Crowdfunding is a method by which a large number of people invest a small to moderate amount of money (rarely a large amount of money can also be invested) in order to finance a project. It sounds as if it would be great as a way to finance the release and translation of manga but it is not quite as simple as it appears.
I should begin by explaining my own experience with Kickstarter, one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms. As a fan of Osamu Tezuka, I have been collecting his manga for years and, prior to 2014, I did this through Amazon and Book Depository. I noticed that several works (Swallowing the Earth, Barbara, Unico etc) were released by a company called “Digital Manga Publishing” but I was content to pick up these works from my usual sources.
However, after their release of Captain Ken, they announced that their future Kickstarter releases would be exclusive to their campaigns, their store Akadot.com and their digital manga service e-Manga. I knew that I finally had to start participating in these Kickstarters. Since then I have backed 7 successful projects and 1 unsuccessful project (all of which have been run by Digital Manga Publishing) and I can fully say that this experience has left me with a bitter taste.
In the beginning it wasn’t too bad. The first few projects managed to be released on time but, after a while, the later projects began to miss their deadlines. The latest project I backed, “Wonder 3 Revisited and Even More of Osamu Tezuka’s Works“, I backed in early 2017. As of November 2019, I have yet to receive the products funded in this campaign. Their lack of communication on this issue has not helped either. I did, however, finally receive the products from another of their campaigns this year (having missed the deadline by over 2 years) so all hope is not lost. For additional information, check out my DMP Tezuka Kickstarter Discussion video from 2017 (not too much has changed since then).
That is not to mention the disaster that was the “The Crater” campaign which was run by a company called “Kansai Club Publishing”. They managed to raise $52,861 but ended up not releasing the title. Digital Manga Publishing ended up releasing The Crater themselves in the “Re-Launch of Tezuka’s – Under the Air (Classic Manga)” campaign but had to translate and release it from scratch with anyone having backed the previous campaign unable to get a copy without pledging new money. I can clearly remember many people giving this experience as their reason as to why they would no longer back Kickstarter campaigns.
All of this does seem overly negative but, I do want to stress this, I did get many Tezuka titles that may not have seen a release otherwise. Even though I did not participate in them, I have heard of cool Kickstarters such as the “Fist of the North Star Bilingual eBook” and the “Naruto Manga in e-Book” campaigns. These show that there are still new and inventive ways of releasing manga that crowdfunding can enable.
Ultimately, while I have had bad experiences in the past, I can only hope that crowdfunding platforms are continued to be used to fund translations and releases of manga that might not see a release in the west otherwise. I can only hope that by sharing this experience and my continued support for the platform that others may be willing to support these campaigns if and when they show up. Just remember to check that the companies running the campaigns are legitimate and that they can be contacted in the event that something goes wrong.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use bookdepository.com for all of your needs!