Over the past few decades, manga has become more and more popular, gathering fans from all corners of the globe.
But as its popularity soared, fans faced a language barrier, often ending up isolated in their own little online communities.
Japanese manga giant Shueisha is stepping in to change that with their latest offering: “MANGA Plus Universe by SHUEISHA.”
The official MANGA Plus Universe by SHUEISHA account, formerly known as Twitter, broke the news on April 12. This announcement coincided with the fifth anniversary celebrations of MANGA Plus.
The site currently features 15 manga titles from Shueisha’s collection, along with forums where fans from all over the world can gather and chat about these works.
Among the titles available are Chainsaw Man, SPY x FAMILY, Kaiju No. 8, Blooming Love, and Oshi No Ko, among others.
This service on MANGA Plus provides a platform for manga enthusiasts to come together, sharing their thoughts, emotions, and excitement about these 15 amazing titles.
However, the big question is how fans will read each other’s comments if they do not understand the language. According to the site, the comments are machine translated.
There is “auto translation into nine languages.” The translated languages include: English, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, and Vietnamese.
🎉 MANGA Plus Universe by SHUEISHA is live! 🌏
Celebrating 5 years of MANGA Plus with a global community✨
15 series: #KaijuNo8 , #Chainsawman, #SPY_FAMILY & more❗️
Auto-translation in 9 languages 🌐
Chat with fans worldwide! 💬https://t.co/SruGV1CxEF— MANGA Plus Universe by SHUEISHA (@mangaplus_u) April 12, 2024
The English and Japanese translations are what you may expect from many machine translations services. In other words, the translations are accurate, though literal, and a bit stilted.
It’s natural that the French, Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, or Vietnamese translations would follow suit. Fans are interacting with each other despite the translation’s shortcomings.
This service is only around for a limited time, but the site doesn’t give a specific end date. However, according to Comic Natalie, the final day is reportedly May 13.
