{"id":1287,"date":"2026-06-03T20:07:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1287"},"modified":"2026-06-03T20:07:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:07:58","slug":"how-one-media-company-is-fighting-mangas-major-piracy-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1287","title":{"rendered":"How One Media Company Is Fighting Manga\u2019s Major Piracy Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThe manga industry has a big problem and it\u2019s not lack of demand, but a lack of authorized supply.<\/p>\n

Read more SoundOn Bets on Indie Labels With New Suite of Data, Sub-Label and Distribution Tools<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is a global demand for manga worldwide, and there\u2019s far more demands than any content that\u2019s officially translated right now, and that\u2019s a very big issue,\u201d Shoko Ugaki, the CEO of manga translation company Orange, told Variety<\/em> in an interview via translator last month. <\/p>\n

\n\tBased on Orange\u2019s survey, there are approximately 30,000 manga titles that have been translated into English and then there\u2019s the pirated versions of that, \u201cwhich is about five times more than officially translated manga,\u201d per Ugaki.<\/p>\n

\n\tOrange\u2019s mission is to release licensed manga, with its most notable project to date being \u201cThe Gene of AI,\u201d which was originally released in Japan in 2016 to critical acclaimed and received an anime adaptation that launched globally on Crunchyroll in 2023. But despite that success, the original \u201cThe Gene of AI\u201d manga never had an official English release, until May 1, when Orange partnered with publisher Akita Shoten to release the edition through Orange\u2019s emaqi platform.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is most of the manga the fans read, they\u2019re reading the pirated version, so that is the bottleneck,\u201d Ugaki said. \u201cOfficially translated manga is about several 1,000 titles, which is 20,000 books or comics right now. I own 30,000 comic books privately. So officially translated manga is less than what I own privately. A lot of pirated versions \u2014 five to 10 times more than officially translated versions \u2014 are translated by volunteers. So the manga fans, if you like manga more, then you read more pirated versions. The issue is that there is no returns for the creators of these mangas, that\u2019s the bottleneck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUgaki says there was a financial loss of \u201cclose to 6 trillion Japanese yen last year alone\u201d due to manga piracy.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s no appropriate compensation for creators of manga, and at the same time, all the publishers, they don\u2019t receive income or revenue because of the piracy issues. Then they cannot allocate enough budget to create the next works or next line of work, so this influences the entire ecosystem of this manga industry.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s where Orange aims to make real change with its digital cross-publisher manga app emaqi, scaling official translations of never-before-available titles in a creator-friendly way.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf we can establish the system and produce more official translations, and then that will be beneficial for not only creators, but all the publishers that participate in our system, so that within that system we can create a more beneficial cycle for everyone to produce more and produce better works in the future,\u201d Ugaki said. \u201cI believe that we are going to have to put everything we have into this industry itself to raise more official translation and official services, so less people will use or depend on pirated versions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUgaki attributes the growing appetite for official manga translations to the rising popularity of anime in the U.S., and adaptations like Netflix\u2019s \u201cOne Piece.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think anime started this manga appetite globally; however, I think that we\u2019re still at the very early phase; that global populations or audiences are starting to notice or become aware of the sort of appeal that manga and anime has, so we have a lot more to offer,\u201d Ugaki said. \u201cHowever, we have so much to do in order to convey the appeal of manga compared to anime. We need to do more, so that global audiences will be more aware of appeal and attractiveness of manga. In Japan, it\u2019s common sense, where everyone knows that all these anime came from manga, or the manga was the original, and then that made into anime. But this kind of flow is not really understood overseas, so that is another aspect that we need to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more CBS News Gutted \u201960 Minutes\u2019 On-Air Team. Can This Show Really Go On?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The manga industry has a big problem and it’s not lack of awareness or demand — it’s a lack of authorized supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1236,1237],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv","tag-manga","tag-orange"],"yoast_head":"\nHow One Media Company Is Fighting Manga\u2019s Major Piracy Problem - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1287\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How One Media Company Is Fighting Manga\u2019s Major Piracy Problem - 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