Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Attack On Titan, Comics, day and date, digital, english, entertainment, scanlation

The End Of Scanlation? Attack On Titan And More Go Day And Date Digital In English

Published Fri, 08 Apr 2016 13:30:33 -0500

Last updated Fri, 08 Apr 2016 14:14:55 -0500

Kodansha Comics, comiXology and Amazon announced today the launch of new chapters from best-selling manga series to be available in English the same day they are published in Japan, on both the ComiXology as well as Amazon's Kindle Store.

Attack on Titan, Chapter 80, goes on sale today on comiXology and Kindle, the same day it appears in Bessatsu Shonen magazine in Japan. All previous chapters from the series are also available.

Seventeen Kodansha series debuting with simultaneous publication, for a total of 17. Today also sees the launch of over 1,900 chapters, creating a large library for fans that want to dive in for the first time or get caught up before the upcoming volumes digitally debut in English.

It is common for fans to create English translations of Japanese comics and distribute them illegally before the officially translated volumes are unavailable. The appeal – for these series at least – is now lessened.

"English readers can now buy chapters of their favorite manga series the same day Japanese fans are picking up new issues in convenience stores," said Alvin Lu, General Manager at Kodansha Advanced Media. "A simul-pub initiative has never been done like this before—it's effectively a new format and it's made possible by digital publishing. Doing this through comiXology and Amazon connects the global readership for this broad range of series at a level we've never seen."

"We're so excited to completely cut the wait time for English-speaking manga fans to no wait at all to read same day as Japan releases of their favorite Kodansha titles" said comiXology's Senior Director of Communication, Chip Mosher. "Immediate access to new popular Kodansha manga is something we know both comiXology and Kindle fans love and we're thrilled to be able to provide that access to manga fans everywhere on the same day all around the world."

These English translations will, however, not be available in Japan.

Here is the current schedule for release:

Weekly: