Inside Scanlation

barbapapa: I'm barbapapa, and that's about the only name I've ever had in the community. I'm kind of a jack of all trades, in that I've edited, proofread, QC'ed, scanned, and aim to be a translator one day. Groups I've done this for are KEFI, where my scanlating "roots" lie, so to speak; MangaScreener, SnoopyCool, Reimu and maybe a few others I can't remember helping out.

barbapapa: I think at first it was more of a side project of ocean's, who created it as a sort of a gateway to post translations or at most a few one-shots. Afterwards it became a bit more of a genuine scanlation group with the addition of some bigger names, but with it came the extra baggage of a demanding fanbase and a larger workload. So eventually, when ocean stepped down from his functions, we decided to focus on the few seinen projects we were doing at the time. Projects that would otherwise never get translated by anyone at the time; even though times are changing, there's still a lot of uncovered territory out there, but people keep dabbling in the same, moldy water.

barbapapa: When I joined I was surrounded by experienced people who held certain scanlation ethics high, so it was the best possible environment for a newbie like myself at the time. I learned a lot there about scanlating, not just how to edit. I think I kind of got spoiled in the groups I was a part of, in that I never really opened up to "less experienced" groups anymore, afterwards.

barbapapa: We're still alive, technically. :p

barbapapa: What I know from MangaScreener's history is whatever info has been passed down to me. It's a long history, of 2 eras if you will. As most of the early scanlation groups, the primary aim was to get English translated manga noticed, so it was important to do projects that have a larger target audience. One Piece, and the likes.

When the community boomed for the first time, there was an eventual shift of focus to digging for underrated and overlooked seinen manga, mostly spurred on by experienced translators who were already part of the group IIRC.

barbapapa: Before MangaScreener I was already a part of several other groups, so when I joined my outlook didn't drastically change. The most important thing that only got confirmed to me by reading, and eventually working on MS projects, is that individuality, and trying to broaden your horizons is the only way to keep a hobby interesting.

There's been a huge spur of new groups that come and go who create "fast food" scanlations; a race to get the material to the readers as quickly as possible, sacrificing quality for quantity. No one really seems to know, or care what the incentive to scanlate was in the first place. Places like MangaHelpers originally had very good intentions, but they quickly became places that spurred every John Doe on to try their hand at scanlating, no matter their motivation. Uncaring whether a project was being done, legally or slightly less so by 10 groups already. In the end it became a matter of "Me, me, me, now, now, now."

barbapapa: I guess we became kind of an oddball group, only appreciated by a select group of readers that are into a different kind of comics; but I'd like to think we were more than that. We were a group that still held their old school values high and always aimed to look beyond what was on the surface.

barbapapa: The same problems any group that depends on volunteers encounters—people moving on, and needing replacement to warrant a continued existence.

barbapapa: Life at MangaScreener was pretty basic. When I joined the group, we were a bunch of experienced scanlators so there were never any major complications. Scripts and scans would get posted on the FTP dump, from there on the assigned editor conjured up a chapter which received a final quality check by our main guy. After that it's release time. Everyone knew what they were doing, so it was a smooth operation.

barbapapa: That's very subjective. I always felt MangaScreener as a project was the most influential, to those who opened up to it; most projects we did tried to redefine what the community perceived as manga. That said, in the end it all came down to quality storytelling in places you wouldn't expect.

barbapapa: A joint project is a difficult situation. It's a great way of dividing the work, but if it doesn't work out (which you never know beforehand) you just wish you could just wash your hands of the entire matter. Different groups work in different ways, and a lack of communication is the worst ingredient. The only reason most joints have worked out for us in the past, is because just like in our own group, everyone knew each other and it was more like a group of friends joining efforts to promote a hobby they love.

barbapapa: I never knew Ian too well, as he was more in charge of ye olde MangaScreener. But flyingrobots, who took over after Ian, and ended up translating every project we did was pretty much the first person I really got to know in the group. Our taste in manga often aligned, so I always found some excuse to idle in the IRC channel before I joined and spark up a conversation. I guess, without his translations, I would've never found out about some of my all-time favorite manga. His contributions to the community are, in my opinion (and not just mine) of immense value. I don't think I've ever met anyone with his amount of dedication, and workload. But in the end he's just a guy who loves manga enough to spend countless hours on it.

barbapapa: Anyone's guess really. If lightning struck twice on the same place, we might find new help, and manage to continue. There are still a few people left willing to, but I wouldn't hold your breath until something concrete is going on.

barbapapa: It's more a question of ethics, than rules. I can understand if there are people that get impatient waiting for their favorite manga to be released, but more often than not those people just ignore the group that's already spent a lot of time and effort on a project, but have fallen short a staff member. Instead of simply offering to join forces, they just start their own group, and eventually face the same problems. I feel it's more illogical than wrong.

barbapapa: Shortly after I joined KEFI and felt confident enough in my own skills, I sort of made it my goal to join MangaScreener, as I looked up to their choices of manga. Luckily after a while, flyingrobots asked if I was interested in editing a new project he was working on.

barbapapa: With publishers being more aggressive in their licensing choices, I feel that the quality of scanlating is only going to decline even more as people with common sense will deem it useless to start new projects. But there will always be exceptions, and hopefully a new batch of scanlators will make the stage and manage to find those hidden lumps of gold everyone seems to have walked passed.