Manga piracy, which steals from creators, is a major problem in Japan and abroad. Even though there are many legal places to get manga, people continue to illegally download it online, including at the massive Japanese site Mangamura. While Mangamura has been shut down, the …Read more »
Now that it’s 2022, numbers are being crunched to see how many manga sold last year . . . and how many were illegally read through piracy sites. The results are pretty sobering. All that piracy in 2021 bilked manga creators and publishers out of …Read more »
Piracy is a major issue hitting the manga and anime worlds, especially during COVID with so many people homebound. Take a look at these numbers: from January to October last year, piracy in Japan bilked creators and publishers out of 800 billion yen (about $6.92 …Read more »
The Manga-Anime Guardians Project (MAGP) is aiming to promote and raise awareness of piracy concerns in Japan and abroad, and they’ve enlisted the help of some familiar characters in a new campaign. The amphibious aliens of Sgt. Frog are zipping in for a new “Stop! …Read more »
Ken Akamatsu, the mangaka behind Love Hina, Negima! and more, recently expressed an interest in running for public office to protect creators’ freedom of expression. Whether he does that or not, he’s already doing other work that’s meant to protect creators. He put a lawsuit …Read more »
Earlier this month we reported that Japanese publisher Shueisha filed a legal application with Google, as well as with Hurricane Electric, in their attempts to fight piracy. In particular in this case, they are interested in going after the piracy site Manga Bank and people …Read more »
There are reports that publisher Shueisha filed a legal application with Google, as well as with Hurricane Electric, which is an internet service provider. Gigazine and TorrentFreak initially reported the story, then it was picked up by Anime News Network. Apparently Shueisha is doing this …Read more »
The administrator of the manga piracy website Manga-Mura was recently sentenced to three years plus major fines after costing the manga industry $2.93 billion in damages. However, since his arrest other manga piracy sites have popped up and exploded during COVID-19. The Japanese news outlet …Read more »
Ukyou Kodachi formerly wrote for the Boruto manga, and he’s also written scripts for Fate/Grand Order and is behind the series composition for SEVEN KNIGHTS REVOLUTION: Hero Successor. He regularly tweets to his 22,000 followers, but while most of his tweets are in Japanese, he …Read more »
Piracy is a major issue manga has to deal with, especially when it comes to digital piracy. But now Weekly Shonen Jump is saying that pirated physical copies of all 23 volumes of Demon Slayer are being sold online, including with some Amazon vendors. The …Read more »
It’s been a couple months since Japan’s most notorious manga pirate, Romi Hoshino, was arrested in the Philippines. There have been plenty of developments in the story since, and the latest has Hoshino back in Japan as a result of a forcible repatriation flight from Manilla …Read more »
Typically when you read about a One Piece pirate being arrested, it’s the Navy’s problem. The notorious criminals in question end up in the impenetrable underwater prison Impel Down, and that’s that. In this case, however, the subject is another suspected pirate of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga. The …Read more »
Back in July of last year we posted about the creation of Manga-Anime Guardians , an initiative started by the Japanese government in order to reduce piracy of anime and manga online. Manga-Anime Guardians have now reported about their progress for the first time. In …Read more »
Estimating losses in the trillions of yen due to piracy of anime and manga, the Japanese government, plus a coalition of anime companies, will begin a five-month crackdown campaign starting in August. The campaign will mostly focus on websites in China where anime and manga …Read more »
Roman Album book cover for the 1979 Galaxy Express 999 movie. Boffo b.o.! Call me old-fashioned, nostalgic, or just plain crazy IF YOU WILL, but I just can’t stop thinking about the year 1980 and what it meant to anime, manga, and Japanese pop culture …Read more »
Danica Davidson
Joseph Luster
Matt Schley
Patrick Macias