So, I know that some manga have been licensed by English companies like 'Viz'.
So what do these companies basically do?
Do they just simply sell the manga in the specific region (eg. north america)?
Or do they translate it and then sell it?
Just what do they do?
(I am only asking this out of curiosity, if the answer is obvious, then i apologise for being 'stupid', if the answer isn't even known, then...thats unfortunate )

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My full manga list: http://myanimelist.net/mangalist/PinkShippuden

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+does+it+mean+for+a+manga+to+be+li censed%3F. It's called google. Very very handy tool.

Of course, you have those yoloyoloswagswag scanlation groups that ignore the law and do their thing. Thank those yoloyolo-swagswagish guys for your naruto, bleach, onepiece, etc.

Last edited by GreenToes at 7:57 am, Jun 24 2013

I think you mean American* companies...

Uhhhhhhh this is just such a silly question that I don't even...

Take a book that is written by a French author, who lives in France, and is only sold in France. A U.S. publishing or whatever company would then pick it up and translate it to English and release it in the U.S. This is what American licensing companies (Viz, etc.) do. Except for manga.

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So that nobody denounces me for maltreating your question, I will answer it.

Publishing companies, such as Viz, purchase the rights to manga titles in order to sell said titles in their countries. In order to do that, they indeed translate and edit the pages, reprint and bind them to be sold and read by people in said countries.
They basically do what scanlation groups do, just legally and with an income.

As Pika has noted, it's the same as with any foreign piece of literature.


But let me say that it should be perfectly obvious to any living person.

That is all.

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Hrodulf and Bjornolfr, you will not be forgotten.

And if the world were black and white,
you would be my rainbow in shades of grey.

Click 'n Play!

If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

you guys sure are mean, not everybody can see things as obvious as others, well at least some answered him... and if u guys were as smart as you think, u should be able to see he had a basic idea of what they do he just wanted to confirm them to know for sure... knowlege is based in facts not an idea. He was looking for facts to KNOW they reality, hehe but comming from someone who doesnt even speak the language this seems void anyway.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Totally disappointed with the offensive posts which are pretending otherwise Then again... this is Internet People hardly consider the feelings

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What aagcnet said.

Also, I'm sure what I'm about to say is only known to paid scanlators but it wouldn't hurt to post here. I'm curious how they receive the manga from the source. Since it's almost certainly sent over digitally and if it's with Japanese text removed from the image (I'm assuming here but it's practically for sure), a cleaner would then be rendered unnecessary. Of course, that wouldn't be "scanlating" then and more a case of translating, proofreading and typesetting.

If this is what it's like, paid "scanlators" have it quite easy. But hey, who am I to complain...

@aagcnet, @strixflash

*shrug*
We don't all have to be 100% agreeable, do we?

@officialuh

You mean official staff of publishing companies?
Even if they do get a digital copy, unless the mangaka added all the text and SFX using a computer program like photoshop, the process should be similar to how fan scanlations are done, ie scan > clean > typeset. Translation and proofreading are separate.
That's only my assumption.



________________
Hrodulf and Bjornolfr, you will not be forgotten.

And if the world were black and white,
you would be my rainbow in shades of grey.

Click 'n Play!

If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

But the cleaning part involves more than just cleaning the bubbles, because they publish it in another language asuming none (or mostly none) of the buiers know the original language they have to translate the sfx too and that involves much redrawing.
Maybe because of that the licensed mangas are few

Oh gosh.... licensing company does so much more than what google can tell you and so much more than what only scanlaitors do.

I recommend reading this article and also everything else tagged under publishing manga.

It should give you a good grasp of what a company must do (though ALC Publishing might not be the best example).
Either way licensing companies have a lot of problems because they need to negotiate with original publishing company and author about the final look of the manga. Scanlaitors don't need to do that. Good example is vol. 1 of Moyashimon. The whole first print was taken off the shelfs because all signs and sound affects were erased and translated which pissed off the although enough to tell them to change it back (he doesn't use the typical "sticker" sound affects but draws all of them by hand).
Having a personal contact like okazu does is pretty lucky. Most companies need to go through official process that involves a lot of money spending(attending book fairs) and courting(flat out rejections for years). Because that's the Japanese way (though once you get the contract it'll be a long term contract). Which is also the reason why not many publishers never succeed in this (especially those from smaller country that have smaller budget to begin with). Why many many of those that do succeed bankrupt later on is because "western" publishers are all into profit (i'm saying this with all staffs salary in mind as well) rather than satisfying customers which actually backfires at them (though it is true that many times the Japanese publisher demands certain number of books to be printed to even allow the license).
Another thing I'd like to mention is advertising. Scanlaitors have internet, publisher's have the rest (or at least I don't see them particularly successful in online advertising). Which actually sucks since most manga fans gather online. On the other hand publishers whit license to not have much of a freedom in this as well. It's a fact that stuff like manga needs to be advertised with image but apparently you need to pay for each and every picture you're planing to use in advertisement (or at least that's the case with Croatian publisher) which kinda sucks.

So yeah you have the basic idea but there is a lot more to publishing, more so to manga publishing.

Thanks for the kind and not so kind comments (I don't really feel insulted that easily, since there's no point in feeling sad over a few words).
Just wanted to know something new
Much thanks to those who have replied or thought about replying to this topic

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My full manga list: http://myanimelist.net/mangalist/PinkShippuden