AlphaPolis Manga App Discussion
-
AlphaPolis uploaded a new app yesterday which contains English translations of many of their manga. Given a big portion of licensing asks comes from their series, would this impact discussion for volume releases and the like?
-
Hopefully this a sign that they are starting to be willing to expand into the English speaking market and we can finally get some LNs from them 🙏
-
Who knows, indications from earlier this year still appeared to indicate they still weren't interested in meeting with JNC to discuss LN licensing.
Anyway it'll be interesting to see how this pans out, you can only rent chapters for a week and the article doesn't mention any path to outright buying digital volumes.
Would people be interested in seeing a similar model for LNs where you can buy credits to rent a chapter for a week to read?
-
Renting for a week rather than buying puts me off this, to be honest. I use some of the Korean services (Lehzin, Tapas, etc.), and once I use credits to unlock something, it’s unlocked as long as the comic is on the site. So that means if I want to go back and reread a chapter, I can.
I already find those services kind of expensive for what they are, so I’d have to really want to read one of their titles if I was paying money just to borrow a chapter, and I’d probably wait until a lot was out at once to read as a batch, since I wouldn’t be able to go reread them if I forgot what happened.
-
Base idea seemed ok until the 1 week rentals came up. I don't really know a lot of series from them so this may not be for me. But they may see some succes and either move into EN partnerships or branch put into the En market themselves. Time will tell.
-
@lilitu93 Personally i don't like any services where you pay for something almost the same price as for normal book, but only get limited service. And anytime provider can disable service for you.
If you want limited access by time, there should be simple monthly subscription for all.
I won't pay for manga if i don't get standard file that i can simply download and can't be disabled on whim.
That's why i like j-novels. When i buy e-book, i get e-book. And not same access for same dubious service that requires internet connection, apps etc.
-
Someone on the ANN forums has pointed out that ANN had a slightly different article up previously that seems to outline some slight differences from the article linked above
- Manga chapters can be rented for 7 days (168 hours)
- You can accumulate up to 12 free tickets by logging in at any given time
- First 3 chapters of each series is available for free
- Chapters 4 onward need to be rented with tickets after the free content period expires
This seems to indicate that they might be operating with a similar model to their Japanese site, where the latest chapter is available for a period of time (like a week) before it's locked down.
-
@jpwong oh, so much like mangaplus?? Now that's a lot better.
-
Okay, now that the app is starting to take off, I saw their tickets program and honestly am a bit concerned.
To unlock a chapter takes 10 tickets. You get one free ticket per day for a limit of 12, can win tickets by watching ads (six for a single ticket), or buy 12 for $1.
I know AlphaPolis has to eat and everything, but I thought you’d only need like one or two tickets to unlock a chapter. 10 is just a mite too much for me.
-
@jpwong said in AlphaPolis Manga App Discussion:
- Manga chapters can be rented for 7 days (168 hours)
- You can accumulate up to 12 free tickets by logging in at any given time
- First 3 chapters of each series is available for free
- Chapters 4 onward need to be rented with tickets after the free content period expires
Is this the same MO as for Japanese manga apps? I seem to remember someone mentioning there's some differences.
@torka said in AlphaPolis Manga App Discussion:
To unlock a chapter takes 10 tickets. You get one free ticket per day for a limit of 12, can win tickets by watching ads (six for a single ticket), or buy 12 for $1.
I know AlphaPolis has to eat and everything, but I thought you’d only need like one or two tickets to unlock a chapter. 10 is just a mite too much for me.
I agree, as we're talking about rented chapters, the expense seems high. ...For backlog that is, if the latest chapter is free(it should be if it's like most other Japanese manga apps, any confirmation on this?) then I guess it's passable if you're just following something.
-
Every 10 days of daily login you can save up enough to read one chapter, or you have to watch 60 ads??? 60 ads for a chapter??? That's bananas! And then renting a chapter costs almost as much as buying a chapter on ComiXology???
With a business model like that no wonder they won't work with anyone to translate their Light Novels. They'd probably want to be the Aniplex of Light Novels and sell them for $60 a volume.
-
@the-green-death said in AlphaPolis Manga App Discussion:
With a business model like that no wonder they won't work with anyone to translate their Light Novels. They'd probably want to be the Aniplex of Light Novels and sell them for $60 a volume.
Kind of reminds me of the model webnovel uses for their officially licensed Chinese LN translations, you have to buy or accumulate coins to unlock chapters, and this can probably get pretty expensive if you want to read an entire LN that has like 1000-2000 chapters all at once
-
Another major issue is the translation quality. It's riddled with poor or incorrect translations, poor grammar, and other such errors. Why would you want to spend money on this when they are doing it as cheaply as possible and charging too much?
-
@nutaris said in AlphaPolis Manga App Discussion:
Another major issue is the translation quality. It's riddled with poor or incorrect translations, poor grammar, and other such errors. Why would you want to spend money on this when they are doing it as cheaply as possible and charging too much?
Can you give any examples?
-
@Korppi
This is the kind of basic stuff they are messing up. Should be a 'Treant', not a 'Torent'.
-
@korppi said in AlphaPolis Manga App Discussion:
Is this the same MO as for Japanese manga apps? I seem to remember someone mentioning there's some differences.
To give some point of reference...
Webtoons, everything currently running is free and always available and competed series that are their Featured - meaning, the artist gets paid, has an actual editor, marketing help,etc - you can unlock one chapter a day that has to be read within a few days of unlocking it. Coins are used if you want to unlock stuff before it's released or unlock completed series without waiting. The most basic pricing (you get better deals if you buy in bulk) is .99 cents for 10 coins and most eps cost 5 coins, so basically 50 cents per ep. But again, you can read everything for free if you are patient.
Tapas uses Ink, and generally to read anything on there is going to cost you some. They do have some series that unlock new episodes daily or weekly, but still requires ink for like the most recent 15 or 20 episodes. Most basic pricing is 1,600 ink for 1.99, and most series are going to cost something like 300 per if you use their auto unlock. So roughly 40 cents per episode.
Both services have events all the time where they give free coins/ink away for doing stuff like reading a set number of episodes. Tapas has more of them, but Tapas also requires that ink to really get very far. They also have various "go watch an ad" or "go take this survey" type offers for more ink, but I'm not sure of the exact specifics.
-
@nutaris I noticed a chapter where they spelt power incorrectly, some of the fonts they're using are a bit odd, one manga's using one where all the I characters look like 1 instead.
-
Short update: recently, the manga adaptation of Multi-Mind Mayhem (Isekai Tensei Soudouki) was released digitally by One Peace Books. The translation is the same one from the AlphaPolis app.
I guess this means that either it takes from existing licenses or any of the app manga can easily be released in volumes? Haven’t checked to see if Re:Monster is the same.
-
@torka Nope, they seem to be retranslating it.
Alpha Manga credits:
https://i.imgur.com/aFojDt4.pngSeven Seas physical release credits:
https://i.imgur.com/gWnyfWK.jpgWhoever said nothing's impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
-
Huh. Weird. Wonder if they’re going to plan a release of that translation, or if it’s going to be app-only. Not the biggest fan of the ticket system when you need to wait ten days to get a chapter for free.
