Manga piracy has long been a controversial issue. It is often claimed that the illegal uploads of unlicensed titles would not harm the creators, but mangaka Gino808 now denies this on Twitter.
Mangaka Do Not Work On A Voluntary Basis
Gino808 gained notoriety in Japan in recent years through its manga series “Yukionna to Kani wo Kurau” and “Doteibanashi. As these have not yet been licensed in the West, the works cannot, therefore, be read legally in a language other than Japanese. Online, however, there are already English fan translations.
In several posts on his Twitter account, the mangaka now explained that he would prefer fans not to read his works before they do so illegally: “I want pirated manga to disappear. Even if they continue to be posted, that would be fine if people just wouldn’t read them.”
He continued: “If you don’t want to read my manga so much that you want to spend money on it, it’s a sign that me and my manga aren’t good enough for you. You have to make this decision for yourself. If you think that the manga is good enough to read it as a pirated copy, then I don’t want you to read it.”
Gino808 explained that the right to publish a translation is exclusively for the publisher and the author: “Please do not translate a work without permission. As long as the publisher does not publish a translated version, it does not exist.”
He added that reading illegal uploads harms not only the mangaka itself, but also his assistants, who, like the author, have put years of their lives into the work. You always have to struggle not to get into the red.
The author explained that he and his colleagues do not work on a voluntary basis, but create a “valuable product”. “I often hear people say they are stealing manga because they want to spread the recognition for it,” he said, but this is hypocritical.
