'Attack on Titan' Manga News: New Chapters in English Get Same-Day Release as Original Japanese
Fans living in the west no longer need to wait for fans who speak Japanese to post fan-made translations of the manga series "Attack on Titan" as they used to do in previous chapters of the series. Because of a momentous deal between Kodansha Comics and comiXology, an Amazon company, English-speaking fans of the series will be getting the translated chapters in English on the same day that the original chapters are released in Japan. According to a report in Comic Book Resources, Chapter 80 of "Attack on Titan" was available on April 8 via the comiXology store and the Amazon Kindle Store.
According to another report in Engadget, fans can now download Chapter 80 and opened through the comiXology or the Kindle app. Previous chapters can also be bought or downloaded. The next chapters will be available for download as soon as it is released in Japan.
Typically, English-speaking fans would request their Japanese counterparts to "scan and translate" thus the term "scanlation" and share this online. The Japanese publisher would only consider localizing in English if a title is popular enough, which naturally takes a while before it comes out.
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In a press release by Kodansha Comics, the U.S. imprint of the Japanese company, it also announced that aside from "Attack on Titan," there are 16 other series that will be getting the same "simulpub" treatment. Aside from the English chapters of new chapters, around 1,900 chapters of different series are also available in English. Alvin Lu, General Manager of Kodansha Advanced Media said that this is the first time that a "simulpub initiative" has been done. He added, "It's effectively a new format and it's made possible by digital publishing. Doing this through comiXology and Amazon connects the global readership for this broad range of series at a level we've never seen."
The other series include weekly series such as "Fairy Tail", "The Seven Deadly Sins;" bi-weekly series such as "Space Brothers" and "Inuyashiki;" monthly series such as "Attack on Titan" and "The Heroic Legend of Arslan;" and semi-regular series such as "Princess Jellyfish."
