Tech Shout!

Manganovel Corporation together with Toshiba Corporation have announced that they will bring the universe of Japanese manga and more to the rest of the world with the launch of an online service called “manganovel”.

The Manganovel online service will allow readers to download and read manga in Japanese. Besides, they will also be able to post and offer for sale their own translation of content so that others in overseas markets can also read manga in their respective languages.

Manganovel actually launched din the beta version this June. Now that the service has officially been launched with Toshiba, anime lovers from all around the world will be able to access such manga comics.

Manganovel is indeed a unique creation as it happens to be the first service that aims to create a community of manga readers as well as to serve as a distribution source for Japanese publishers.

The whole operation of the manganovel service will offer secure digital rights management with “MQbic” (Multi-cubic), digital copyright protection technology developed by Toshiba.

But, this service comes at a cost. Manga lovers located anywhere in the world will be able to register for and use Manganovel’s services and make online payments by credit card.

Basically, members buy Japanese version of Manga comics for $4 to $5 per comic. Reader-translators then translate the comic to other languages. The reader translator emails the translation to Manganovel and can price it either for free or for 2% of the original comic price.

Overseas readers can then purchase such translated Manga comics. If a translation is purchased, the reader-translator gets 50% of the sale price as royalty. Also, before purchase readers can read reviews, comments and discussions about Manga comics.

Manganovel as a concept was first developed by Toshiba in collaboration with Professor John Maeda, a well known graphic designer, visual artist and computer scientists. Researchers in the Media Lab’s Simplicity consortium also worked along with them.

As of now, users will only be able to access Manganovel from their PCs or laptops. But in the future you can expect to access this service from mobile phones and portable game players too.