海賊版漫画に対する声明 #拡散希望

We have received reports from artists that they are being harassed by piracy advocates who are angry that the artists' works are being removed from piracy websites.

These harassment will give a bad image to all foreign fans.

1/16
Scanlation of manga did pave the way for its popularity overseas. But when official releases are available, or will be made available in the near future, scanlations go directly against the wishes of the Japanese artists.

2/16
Our artists are always excited about how well they are received overseas and how many copies they sell.

But official releases that compete with scanlations always sell less that those that don't have a "free version" available.

3/16
This is why Irodori Comics takes down English scanlations of our existing and planned releases. And by the request of artists, remove the Japanese RAWs.

Every original doujinshi taken down are works that the author has given us data for, and titles we will be releasing.

4/16
Japanese Raws are removed because some of the biggest users of piracy websites are actually Japanese. Artists have seen an increase in sales when Japanese raws aren't readily available on piracy sites. Platforms like FANZA/Melonbooks are also starting to take down works.

5/16
Irodori Comics doesn't gain anything by removing Japanese RAWs. But we do so because we care about the artists we work directly with. That means doing what we can to make sure the artists are getting paid for their works even for sales in Japan.

6/16
We have been announcing a lot of new artists recently. That's because word is spreading within the doujinshi community about how Irodori Comics supports artists and connects them to their foreign fans by releasing their works in English.

7/16
More and more artists are interested in getting their works published overseas and being able to deliver official versions of their work to their fans abroad.

There are also artists, who were previously reluctant to publish overseas, who are now giving it a go.

8/16
Artists aren't happy when they receive "fan messages" from people who read their works for "free".

They don't consider them as fans.

Fans are those who pay for an artist's work.

If you did read the scans, at least have the decency to not say it to the author.

9/16
There are many opinions regarding the effect of piracy on works. Different industries see different results.

For Irodori Comics, we have seen positive results when scanlations are taken down. And the artists have seen increased sales in JP when Raws are removed.

10/16
With many new authors dipping their toes into the Western market, we want to keep showing the increase in demand and popularity of official releases.

This will encourage more artists to release their works overseas and maybe even attend foreign cons.

11/16
To summarize, Irodori Comics neither supports or hates the scanlation community. There would have been no foreign manga market without it.

But scanlating works with official releases doesn't help the artists whatsoever. It's not exposure but direct competition.

12/16
It's rare to see official uncensored hentai being released in the West. The least we can do is to respect the artist's endeavor in giving the Western market a chance.

How official releases sell today, affects how many artists give the foreign market a go in the future.

13/16
Irodori Comics includes the artist in the translation process of their doujinshi to best translate the author's intent and nuance.

That's why we don't have politics, agenda pushing, or any of that in our works. We leave that to others.

14/16
We have already spoken to some notable scanlation groups and have shared which authors we are/will publish in the near future. If they want to scanlate works to give exposure to artists that aren't picked up, or to share parody works, that's up to them.

15/16
To all our artists' fans who are buying the official releases, THANK YOU.

Every purchase you make helps the artists, and encourages more of them to publish overseas.

Thank you for buying the official releases and supporting the doujinshi industry.

16/16
You can follow @irodoricomics.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: