take on other jobs like from PR to cleaning. Although their PR needs some brushing up grammar and all but in general, they've created a system that works pretty well I think.

Generally though, I feel like groups should try and brush themselves up and control the amount of work they take on. Having so many and leaving most inactive for long periods of time is a pretty cruel fate for the projects as well as those who have vested their interest in those stories. It's sad to see projects drop but drawing on the exclusivity thing, by dropping projects that have less probability of reviving, it may be a better fate since it would allow the possibility of it being picked up by another group who many invest more time into working on the dropped projects.

Speaking rationally, this makes sense to me but maybe it's just to me. I can't really think of anything else to add (maybe later) but that's all.

Until next week,
tohukyo

Exclusivity of Projects

Hi,

My post is one day late (two for most people in the world) and I have a topic I want to write about but I'm too tired to go in depth so I'm just going to go into a topic in relation to it which is a lot easier to structure than what I have in mind.

I don't know how many people have actually noticed nor do people care but in the scanlating world, there seems to be this sort of "de facto" law with manga projects. (de facto: in practice or actuality, but not officially established)

The thing is that if you've been reading as long as I have and/or if you aren't always in the clouds when reading, you'd catch on that only one group/scanlator works on a manga. It seems like this exclusivity (note, exclusivity is an actual word) is some de facto law or some unified consensus among the manga community that only one scanlator/group works on a manga and no one else.

First of all, how does this exclusivity work?
Well, I think it's quite simple. From what I've seen over the years, a group has to simply deem themselves as a scanlating group (setting up some kind of webpage be it a forum or a blog or something else; so that people can find it and witness them as a scanlator) and make sure no one else that is established as a scanlating group is working on a project or has noted a project as a future work. If it's a person, well, same thing generally. But this also brings into question how this even began. I think it's just some kind of twist on the human notion of private property as well as the idea that there is no point on starting on a project if it's already being worked on. That's just me though, what I think.

What happens if someone else works on it?
Well usually this only happens with "amateur" scanlators e.g. (e.g. not i.e. -there is a difference) anyone, usually a one man job, who works on a project without consulting the group that has "obtained" exclusive rights to a manga. (Gosh this "obtained exclusive rights" thing just sound ridiculous since scanlators aren't doing anything legal per se.) And this usually happens because the scanlator that has the "exclusive rights" aren't working as quickly as the freeloading masses want them to. As a result, there are usually 2 different scenarios that can play out.
1) The amateur doesn't do a good job at all (stressing on the "amateur" but there are those rare cases where the amateur does a pretty exceptional job) and the release(s) simply serves as a preview (using paint instead of PS is one clear indication). This is good because that means the scanlator is pretty "professional" in the sense that they'll still release the chapter but in better/high quality.
2) The amateur (good or bad) keeps on releasing chapter after chapter and in the end, the scanlators stop working on it. After awhile, the amateur stops too.
Usually when this happens, it's because the scanlators get annoyed that someone else (amateur) is working on it and doesn't see the point of going any further--as for the amateur, they just stop because unlike the scanlator, he/she/they didn't have much obligation to continue working on it.
It actually rarely comes to this but when I sit witness to this, I advise the amateur to consult the scanlators as soon as possible in order to avoid the issue of a project being completely dropped all together. I'm glad they actually listen too
*3) The amateur does a good job at it. I don't know for sure what happens when this is the case because both 1 and 2 can happen but from what I remember with one person, the amateur realizes that #2 can happen and puts out some sort of warning credit/declaration about it as well as telling people not to release it on a manga aggregate site since it's just an amateur release.

It's kind of strange how this exclusiveness works but there are some exceptions and recently I've noticed a few mangas having more than one scanlator working on it and they're not any of the big name mangas either. It's strange when that happens but this is actually related to a topic I may be talking about some other time.

I never really thought about this "strange phenomenon" (or whatever you want to call it) of exclusivity until now but I remember one somewhat recent event that really made me aware of how crude that the practice of exclusivity can be. I'm not going to name anyone but this group, let's call it B (I know, how creative is that?) I remember only released the first chapter of a manga simply fearing another group, A would take it on as a project eventually. This manga had a prequel and a sequel. The prequel was drawn by another mangaka artist (the story is by a novelist) and A was making pretty good momentum in the scanlation of the prequel. The sequel on the other hand (by another mangaka-and in my opinion too flowery with details and doesn't fit well with the prequel at all) was kind of "up for grabs" so to speak. B wanted to work on it but feared that A would eventually work on it first so in a rush, B released a first chapter. I must stress that it's exclusivity in it's most unrefined "raw" state. The chapter was poorly done (cleaning was ok but the translation/grammar was poor--grammar and the flow of the text is necessary for HQ scans IMO) and it was "rumored" that B simply did a quick release in order to obtain the exclusivity. Worst part is that now, B has dropped it. I don't know what B's reasons were for dropping but if the reason for release is true, that's sad. Anyways, it's strange how this works in some ways I think.

But then there's the problem of some groups taking on too many projects that they can't handle it and end up not actually working on them simply because they're more recent mangas that are released by magazines... To solve that problem, I think some scanlators should look to volumes and not magazines as well as completed mangas instead of ongoing. But another day for another topic to go into I suppose.

That's all I have to say. I hope you enjoyed. If not, not my problem =)

Have a great week!
tohukyo