Let’s revisit one of the most divisive subjects in the animanga fandom: fan-translated works, and in particular, scanlations. Someone(s) acquires the original Japanese version, and a person or group translates and releases an English version, sometimes even coming out before the Japanese magazine goes on sale. These then get uploaded on all kinds of websites where others can read. Proponents argue this is the only way to read many of these series and/or that any generated hype is worth more than paying for a chapter. Or, sometimes, they say the official translated version isn’t good enough to support. Creators, of course, are upset that their revenue is being affected, whether immediately or in the future.
Chances are that you know all that. I’ve discussed this topic here and there over the years, and you probably already have a view on fansubs and scanlations. Either way, for creators, publishers, and other rightsholders, they’ve been trying to find ways to curb illegal versions of their works. That’s led to the advent of sites like Crunchyroll and MANGA Plus. Still, while most modern anime get official English subbed versions, there are still older titles left untouched. That doesn’t compare to the number of manga titles that are serialized each month that remain unlicensed — and a large number, maybe even a majority, will remain so forever. Definitely sad no matter your position on scanlations.
The rise of scanlations has also caused changes in Japan’s own manga market. While manga has been historically published in physical “phone book” magazines, many serializations have moved online-only, either through online magazines or via art/manga platforms like pixiv. Mellow Kiss is an example of a digital manga magazine. Published by Shueisha under the Home-Sha division, this BL-focused magazine is released in the even-numbered months. A preview of most issues can be viewed on its website, and individual issues can be purchased at most Japanese eBook vendors.
In the September 2020 issue, an artist called Shikke launched a series called Pink Heart Jam in Mellow Kiss, and it was even featured on the front over. Shikke has released three one-volume series and a fourth due out this November. Renta! has made one of their completed series, Unexpected Attraction, available in English. But Shikke has recently made the news — not so much because of a work but rather the end of one. Just before the next issue of Mellow Kiss was released, this announcement was posted on both Shikke’s and Mellow Kiss Twitter accounts:
Shikke is hardly the first artist to express their frustration with scanlations. Here’s a statement from a fellow BL artist back in March.
Still, it is very unusual for someone to pull their series because of manga pirates — especially so soon after launch. From my research, it seems the scanlation was released about a day after the magazine came out. So within about three weeks, Shikke made this decision. Their other completed work was also fan translated in full.
Out of curiosity, I went on Twitter (because it was the easiest) and searched for “Pink Heart Jam” up until the announcement date of October 16th. I counted approximately 80 uses of the phrase. A lot of those instances were in response to someone posting an image of the scanlated version with people wanting to know what manga that picture was from, so the actual number of Tweets about this series is probably closer to 150.
Now, that may not seem like much, but out of curiosity, I also wanted to search for their officially licensed work Unexpected Attraction. However, that phrase is far more ubiquitous, and so is its original Japanese title of Sex Drop. So I was forced to add on words and phrases like “Renta”, “manga”, “yaoi”, “Shikke”, and the names of the two main characters. But no matter which I entered, I could only come up with less than 10 results. I even tried adding the word “jam” and opened up to any time to see if anyone had mentioned the two together — 0 Tweets. Removing quotation marks didn’t help either.
This is despite the first chapter being released in English back in August and a free first chapter promotion at the beginning of October. Again, this is not a perfect comparison, and maybe it’s different on Instagram and TikTok, but this still represents quite a difference.
Shikke and Mellow Kiss are aiming for an official English version, so that’s good news. But I do wonder about Shikke’s future and what other creators take from this.
For manga (along with anime), there are three tiers: those which get an English version the same day as Japan, series that eventually get licensed, and those which remain forever without an English language version available. Many in the first category get licensed before their Japanese debut, especially if they’re from already a well-known creator. But a lot of the time, it’s just placing bets. Something like Spy x Family, yeah, it seems to be paying off despite the person behind it being pretty much unknown in the West. Crunchyroll obtaining the license to Ichigo Takano’s ReCollection, which seems to be permanently abandoned after three chapters…yeah, I’m sure the time and money spent on that probably could have spent on something else.
But what happens when artists start asking for English versions in order to get or continue their work? Are there going to be more internal wars as editors and license representatives have to decide whether to appease an artist by granting them an English version in order to get the rights to serialize their work? Creative fields are notoriously difficult, and people are always trying to break into the business. There will always be publishers who are willing to replace any pain-in-the-rear artists with someone less likely to cause a commotion. At the same time, it’s impractical to translate every series. As a manga fan, heck yeah, I’d love to see every new manga that comes out to be licensed. But based on Amazon’s page numbers for the last five issues, each issue of Mellow Kiss averages about 390 pages. It’s bimonthly, so that’s not nearly as high as other magazines which can be 500 pages or more monthly, biweekly, — even weekly!
Meanwhile, will Japanese fans and those who are supporting artists now need to think about creators pulling their work until an English version is approved — in essence, more creators going on strike? But in this case, assuming Pink Heart Jam does get a second chapter in English officially, what if the number of purchases/rentals don’t match what Shikke is hoping for — will they completely end the series? Shikke is working with other publishers as well (Enterbrain, Julian Publishing). But will Enterbrain and Julian Publishing want to continue in the long-term knowing if some random person in the world buys a copy of Shikke’s manga, puts English in place of the Japanese text, and uploads it into the wild, Shikke may pull their series? Even with a simulpub of Pink Heart Jam, and even if it were made free, it’s still going to end up on pirate sites.
Of course, it’s easy to understand Shikke’s frustration. They’ve only been in the business for under two years and probably are still living a fairly unstable life. To see their work plastered for free when the vast majority didn’t pay the roughly 700 yen to access Mellow Kiss must be depressing. At the same time, Shikke is hardly the only one in the same situation. Other creators almost certainly feel the exact same way, but they’ve kept pushing forward for fans who are supporting them. Yes, as a BL artist, Shikke is unlikely to reach the levels of success of an average shounen or shoujo artist, or even seinen or josei, as it’s a much smaller audience and is a genre that only receives a limited number of anime adaptations each year.
So, unfortunately, “exposure” is not going to do much when there’s not much supporting merchandise. And I’m willing to bet that all those people Tweeting, Instagraming, or TikToking about Pink Heart Jam didn’t at least hop on to Renta! to see if Shikke’s earlier work would be of interest. Especially when the first chapter was made free almost exactly one week after the scanlation of Pink Heart Jam was released and had people Tweeting about Pink Heart Jam during that time!
Still, I hope Shikke can continue their career, as the preview I saw in Mellow Kiss did look nice. But I just don’t know if that’s possible for them no matter how right they are.