ok the whole manga piracy thing is getting me heated so let me just say:

1) the argument about supporting the creators conveniently forgets how people cannot afford to support their favorite creators, whether it be money, language or even location barriers.

2) for example: mangaplus is free to an extent. you get 6 chapters. the first three chapters or a series, then the three most recent chapters. then the rest is paywalled.

3) how would one who can’t afford a subscription get access to those chapters? what if their local library doesn’t have those books physical or digital? what if it isn’t available in their country? in their language? you’re still gonna ask them to use mangaplus?

4) what if buying multiple volumes is too expensive? what if the secondhand shop (that doesn’t directly support creators fyi) doesn’t have them?

5) so why is the blame always on consumers? why aren’t we talking about the barriers to access? why aren’t we talking about paying creators and translators fairly? it always seems to be protecting the corporation first rather than the people to buy and create.

6) i think a lot of nuance is lost when talking about piracy, and why it happens. it always needs to focus on the bad eggs who complain about the translation. rather then the fact there is actually accessibility issues.

7) for example: i’ve read that a lot of people like the color version of the one piece manga because its easier for them to follow then the black and white version. however that isn’t available outside japan. what audience might viz be losing because of that?

8) i just dislike this demonization of secondhand shops and libraries because they don’t necessarily support the creator. however, but banking on libraries, you can actually make manga even more accessible to people

9) my library used to have a subscription to SJ back in the late 2000’s, my family couldn’t afford to buy manga so i took a lot of books and the SJ magazine out from the library. its how i got caught up on naruto!

10) the piracy debate gets grossly classist, and its such a backpedal from a lot of things i see on this site. people will object to n(f)ts but then slam down hard on piracy without considering the implications.

11) its difficult because creators deserve to be paid, but why again is it on the consumer to pay most of their bills? why aren’t they getting paid more? what most people are offering in telling people to support the creator is just a stopgap. it doesn’t solve that issue.

12) anyway, my point it, question why people are pirating what can we do to make it more accessible to all rather than creating stopgaps that only worsen the discourse.

13) in conclusion: support ur library. get the rich to pay more in taxes so ur library can but more manga. and see if libraries can get subscriptions to manga apps. stop blaming poor people for not being able to support their faves financially. eat the rich, blame corporate more.

14) afterthought: i need to repeat this: translation is a shitty ass reason for supporting piracy, fyi. your opinion doesn’t matter here.