Lately, I've noticed that the number of manga scans is seriously dropping. Indeed on the release page, the number of releases didn't go down. This is because of the upcoming popularity of Light novels and the mass releases of webtoons by the respective publishers (this includes crunchyroll that have a lot of releases lately.) The respective number of scans dropped a lot in recent years. More groups go than their come new in the place. Recently MangaPanda died as a scanlationgroup (the website is still alive), because their raw providers where arrested. Such messages scares off some of the raw providers, hopefully this isn't the case. How long will Mangastream be afloat? But, back to the topic, do you believe scanlation comes to an end?

Note: I hope their isn't a similar post to this one, I've tried to search for a similar post but with 24423 results, it's impossible to check them all.

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The amount of manga on my reading list in active scanlation is currently @ a historical peak.
US scanners are further ripping official releases like never before (which admittedly ended a few high profile scanlation projects as they were no longer "needed") and the online readers are bursting with daily content! The amount of free to read series is also climbing, in both Japan and abroad and basically all the project that "stopped" last year were immediately picked up. Translation tool sites as Otakumole are also destined to get more copycats and we would need an universal translator and an explosion in customers to get all the modern manga from Japan into official translation. Getting the entire backlog over would further be impossible and rights also expire.
It´s actually the printed translations in the US that worry me the most in the year of our lord 2016. That market is current's tacking a beating (just follow ANN´s news section for a bit an you will see what i mean) and it can only get worse / more expensive for print.

Piratebay survived a police raid and piracy is proven to be immortal so i would say that we are currently in the Golden Age of scanlation if anything. 99% of the yearly anime output is subbed within days so there is always room to grow i guess. The scanlation of European comics is also at an all time high so i find the doom and gloom stance utterly unwarranted.

Never stray from the bay. Sharing is caring!

Forgot: You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You and Sekitou Elergy reentered scanlation after years of absence while i wrote my post!

Last edited by residentgrigo at 8:37 am, Jan 31 2016

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

This is kind of silly. There aren't even any real statistics involved to make you suggest that the amount of manga scans are dropping. Have you seen the releases page? Do you see the number of daily manga releases?

No, manga scans will never die out. Yes, there are a lot of novels and webtoons out there. Yes, some scan groups stop eventually but there are still so many out there, and manga is always going to be popular source of entertainment compared to novels and webtoons.

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I don't know if the number of releases is dropping, but it certainly isn't growing. Scanlation has been stagnating for years in terms of volume.

Now there are also legit manga sources online, so if you don't count them as scanlation, it is quite possible that traditional scanlation has started to diminish.

But no, I don't think scanlation as we know it will disappear in any foreseeable future.

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^ This sounds about accurate. There will be groups that continue to live on (the more mature, older ones), and also groups that are formed for the basis of completing one or two series (dedicated fan groups).

It's safe to say that the MU releases nowadays are saturated with dozens of novel releases. This can make it appear as if manga releases are "diminishing."

Taking a glance the releases page, there still seems to be more-or-less the same amount of manga releases as there were a few years back. However, the genre or demographic of those releases might not necessarily be your taste.

This means that X genre might seem like it's coming out less than before, but in reality, Y and Z genres are still coming out at the same pace, or even quicker than before.


In regards to what I voted for in the poll, I would say that the number of scanlation groups will gradually reduce, but by no means at an immense rate (i.e. the minimum option).

This is because smaller groups or fan groups may close down whenever they feel like doing so, but bigger or older groups tend to just stick around and live on, so they act as a sort of "base."

Last edited by Sayori x3 at 1:15 pm, Jan 31 2016

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I set the releases page to just manga thank to a script and looked at the last 5 years of releases for 10 minutes around January the 1st (jump by 130 and narrow down from there).
The amount stayed very constant with no real treads so the scene settled into a constant grove. I don´t quite know where we are supposed to escalate from there.
The amount for hentai that one can´t submit due to a lack of a tractable group is through the roof right now if you look at ghentai but don´t ask me about Doujunshi.
We also list "non-scanlations" too (but obviously no rips which are on a noticeable rise) so there is that. Teams rotate yet the popular scanlations are passed on and on.
What more should one expect?

Go back a full decade though and it will become noticeable how much bigger the scene got and things looked utterly differently around the turn of the millennium.
We could have stagnated but life is good, the scene will live. 'Nuff Said.

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Sekitou Elergy is back! Yay!

Never!

That phrasing is really odd. i took it to mean "No, it will end now and it will be over"?

I chose the last option to echo yurakair's "Never!"

Scanlating takes a lot of effort and time. For all involved in the project, it is also a hobby they are passionate about. Just this alone tells me that as long as manga is being produced, scanlations will continue to exist.

I see a lot of personal perks to being in a scanlation group. Depending on what you're bringing to the table, you can practise and refine your PS skills or Japanese translations while contributing directly to the community. Oh, not to mention you also get to read the latest chapter ASAP.

If I were part of a scanlation project, I'd be proud of my work. It's like leaving behind a legacy, a tiny one akin to carving "HCB was here on 21/03/2016" on a tree in the woods.

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