‘Stop! Manga Piracy’ Campaign Prints Thank You Ads in Newspapers in 4 Countries – Interest

Since the widespread adoption of high-speed Internet, Japanese publishers have been working to prevent their manga from being distributed on piracy websites. The efforts have yielded mixed results, including when those publishers banded together for the “Stop! Manga Piracy” campaign in 2019. Still, the publishers do acknowledge readers who strive to read manga in legal ways. On July 17, the campaign released an ad internationally to thank those readers.

According to the Japanese website Comic Natalie, the Stop! Manga Piracy Thank You message appeared in newspapers in the United States, Italy, Spain, and France. The campaign’s X (formerly Twitter) account also posted the thank you message in the corresponding languages (English, Italian, Spanish, and French), along with info on the newspapers in which fans could find the ad.

This is a wonderful sentiment from the manga publishers involved in the campaign. However, English-speaking manga fans were not without their criticisms. The X/Twitter account July July July, aaaaaah and stuff (@AmiPiki1118) responded to the Stop! Manga Piracy accounts post by saying:

Other X/Twitter users were a bit harsher and less specific with their criticisms. X/Twitter user DJ Sumares (@DJ_SSumares) responded by saying, “It is so funny to see this. I would like to ask, what have YOU done to improve the accessibility to manga outside of Japan?” Another user, Ogata the Wildcat (@Wildcat_Ogata), also opined on the limited access to English translations of manga saying, “Piracy would be a lot less common if more series were licensed. There’s loads of series I’d love to have physically but there’s no English version so piracy would be my only option.” X/Twitter user Absolutely Noah Vale (@AdHocAdHominem) cheekily responded with a gif of Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise.

One X/Twitter user, Rej (@RegM0613) was critical of several replies to the initial Stop! Manga Piracy post. Although the user is a bit vulgar, he or she notes, “Mfs in the replies still gonna lick the boots of their scanlator-samas who are just pests who’re the reason there’s less titles getting licensed. OFFICIALLY translated manga (DIGITALLY) in English has been around for years. you all acting you can’t access them. Quit yapping.” So, there’s a clear divide among the English-speaking manga fandom regarding the message from the Stop! Manga Piracy campaign.

This is a noteworthy gesture by the Stop! Manga Piracy campaign to manga fans around the world. However, there is some legitimacy to the criticism’s made regarding the advertisement. There is a limited number of official English translations of manga. And those manga series that are translated are generally the popular series in Japan. But we also must consider the amount of official manga translations currently available. And while the content isn’t always presented in the most ideal manner, it is better than nothing. It could be much worse after all. We could go back to the days where it was just according to keikaku (Translator’s note: keikaku means plan).

Sources: Stop! Manga Piracy’s X/Twitter account (link 2, link 3, link 4), Comic Natalie, July July July, aaaaaah and stuff’s X/Twitter account, DJ Sumares’s X/Twitter account, Ogata the Wildcat’s X/Twitter account, Absolutely Noah Vale’s X/Twitter account, Rej’s X/Twitter account