Manga Plus App Lifts All Regional Language Restrictions for Readers’ Ease

It seems that manga producers are recognizing the growing popularity of the medium all around the world.

Although that day is quite far when we can read our favorite series in our native language, Shueisha’s Manga Plus service is taking a step in the right direction.

Even though just a handful of companies hold the copyrights for the majority of manga titles, the rights to distribution of translations are often more diverse.

These licenses are often regional in nature and therefore can’t be distributed freely. Somehow, Shueisha seems to have solved that problem.

Shueisha’s online manga platform and smartphone application, Manga Plus, has removed its regional restrictions for all languages. They have also revealed plans to add more content in various languages soon.

This means that readers can now select their choice of language regardless of their location. Users can select from one of the seven languages available on the app: English, Spanish, Thai, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, and Russian.

It is hardly a surprise that the service is going in this direction given their recent actions.

They had recently added more translations for currently trending series like Black Clover, My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen. The marquee series of the service, One Piece is available in all seven languages with translations coming in hours after the Japanese release. 

This move might make way for several big titles like Hajime No Ippo to finally receive an official English translation. The manga itself just recently went digital. This will certainly allow them to measure the demand for specific manga titles in various regions.

This kind of international diversification has already been going on for some time in anime through international streaming services.

Platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime provide different dubs and subtitles in many languages to increase their accessibility across the world.

The manga side of things might have been a  little late to catch on, but they are certainly putting in the effort to reach a wider range of readers now.

Source: Manga Plus Facebook Page