Machigatta author Ko wo Mahou Shoujo ni Shiteshimatta spoke out against piracy

Through his Twitter account, the author Souryuu (Machigatta Ko wo Mahou Shoujo ni Shiteshimatta) commented on manga piracy.

To foreigners who believe that piracy is their right. You're wrong. The more you preach it, the more Japanese artists lose faith in the foreign market. To my real fans, thank you for your support, and make sure to tell those people that piracy hurts artists. https://t.co/hFCoyeD7Ry

— 双龍@マチマホ8巻4/9㈭発売 (@Souryu_STD) April 20, 2020

Translation

For those foreigners who believe that they have the right to consume piracy. You are wrong. The more they distribute and consume it, the more Japanese artists lose their faith in the foreign market. To my true fans, thank you for your support, and be sure to tell those people that piracy hurts artists.

In fact, the author posted this comment in response to a statement released by Irodori Comics stating the following:

海賊版漫画に対する声明 #拡散希望

We have received reports from artists that they are being harassed by piracy advocates who are angry that the artists' works are being removed from piracy websites.

These harassment will give a bad image to all foreign fans.

1/16

— Irodori Comics 「イロ鳥コミックス」 (@irodoricomics) April 20, 2020

Thread translation

We have received information from artists who are being harassed by piracy advocates, upset that artists' works are being removed from websites that illegally distribute these works.

This harassment leaves a bad image of foreign fans. The scanlation (scanning and subsequent translation) of the manga has favored the way of distributing the manga abroad. But when an official distribution is made, the scanlations will go directly against the Japanese artists.

Our artists are always excited about how well their works will be received abroad and how many copies they will sell. But official releases that compete with scanlations always sell less than those that are not yet illegally distributed.

It is for this very reason that Irodori Comics always advocates the removal of scanlations from our existing and planned releases. And at the request of the artists, we also do it with the Japanese versions.

Each original doujinshi that has been removed are works that the authors have provided us with or titles that we plan to release in the future. The Japanese versions are removed because the biggest problem with hacking sites is the Japanese, being the source of the rest. Artists have seen an increase in their sales when scanned versions are not yet available on hacking sites.

Irodori Comics gains nothing by removing these scans. But we do it because we care about the artists with whom we work directly. This means being committed to doing everything possible to ensure that artists receive the remuneration they deserve for their works.

We have been announcing many new artists recently. This is because the doujinshi community is spreading the fact that Irodori Comics is supporting artists and connecting them with their foreign fans by releasing their works in English.

More and more artists have been interested in releasing their works abroad and have been able to deliver official versions of their work to fans outside of Japan. There are also artists who were previously against this and who are also recently part of this distribution.

On the other hand, artists are not at all happy when they receive "messages from fans" who, in fact, know their works when reading them from piracy sites. They do not consider them their fans, since fans are those who pay for the artist's work. If you are a manga reader through hacking sites, at least have the decency not to tell the author.

There is a great difference of opinion when discussing the effects of piracy on the job. Different industries have different points of view. For Irodori Comics, we have seen excellent results removing the works. And artists have increased their profits in Japan when scans are removed.

With so many new authors trying their luck in the western market, we want to continue to show an increase in demand and popularity for official releases. This will encourage more artists to launch their projects and perhaps also dare to publish them outside of Japan.

To summarize, Irodori Comics neither supports nor is against the scanlation community. In undeniable that the foreign market would not exist if it were not for it. However, the scanlation of works already released abroad does nothing to help artists since it stops serving as advertising and becomes competition.

It's very rare to see uncensored hentai manga officially released in the west. The least we can do is respect the artist's effort to give him an opportunity in the foreign market. The way official releases are sold today affects the number of artists who will get a chance to participate in the market outside of Japan.

Irodori Comics includes the artist in the translation process of his doujinshi, to ensure a faithful translation to the original intentions of the author. That is why we do not have policies, a participation agenda, or anything like that in our projects. That is the work of others.

We have already spoken with some relevant groups of scanlation and have shared with them the works that our artists will publish in the future. If they want to scan works of art to expose the artists that are not on the list that we provide, we have no problem with it.

Finally, for all fans of artists who buy official products, thank you very much! Each purchase directly helps the authors, and encourages them to continue participating in the foreign market. Thank you for buying official releases and supporting the doujinshi industrial.

About Machigatta Ko wo Mahou Shoujo ni Shiteshimatta

Souryuu began publishing the Machigatta Ko wo Mahou Shoujo ni Shiteshimatta manga on Shinchosha publisher's Kurage Bunch website in October 2016. The publisher published the eighth compilation volume on April 9 and released a commemorative promotional video: