AlphaPolis Manga App Discussion
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Is this a Japanese or an American company?
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@tahu
AlphaPolis is a Japanese Publishing Company. -
I don't understand them. If offering manga worldwide is a go and it's done inhouse, what the heck is the holdup on novels?!
They do have a few I'm interested in, about half of the manga on the app are adaptations of existing novels, but what I've heard trying to license actual novels from them is something akin to running into a stone wall...
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They're likely testing if this model of renting chapters is worthwhile. Also I'm not sure they're doing this in house, it seems like there's multiple different companies each doing their own manga based on the company names listed in the credits as doing the TL/lettering, it's just they're bring it all together in the one app. As noted earlier in the thread Isekai Tensei Soudouki in the app is just the digital version of what One Peace Books is releasing already.
Frankly if they tried to release light novels under this model, I sure as heck wouldn't be a fan. I want options to actually purchase items, not having to throw money at a one week rental anytime I want to read anything that's not the most recent chapters or the preview of the first volume.
I would say best case scenario would be if they did something like what they're doing with One Peace Books. That would be license out LNs to companies, offer the chapters via an AlphaPolis app as rentals, but allow people to actually purchase the full digital volumes through normal digital storefronts in sort of a similar fashion to how JNC pre-pubs work.
Worst case would probably be like how their manga app works for almost all the rest of the series. They hand off the series to a company to do the translation and make it only available for 1 week rental via their app and if you're more than ~3-4 weeks behind or want to go back and re-read you'll essentially have to shell out money to re-rent those parts.
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I probably shouldn’t say this but this makes me glad there are pirate translations. Are there any other companies that’s doing this rental crap?
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The model itself isn't really that bad (though it would work better if they offered a flat rate subscription that just unlocks everything the way Viz does with Shonen Jump). The main problem is that they currently lack the secondary infrastructure that is needed for this model. When this type of model is used in Japan, if you like something enough to plunk down cash for it, you can go over to Bookwalker or Amazon or something and just buy the volume once it's available.
The problem here is there's no indication that AlphaPolis plans or has any intention of collating the chapters released in the AlphaManga app into volumes for sale digitally or otherwise in English which means outside of Isekai Tensei Soudouki there's currently no way to make a purchase to own (you could buy Re:Monster from SevenSeas, but it's going to be a different TL/Lettering than the version in the AlphaManga app). Given that a number of titles in the app now have enough chapters released that we could easily be on vol 3 or 4 of the mangas, it's honestly not looking good.
If they at least announced their intent to release digital volumes for sale on storefronts, I could at least get behind the model as it stands now.
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@jpwong I've seen their manga on Amazon recently. All they do is compile all the chapters together into a volume. I have a feeling none of the extra stuff you usually see in digital manga is included. Their model is absolutely terrible. The translation and lettering are also sub-par. It's a real shame they don't just let publishers like JNC license their stuff.
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@Eminent If they've started selling whole volumes through digital storefronts (rather than this rental crap) I can't see why they would license out the series' to anyone else going forward. Everyone's jumping into these manga rental apps with varying levels of censorship and quality. It remains to be seen if anyone is willing to try to do something similar with light novels (I think some of the Chinese novel sites do have a rental system in place for their English releases)
Anyway, I just took a look at Isekai Yururi Kikou which is probably one of only two alphapolis series I'd be willing to buy from them at this point (if these ever release on google play) and putting aside the fact they have spelling mistakes in the title... The file size for vol 1 seems to be 300MB which I think is around the size of JNC's Desktop Manga downloads. The one review seems to list out similar complaints to what you've mentioned.
A Journey Through Another World ~Raisig Kids While Adventuring~：Isekai Yururi Kikou ~Kosodate Shinagara Boukensha Shimasu~ Vol.１
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@jpwong Of course. People are going to buy those volumes like candy even if they aren't that good since anything is better than using their app. You can expect translation and editing issues in each volume as well. Who knows how many different people worked on each translation.
For Chinese novels, I am only familiar with WuxiaWorld, which seems to have a similar system now. It's really such a predatory system.
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@Eminent I think that's the only one, from what I understand the English publisher of Chinese novels has a complete market domination, they're the only option and they've already got all the best titles, so there's effectively no way for any other company to get into that space.
I don't know that people will buy them like candy, their app is good enough if you just want to keep up to date on the series but are just going to read and be done with the chapter since you can read the 3 newest chapters free similar to what Viz does with SJ titles.
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@jpwong WuxiaWorld isn't the one with a monopoly, they're actually more into KR novels these days (especially since taking on Kakao Entertainment as a majority stakeholder [if not sole owner] similar to how Kadokawa purchased a controlling share in JNC). Webnovel.com is run by Qidian, and they're the one with the majority of the good CN series (there are a few others out there, like whoever Seven Seas is acquiring the Danmei off).
