#emaqi

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds the Revenge Classroom Manga

AI localization company Orange Inc. added Karasu Yamazaki and Ryū Kaname’s Revenge Classroom manga to its emaqi e-bookstore service during the week of January 17, 2025. The story is described as: Ayana Fujisawa, a third-year middle school student, has suffered relentless bullying at the hands of her classmates. One day, she makes a fateful decision: to inflict the same hellish suffering on every…

[graphicpolicy]

Manga Tech Startup Orange, Inc. Raises $19.5 million in Pre-Series A Financing

Manga Tech Startup Orange, Inc. Raises $19.5 million in Pre-Series A Financing #manga

Orange, Inc., a manga localization technology company, today announced JPY 2.92 billion (approximately USD $19.5 million) fundraising in pre-series A financing. Orange is an entertainment technology startup from Japan dedicated to the manga industry. The company is leveraging deep-learning technology to address significant global market opportunities and historical development challenges within…

[theanimeview]

[Review] Tokyo Camouflage Hour

By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting While at AX I received a number of samplers for upcoming releases of various titles. Particularly previews for new distributors Orange Inc.’s Emaqi brand that is launching soon (if not already by the time this is posted). One of the titles I from their list of upcoming works that I liked the most is the Tokyo Camouflage Hour by Chiaki Matsumoto. This title, from…

[centrally-unplanned]

I blogged before about this company, Orange, that is an AI-powered manga translation company. Essentially, their pitch is that most manga is still (officially) untranslated, a ton of manga gets made after all but few become mainstream enough to get ported overseas. They posit the barrier to that is the cost of translation; if they could automate that process, then they can make viable for release what previously was not. That concept rests on two questions - does the tech pan out, and does the economics add up?

Recently they went live, under the name Emaqi, so we can better explore those questions. What I notice on first glance is the pitch seems to have shifted a little bit in post:

You are not the translators of Vinland Saga, Witch Hat Atelier, or Magic Knight Rayearth, very obviously so. They have Sailor Moon in here lol. These are just the official translations being cross-listed into their "manga platform", where you buy it there and it lives, DRM-locked, in their app. Which is fair enough as a model, that is just Kindle, it works. Though Kindle and a dozen others already exist, so their value-add has to be the AI translation stuff right? That is why I would choose this over another app.

Which they do have, though it is kind of buried:

"Only on emaqi" - there is no mention of the translation approach, poor guys! Can't fault the branding decision I guess given the state of the discourse. When it comes to the products themselves, I went through ~6 or so of the sample chapters of different manga, did a few spot checks with the original Japanese, and read the reviews of some others who looked into it. They seem fine! I am cautiously impressed, I think there proofers did a good job smoothing out some edges, it has a "manga tone", and while small issues like the hyphenation the reviewer above mentioned do exist and are legit noticeable, they aren't common and not a huge deal. It has flow issues? Some dialogue should link together in how it is written, but doesn't. But it isn't crazy off or anything. You will not be wowed by these, but certainly if you are someone who reads bootleg scanlations you are gonna have no problems. A lot of manga uses pretty simple vocab and isn't breaking new ground on plot, I can see how a purpose-built tool could handle it well enough.

The economics though...here is where I don't think this case was ever going to pencil out and isn't now. Because I am pretty sure no one here has heard of any of the manga listed above as exclusives. (I saw 90's manga Geobreeders in there, but that was already partially translated in the 2000's, not sure if they did a new one? Setting it aside) Which, of course you haven't, if you had it probably would have been translated! Books are a 90:10 market, most books never get read and some books get read a ton. Anything big enough can justify a professional translation, and the other can't really sell to begin with.

