So just wondering any old people from the old times still active and keep doing this scanlation things?

I used to be involved like 10 years ago. Stay around until manga jouhou are not the primary place where groups go to anymore and mangaupdates taking over.

That's like maybe 6 or 7 years ago i think.


Lots of groups from the old time are long gone. I don't think i know anyone anymore.


I know some old friends from old groups went private and underground to avoid those online readers things. Got a mail inviting me to join them like few years ago i guess but since i don't feel like doing this kind of things anymore i never bother to check them out.


I think i saw pnyxtr here earlier on some topic and also maybe the old scanner from jinmen jushin.


I don't know how to say it but these days seems like people who are doing this kind of things are well getting younger.

From some random visits to lots of groups forum and reading their introduction topics, most of the staffs are like around 13 years old.

Just by checking the recruitment part of this forum, it looks like new groups spawning so fast each week. Totally not the same like the old times.


Also based on a few forum topics here i read earlier, somehow i feel like both scan groups and even readers are getting more vicious.

Unlike the old days where it's fun and cozy for all, i don't sense it anymore.


Well how you put it, the feeling i got from these new generation groups. It's like they are more money crazy and power hungry.

The readers are also not that kind anymore. They just want to bite you and bite you more and keep biting.


It just feels like it's a completely different game now. It actually feels scary.


Now can anyone tell me how's the scanlation situation these days? Any shocking scandalous news?

Who's the top power groups now? Any evil groups out there?


Can an old timer like me who still prefer the old standards survive these days? Or it is the new era of the new generation groups now so no place for has beens.


You all might think it's weird asking all about this but hey i haven't been following this things anymore. I just came back to check things out like 2 days ago.

Well, to be honest, manga wouldn't have been as knowledgeable, popular & successful as it is (on a worldwide basis) without the power scanlations.

It's amazing that an old-timer like yourself wants to know how the scanlation-cycle is heading towards. If you want some detailed information on how things have been going, check this place out: http://insidescanlation.com

It is also best to visit sites like MangaHelpers to see if you can see people you may recognize from the olden days. Also, if you remember people from certain scanlation groups, you could always visit their website or IRC channels to see how they've been doing. Hopefully someone in those channels would be around to help you get in touch with your time frame of people.

Let's not do this. ._.

There aren't really a whole lot of groups left that are more than five years old nowadays. The ones quietly working away on just one series are usually the long runners. The only ones that come to mind are rippersanime, Goddess Miyaku Team and Sazanquest, whom are likely dead now that they finished all of 3x3 eyes about a year ago. Then there's the odd release from Manga Underground every few years. Ritual is still dropping scans from Lain knows where. I imagine some of the remaining old scan groups know. It's hard as hell finding raw scans now.

Mangafox and Tazmo are the Devil as far the scanlation community goes. As for new scalation groups cropping up every week, well I think that can be accounted to, as you say the age group that many of them are in. They'd rather make their own group instead of join an already established thinking they can get the job done faster, which if they gave it any thought, would happen if they joined a older group instead of splitting the talent until there's no one left to do the work. But whatever, that's just the opinion of a reader, so it bears little weight.

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Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

thanks man, for being one of the pioneer of the manga scantalating. i wouldnt know about much of he manga world if people like you dont start scanning and translating them.

I guess I'm considered part of the middle-old crowd now, as I started scanlating about 7 years ago. Haven't done anything in 1-2 years though (except run this site)

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

oh the good ol times, its like was just yesterday that i found that site called dual scans(or was translations) that was translating this japanese comic called devil devil

from what i remember 12years ago when i started getting interested in visiting groups and their channels to get manga

it was not very diffrent from how it is today

not part of the group=thief
banners and donation boxes on alot of sites
elitist mentality
silly rules

...its exactly like today

So many smilies @_@

The biggest differences are that scanlations are more readily available now and they're easier to do, both of which can be blamed on the changes to the internet - google, and the shift to free file hosts and livejournal, which anyone can use without spending a dime or knowing anything.

Compare the p2p and irc-only days to now and scanlations are just a google search away. Even groups that try to hide their releases can't get around google. Someone will repost the project and it only takes one person for google to spread it over the rest of the net. The free file sharing hosts and youtube "manga-videos" made it even easier for fans to find scanlations without having anything to do with the scanlators. The flip side is that scanlation groups get shut down regularly, or are forced underground, while others joined the "digital manga guild" so they can legally sell the scanlations they've been stockpiling. And of course we still have the "pay to read" collector sites, it's just that most of them rely on ad revenue instead of charging people to sign up in order to access the goods.

I wouldn't say it's more about money than it used to be. It's just easier to make money because scanlations are easier to get, it costs nothing to host and share them, and readers are less picky so even crappy releases can get lots of revenue for the ad-ridden read-online sites and the pay-per-download "free" file host sites. Even respectable groups have been known to upload their projects to sites where they get some money based on the number of downloads. They're just not bragging about it.

As for the new groups popping up, it's always been like that. It's just more common because it's easier for people to gain access to the programs needed to scanlate, lots of readily available sites and programs to learn Japanese, as well as free hosts to upload the projects to, and free lj groups to house the scanlation group. Technology has made it cheap and easy for a beginning group to set up shop and quickly be indistinguishable from the established groups. The only significant difference is in the quality of the scanlations, and even that is minor. Most of the old groups I know of have moved to lj and host everything on free file hosts so half their links are broken at all times. While we complain about the read-online sites, sometimes they're the only place to get the projects because the scanlators themselves aren't maintaining their own links. It's all part of the shift from self sustained websites paid out of the scanlator's pocket and into the "this costs us nothing, yet we can still ask for donations" age of sloppy half-heartedness. For readers, it's great. For scanlators...not so much.

It's not an elite hobby anymore. Everyone is doing it and few are bothering to do it well. If you find some groups you like, stick with them. If not, start one up yourself. That's what everyone else is doing. ;p

I started reading manga when I was 10. I discovered doujinshi around the age of 12. I didn't even know about online readers till I was about 14. I'm now graduating highschool. You do the maths.

I have felt this world change as I get older, and honestly I'm really sad that I was too young to be apart of it before. Nowadays so people don't know what's legal or illegal, don't respect the wishes of the publishers, or the mangaka, or the scanlators... So many of the groups that I found when I just started reading have disbanded... (Q_Q)

Still, I'm pretty young... I just have an old person's mentality. (^^;