For years Shueisha and Kodansha, two of the largest manga publishers, have been attempting to shut down leaks of upcoming chapters to little success. But in a shocking report out of the Kumatomo prefecture in Tokyo, foreign nationals have been arrested for taking illegally obtained scans of Shonen Jump and uploading them to the internet.
The Kumamoto Prefectural police department also uploaded photos of their operation in which they revealed these leakers were providing scans of One Piece & Jujutsu Kaisen in order to send to unofficial scanlation(fan-made sub) groups in the West. These groups would then translate the chapter and re-upload to audiences often in the US & Latin America several days before the official release in Japan.
The X account of TCB Scans, one of the more well-known scanlation groups, initially responded to the news by stating they would no longer be providing leaks for Shonen Jump chapters on Wednesdays. However, they have since deleted the tweet, so it’s unknown if they simply wished not to draw attention to themselves or if they’ve been able to secure the help of other leakers in Japan.
For a long time, fans of manga scanlation groups were always a boon to audiences outside of Japan, but I wish sites like VIZ made their entire catalog available to the West for $1.99 a month. It’s become a far more accessible fandom. While some may say scanlation groups have no place in the manga fandom today, many more would disagree.
On the one hand, there are many manga titles that have no official US release, including titles like Karate Survivor In Another World. And also for a long time, the Western audience has complained of localizers making changes to the original Japanese text. The official translations are not always accurate and have sometimes made intentional changes that altered the author’s original intent.
The best example of this would be the character of Yamato in One Piece, who has been repeatedly labeled as a man in spite of series creator Oda-sensei making it clear this is not the case through commentary and the official Vivre card for the character. But even with this information, sites like Kotaku focus only on faulty Western translations in an attempt to confuse Western fans.
That being said, it is true that by taking scans and uploading them to the internet days before the official release, scanlation groups are in violation of Japan’s Copyright Act. Is this the end of manga leaks as we know it? Or will scanlation groups like TCB Scans find a new source of leaks and continue to provide translations for their fans?
I’m not at all surprised by this.