On top of that, their model is mass translation; which means these obscure manga are presented to you with no context, no hype, no build-up. Wtf is The Blood Blooms In the Barrens?? See, if you were like a boutique publisher, selecting "the best of the best" in untranslated manga, you would promote your specific product. Interviews, social media, the value of the brand-itself as a quality seal. Publishing less is more, actually, your value as a publisher is as a quality selector. Or you could be say the porn market, where you max quantity so people can search "foot fetish breeding kink oshi no ko" and get results; they know what they want. But they aren't doing either! And to be blunt a lot of these are not gonna sell on their art alone:

I'm not mocking The Delayed Highschool Life of a Laborer here, that is better than I could do; but if you want to me spend money on a whim the bar is high and these don't reach it. Which of course they don't, they would be professionally translated if they did.

And finally, the price - $5 dollars, for volume 1's, like a 100-200 pages. The cross-listed manga typically sells for ~$10? That isn't much cheaper! If "translation" was this big cost barrier, and all you got is cutting the price of ebooks in half, I don't know if the analysis was so solid. This is a new product, I doubt they are overcharging to make a quick buck right now - this is the "sell at cost to scale" era.

In all of their lead up press they would say things like this:

Orange's process uses AI to read the manga through image analysis and character recognition, then to translate the words into English, Chinese and other languages. The technology is specialized for manga, meaning it is able to handle wordplay and other difficult-to-translate phrases. A human translator then makes corrections and adjustments. The process can deliver a manga translation in as little as two days. Orange will work with multiple Japanese publishers. The company looks initially to complete 500 translations monthly.

But this is missing a lot of context. For one, these manga are simple high school or battle manga that are ~200 pages long, many of those pages have only a few lines of dialogue, etc. Imagine you are a professional translator, and you are given that manga to translate, all the set-up done for you, all you gotta do is write. How long do you think that would take? Not that long! It could probably take like a week if it's actually all you did (calc'd from a 10k word count manga volume, 2k is a typical "good translator" per day count - many manga are shorter than that). And note how they said "as little as two days" - not median two days! Just, you know, aspirationally.

Translation is just not a big bottleneck. You gotta do layouts, lettering, proofs, etc, these can all take just as much time - and are being done by people, they still need wage workers doing all this. But that is small fry in comparison to publishing contracts, author approvals, distribution, all of that. And most importantly, product acquisition - you have to get authors to sign with you! That can be months of work. I am sure they are trying to get bulk agreements with publishers and such, but authors will push back on that, this is not an easy endeavor.

Which is why, in above, they say they hope to have "500 translations monthly". And after a year+ of work, on launch, they have...

...18. As best I can tell at least, their site deliberately obfuscates what they actually translated versus are just hosting for resale after all.

So yeah, as mentioned I don't think the economics pencil out. These aren't worth $5 dollars, they can't actually generate volume that makes "massive economies of scale" actually valuable, and their approach is currently antithetical to the idea of generating traction for any of their individual works. Niche publishing just doesn't work this way.

But it is early days, and hey I respect the experiment! I do think the tech is pretty good, and it is nice to see a company showcase it. It isn't quite good enough yet for prime time, but it could get there. I do want more manga to get exposure and audience; I will give a fair shake to any who try.

[augusttalescomics]

Orange Inc.'s emaqi Adds Features to e-Bookstore Service

Reincarnating Histories: A Fresh Twist on Feudal Japan through Manga

In the bustling world of manga, originality is key. "Tensei! Hanbei Takenaka: Surviving the Warring Feudal Japan with Fellow Tensei Warlords" brings a unique reincarnation tale. This manga, crafted by Yu Aoyama and illustrated by Akira Kazumiya, was first unveiled in 2019 on Futabasha’s Gaugau Monster website. Its innovative…

[tenichitsukimi]

(オレンジ、総額29.2億円の資金調達を実施。マンガ翻訳規模の拡大を目指すから) 「マンガに特化したローカライズ支援ツール」を開発するオレンジが資金調達を実施

調達資金は、自社独自ツールを用いたマンガ翻訳の規模を拡大に活用

翻訳作品を広めるための電子マンガストア「emaqi」も今夏に米国でローンチ予定

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds The Revenge Widow Manga

AI localization company Orange Inc. has added Kurosawa R’s The Revenge Widow manga to its emaqi e-bookstore service during the week of January 10, 2025. The manga is described as: Revenge feels good – or at least, that’s what Mitsu Suzuki, a talented contract engineer at an IT company, believes. In fact, Mitsu has infiltrated the company with a hidden agenda: To settle the score with every person…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds the Tensei! Hanbei Takenaka Manga

AI localization company Orange Inc. added Yu Aoyama and Akira Kazumiya’s Tensei! Hanbei Takenaka: Surviving the Warring Feudal Japan with Fellow Tensei Warlords manga to its emaqi e-bookstore service during the week of December 27, 2024. Tensei! Hanbei Takenaka: Surviving the Warring Feudal Japan with Fellow Tensei Warlords is described as: An unambitious office worker in his 30’s awakens one day…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds the Prison Lab Manga in English

AI localization company Orange Inc. added Kantetsu and Chiho Minase’s Prison Lab manga to its emaqi e-bookstore service during the week of December 20, 2024. Prison Lab is described as: On the last day of summer break, Aito Eyama, a high school student crushed by relentless bullying, receives a mysterious letter. It’s an invitation to the “Confinement Game” – a twisted challenge allowing…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds the Doreiku Manga in English

AI localization company Orange Inc. has added Shinichi Okada and Hiroto Ōishi’s Doreiku manga to its emaqi e-bookstore service during the week of December 13, 2024. The manga is described as: “Anyone want a ‘servant’?” You don’t need a genius-level intellect or superhuman strength. With a device called SCM, any victor can claim their opponent as a servant. 24 contestants have gotten their hands…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds the Isekai Craftsman: A Relaxing Tale of Chilling and Building from scratch Manga in English

AI localization company Orange Inc. has added Rin Tateyama’s manga adaptation of Aroe and Neru Izumo’s Isekai Craftsman: A Relaxing Tale of Chilling and Building from scratch light novel series to its emaqi e-bookstore service during the week of December 6, 2024. The manga is described as: Miyabi, a “Crafter” who built his dream buildings in a VRMMO universe, suddenly finds himself transported to…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Announces New Additions for the Week of November 29, 2024

AI localization company Orange Inc. has announced two new manga releases for the week of November 29, 2024 for its new e-bookstore service emaqi: Title: Dívčí Válka: Maidens’ War Creator: Kouichi Ohnishi Publisher: Futabasha Synopsis: In 1420 Bohemia, 12-year-old Šárka’s world is shattered when her family falls victim to the ravages of war. Guided by the legendary Hussite hero Jan Žižka, she…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior Manga

AI localization company Orange Inc. has announced one new manga release for the week of November 22, 2024 for its new e-bookstore service emaqi: The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior. The manga is described as: When Usa’s left to live “alone” in a shared house due to his parents’ job transfer, he finds himself surrounded by a bunch of weirdos and perverts. But wait. His crush,…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds the Bouncer Manga

AI localization company Orange Inc. has announced one new manga release for the week of November 15, 2024 for its new e-bookstore service emaqi: Bouncer -Tokyo Fist-. The manga is described as: Meet Joichiro Shishido, a 19-year-old delinquent whose brutal honesty has gotten him fired from 26 temp jobs in a row. He’s an impatient good-for-nothing, but this half-baked young man is about to learn…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds the Crime and Punishment Manga

AI localization company Orange Inc. has announced one new manga release for the week of November 8, 2024 for its new e-bookstore service emaqi: Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance (a manga adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel Crime and Punishment). The manga is described as: Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance tells the story of Miroku Tachi, a once-promising…

[ljaesch]

Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds the Anesthesiologist Hana Manga

AI localization company Orange Inc. has announced that its new e-bookstore service emaqi has added the Anesthesiologist Hana manga. The manga is described as: Amidst a healthcare crisis, the shortage of anesthesiologists is particularly dire. This manga dives into their grueling daily lives through the eyes of Hanako Hanaoka, an anesthesiologist at a university hospital. With a perfect blend of…