Key Takeaways:

• Shogakukan and other investors contribute 2.92 billion RMB to support an AI translation company, aiming to combat manga piracy and assist manga artists in going international!
• Orange is a startup focused on AI-assisted translation.
• UniFans also has AI translation, and it is free to use!

Manga Market in the Next 5 Years

According to the latest report by the Nikkei, leading publisher Shogakukan, along with the government fund JIC and eight other companies, have invested a total of 2.92 billion RMB in the emerging enterprise Orange, which specializes in AI translation of manga. The company is expected to announce detailed investment plans and future frameworks tomorrow, aiming to use AI technology to quickly translate and publish Japanese manga, thereby cutting off the spread of pirated versions.

The Japanese publishing industry has long been severely affected by piracy. Particularly with the surge in anime popularity in regions like North America, the issue of piracy has become increasingly severe. According to data from the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), the direct economic loss from piracy in 2022 reached up to 800 billion yen.

Additionally, the Tokyo District Court recently ordered the operator of "Manga Village" to pay 1.7 billion yen in damages, further deepening public negative perceptions of piracy. In response, major Japanese publishers have begun taking proactive measures to protect cultural industries such as manga and animation from infringement.

Translating manga is costly and time-consuming. Currently, out of over 700,000 manga titles published in Japan, only about 14,000 have been translated into English. This has allowed many works to be circulated in pirated form before the official translations are released.

The AI translation technology used by the funded company, Orange, can complete manga translations at one-tenth the cost and time, significantly enhancing translation efficiency. The company plans to translate and publish 50,000 works over the next five years and aims to launch services in the U.S. this summer.

By accelerating the overseas promotion of legitimate manga, not only can the development of Japan's manga industry be promoted, but creators' rights can also be better protected. JIC stated that such measures against piracy would effectively enhance the international competitiveness of Japan's content industry.

What is Orange AI company?

Orange is a startup focused on AI-assisted translation, established in 2021. The company utilizes advanced artificial intelligence technology, using image analysis and character recognition to read and translate manga, greatly reducing the time and cost of translation, sometimes completing the process in just two days. Orange's AI translation technology is specially designed for manga, capable of handling complex puns and difficult-to-translate phrases, with human translators then making corrections and adjustments.

The company is led by a developer who previously worked for the game publisher Colopl, and its team includes manga editors, AI engineers, and translators. Orange aims to complete 500 manga translations monthly and plans to begin distribution in the U.S. this summer through the emaqi app, with the translated titles also being sold on e-book platforms managed by other publishers.

Additionally, Orange plans to expand its business to Spanish-speaking countries and India. According to a report by Humanmedia in Tokyo, the total export value of Japan's content industry was 4.7 trillion yen in 2022, with manga and other publications contributing 320 billion yen. With the widespread adoption of AI-assisted translation and electronic distribution, manga can be exported overseas immediately after publication in Japan, not only speeding up international distribution but also helping to prevent piracy.

UniFans AI Translation

Like any AI tool, tailoring it for specific communities requires significant effort. UniFans AI translator has been carefully fine-tuned, including for specific terms in niche communities. For example, in collaboration with Chinese writers, we created datasets containing translation pairs. Without such fine-tuning, AI translators are more likely to generate hallucinations, producing outputs unrelated to the input provided in your chatbot. Each post can accommodate up to 6000 tokens, equivalent to 4500 Chinese characters or 30000 English characters.