2ch on One Manga: “Good Riddance to Foreign Thieves!”

2ch’s usual scathing response lends some insight as to how the closure of the world’s biggest manga piracy site sits with Japanese manga fans.

As ever, not all of their opinions are based on sound information or reason:

“Won’t they just start another site under a new name?”

“The biggest illegal distributor online, eh? Hurry up and destroy the rest.”

“Teach them the consequences of serious crime!”

“Just deleting them won’t stop it – the data will live on forever. You have to put in place fines and make it a serious crime or you’ll never stamp it out. It’s the same with music and movies.”

“With the major source gone I expect the small ones will die off too.”

“Scanlation won’t disappear, but a billion monthly page views is obviously going too far.”

“The industry has brought this strange situation upon itself by not seeking damages. Being forced to pay damages would have set a precedent and discouraged them from being so brazen.”

“Now get rid of Megauploader – they are busy making money off fansubs!”

“Manga is wasted on foreigners. Those outside Japan should stick to reading manhwa!”

“With a billion page views they must have been rolling in it. Best to sue them.”

“The reason it came to this is probably because this content is only that of the yellow races. They should have sued first like Nintendo. They’ve probably got used to scanlation so it’s no good now.”

“Good move. Now do it more with music and movies too.”

“It’s the fault of those idiot publishers for doing nothing. Whilst Hollywood was busy protecting its copyrights they just let it slide. You reap what you sow.”

“With the strong yen they are probably aiming to curb Japanese copying.”

“The disease has spread too far – the market seems to be collapsing like that of anime. It’ll be layoffs and bankruptcies from here on.”

“They enjoy making scanlations – it’s like a club activity to them.”

“It’s like that for fansubs too, but they’re all saying they are helping propagate them. Even the guys writing ero-doujinshi don’t think like that.”

“If you don’t release simultaneously with the Japanese release they will pirate them. They are that committed.”

“They get them even faster than the Japanese regions do. It’s too much…”

“What a bunch of crooks. They make a fortune off donations and advertising revenue. They pretend they are creators and heroes. I want to watch Hollywood movies and American dramas at the same time as their US release. Of course, for free.”

“Overseas manga is ridiculously expensive, so that’s probably behind One Manga’s popularity. However you look at it, ¥2,000 for a single volume is way too much.”

“If the prices drop they’ll just start using censorship as an excuse instead.”

“They wouldn’t buy even if it were cheap. Their anime is far cheaper than in Japan and they still won’t buy.”

The indignation of Japanese anime and manga fans who see themselves having to support an audience of freeloading international fans unwilling to support creators, whilst themselves paying top dollar to ensure even niche audiences can have their needs met, is perhaps not unreasonable, however unsightly its manifestation may be at times.