What if all scanlations stopped/never existed?

[_____________]

Theoretically, what do you think would/would’ve happen(ed)?

 

[gomichandesu]

Monolinguists would only ever know what was officially picked up. (This assuming piracy in general still exists lol, official translations can still be bootlegged. But if no translation existed, and for whatever reason nobody wanted to/could ever translate something unless they're attached to a publisher, then only those things produced would be read.)

Therefore anime/manga would not have as wide of an audience as it does. Stuff that has too much cultural note/stuff you have to at least know some basics about Japanese/Japanese culture would never make it. Publishers know if the translations have to get too wordy/abstract nobody will read it.

 

[Holo]

Hypothesis: The amount of titles officially translated is directly proportional to the amount of scanlations available for a given medium.

For example, fewer LNs get officially translated because the prevalence of LN fan translations are lower.

Possible reason: without scanlations/fan translations, official publishers would have no way of gauging the popularity of any titles, and would not take the risk of investing in overseas market if there isn't a high probability that they are able to turn a profit.

 

[Thoraxe41]

War......

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

Then I'd actually have to learn Japanese for real

 

[Greenfrost]

Allow Ghostbusters to answer your question.

Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together – mass hysteria.

 

[mrguest]

End of Manganity

 

[Pika]

Then someone will (re)invent it
Or people will commit more sudoku

 

[EOTFOFYL]

@Pika
Yarr-harr-fiddle dee
do what you want because a
pirate is free.

 

[Greenfrost]

I just realized the OP has no username.

 

[mrf]

Death.

 

[Neushaartje]

There would either be a significant demand for it, and thus it would start existing, or there would be no demand for it, and it would thus not be a problem.

 

[sterven]

The end of the world.

 

[Batman]

 

[OisE]

I like this question.

I'm interested to read more answers.

I'm pretty sure people would start scanlating because there would be demand for it...

 

[pandascepter]

The end of the world.

sterb

 

[EOTFOFYL]

I like this question.

I'm interested to read more answers.

Yarr-harr-fiddle dee
do what you want because a
pirate is free.

My answers remains
The same despite all these years
And won't change for now.

 

[Angry_Panda]

Breaking this into three distinct cases:

1. To the present, it has never occurred to anyone they could get scans of the original Japanese publications of manga, translate them, and shop those translations into the images (that is, the idea of scanlation was never conceived):
There would be a lot of pirated scans of what official translations do exist, and then one day some brilliant person who is fluent in both Photoshop and Japanese and who is privately reading some non-licensed series will think 'wait a minute, I can do this myself and make it available to everyone.' And then we're off to the races, and it's only a matter of time before we're shitposting in the general forums on the alternate universe MangaDex.

2. Some heavy-handed federal law is passed which makes scanlation punishable by death, in an attempt to put a stop to it:
Yeah, it's the internet. People will still be doing it for series they really like, though they will be careful about not getting caught. (Compare music sharing after the RIAA started suing people's shorts off.)

3. Someone waives a magic wand, and from that point on anyone who tries to scanlate has Spontaneous Thermal Paste Combustion Syndrome afflict their computer:
People quickly figure out how to do the work on paper, leading to UNDERGROUND MANGA 'ZINES. So many 'zines. Every aging rocker/punk/riot grrl is pressed into divulging their suddenly priceless knowledge of preparing these publications, and the market for old Xerox machines explodes. The overnight increase in mail brought on by vast quantities of fan-translated manga on paper single-handedly pushes the USPS back into profitability.

 

[sterven]

sterb

 

[TestAddress]

I'll return to mastering Physics.