I'm looking to set up a group dedicated to translating some of the manga on Ken Akamatsu's online manga reading website, J-comi.

J-comi's been around for some time now, and the reader has a built-in function for adding translations/transcripts... but there still aren't very many manga up there with English translations. I've been reading manga there for a few months, and J-comi may only have older manga, as it hosts series that are out of print--but there's some really good stuff up there!


So, I'm looking for translators and proofreaders who are interested in choosing some manga from J-comi and adding English translations to them.

I'd also be interested in hearing from anyone who just has some ideas as to how to go about this, and general opinions (but I'm not sure if that's appropriate for this forum section, so just PM/email me I guess?). I'm setting up a forum... but I'm not actually sure how much interest there'll be in this.


Cool Things:
+ This isn't quite the same as regular scanlations... in that this would be totally legal! If you ever decide to try paid translation work, anything you translated on J-comi could be part of a professional portfolio/resume.
+ This would be a great learning tool for readers who study Japanese--they'll get to see both the Japanese and English in the same window, and can close the English at any time.
+ Since we aren't typesetting, any typos or mistranslations can be fixed with minimal effort.
+ The mangaka make money off of their manga being on J-comi. Bringing them a wider audience directly supports them. Maybe Ken Akamatsu will appreciate it too!?


Challenges:
+ This isn't quite the same as regular scanlations... in that the scripts will be in a box on the bottom of the pages, like subtitles. Not as fun or fluid to read.
+ You can't zoom in on the pages unless you have a premium account. Sometimes smaller text is hard or impossible to read. (Most of the time, though, things are pretty readable.)
+ These manga won't be posted on the usual online reading sites... so there's a readership challenge. I'll admit it--this won't be instantly gratifying. We'd have to find our own ways to tell people about the manga we translate. So... kinda need to be motivated.



Possible projects include:
+ Dieland, Dead Copy, and Nozomi-chan Hotline by Gaasan (SF/fantasy; Dead Copy is NSFW, I haven't finished Nozomi-chan but it probably is too)
+ Kiss & Away by Izumiya Misono (yuri fluff)
+ Kaori Paradise by Katou Masaki/Yui Toshiki (SF)
+ Tachibana Kiku no Amaeta Kankei by Nakayama Noriko (josei)
+ Kinmuchuu Ijou Nashi by Kazumi Yoshiyuki (comedy)
+ Yayoi!! by Kawachi Mika (shoujo)

These are just some manga that I like, for one reason or another--but there's bound to be other great manga on J-comi. Go forth and see if there's anything there that you'd be interested in working on!

As much as the idea is intriguing at first glance, the challenges that you correctly identified pretty much kill my motivation to work on that site in its present format. There's no point in translating something that no one will ever read. If those guys really care about international readership, they need to set up a better framework to support it. Maybe you could get in touch with them and explain it to them? Well, it's just my opinion (and I have no intention of ever going pro). I sincerely hope that your effort will be successful. When it is, I'll join up.

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Most of the series that are mentioned are female-oriented...
Which means your call on help will mainly be limited to a certain group of people.

If you knew anything about Asian comics and what's popular nowadays, you wouldn't even bother posting about help on some lame shoujo/josei/yuri series.

And I have a feeling that the yaoi genre is secretly a part of this, which turns me off more.
You might as well call it the "J-Comi FEMALE - HOMO Translation Project"

And I meant no disrespect but if I am wrong - please explain.

Yeah, since I'm a girl myself, I've mostly been reading series targeted towards women, although some of the scifi I was reading is more guy-oriented. (And yes, there's some BL on the site, though I don't have much interest in that myself. There's stuff from pretty much all genres, really.) My hope was that maybe other people have been reading manga there and found other series they liked...

I figured I should be up front about the challenges--they're exactly why I hadn't tried to do this earlier, and, I imagine, why there isn't already a group for this.

Thanks for being honest!

I was thinking of doing something similar for my mother language, but i still need to find time to do so ^^' (mostly because there is no people).

I'm not joining you because i have other obligations atm, but here is and idea that my be worth thinking.

I don't know all the titles that are already there, but if some of them are scanlated into English i'd go to the group that scanlated it and asked them if they'd be willing to share the script (if they still have them) or if they allow to type scanlated text into j-comi. Of course in both version s some alternations may be needed, but in most cases its a lot less work if you have a base on which you're working.

I will help in any way I can.

I can't translate, though I know the kana, and a couple hundred kanji, my vocabulary isn't so great. Perhaps in a few months I can help with the translation.

Until then, feel free to use me for other tasks if needed.

I can handle Shoujo, just please no BL. You wouldn't do that to a guy would you?

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In a world where troubled young hearts are besieged by evil spirits, only one can wield love as a weapon: the God of Conquests, Keima Katsuragi.

That's a good idea. Hmmm. Thanks!




Course I wouldn't. I wasn't planning on doing any BL myself in the first place. XD

I can do proofing MAYBE some editing. PM me.