On Tuesday, a Japanese startup announced plans to utilize artificial intelligence to speed up the translation of manga comics into English while significantly reducing costs. The market for mangas in Japan is expected to be worth $42.2 billion by 2030, as reported by Orange Inc., which is one of the major players in the industry.
Despite the popularity of mangas, only two percent of Japan’s annual output of 700,000 manga volumes are released in English due to the challenging and time-consuming translation process and a scarcity of translators. Orange’s technology aims to increase the production of English-language mangas to 500 per month, which is five times higher than the current industry capacity, with a target of 50,000 volumes in five years before expanding to other languages.
Translating manga poses unique difficulties due to the complexity of translating Japanese conversational language that often contains slang and short sentences. Moreover, determining whether spoken lines were actually said in a scene or represent internal thoughts can be a challenge. Additionally, the original text being written vertically and conveying Japanese sound effects into English add to the complexity.
Orange secured 2.92 billion yen ($19 million) in funding from major publisher Shogakukan and nine venture capital groups, including the government-backed JIC Venture Growth Investments. The startup’s AI tool not only promises to increase translation efficiency but also aims to combat piracy in the manga industry, which is estimated to be worth $5.5 billion annually according to Content Overseas Distribution Association.