New Startup Orange Introduces “Manga Translation Exclusive AI Model” to Reduce Translation Time by 90%, Enabling Global Popularity of “One Piece”

Orange Launches Comic Translation Model
Japanese manga series like One Piece and Dragon Ball have achieved tremendous success. According to Grand View Research, the manga market is expected to reach a value of $42.2 billion by 2030. Despite their popularity overseas, only 2% of the 700,000 manga produced annually in Japan are translated into English. This slow progress is due to the complex workflow involved, which typically takes a month to complete. Orange, a startup, aims to address this issue with their new translation tool called Factory, which utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite the translation process. This tool reduces translation time by five times and cuts costs by 90%. So far, Orange has raised $292 million in funding.
Translating manga is challenging, and piracy is rampant
Why can’t English manga be published in large quantities? The translation process for a single manga volume involves several steps, including editing, translation agencies, translators, logo designers, proofreaders, and more. This process takes about a month to complete. Orange has provided a visual representation of the traditional translation process on their website.
Compared to translating regular books, manga translation is even more difficult. “Manga often uses short sentences and slang, which pose challenges in translation,” explains Tatsuhiro Sato, Vice President of Marketing at Orange. “It’s also difficult to determine whether a character’s dialogue in the manga is an actual conversation or just an inner thought.” The time-consuming and costly nature of manga translation makes it difficult for official English translations to be produced in large quantities. As a result, pirated translations often circulate before the official translations are released, according to an industry insider.
Exclusive manga translation AI model, digital manga store planned
Factory, developed by Orange, is a specialized translation tool for manga. It employs AI image recognition and natural language processing techniques to read manga and translate the words into English. Orange claims that their model specifically designed for manga can handle puns and other challenging phrases. The AI-translated manga is then handed over to human translators and editors for further adjustments and corrections. The entire translation process can be completed within two days.
In addition to Factory, Orange plans to launch a digital manga store called Emaqi in the United States in the summer of 2024. The app will provide readers with manga translated by Orange, along with personalized recommendations, manga trailers, and other features.
If AI-assisted translation and digital distribution become mainstream, manga can be exported overseas immediately after being published in Japan. This would facilitate faster official translations and help prevent the circulation of pirated works.
Securing $60 million in investment, aiming to become the Netflix or Spotify of the manga industry
Orange’s services have faced skepticism from industry professionals who believe that the quality of AI translations is difficult to guarantee, and the workload for translators may increase as a result. “AI-translated works always end up needing to be started from scratch because they are so terrible,” shared one translator on X, expressing their view on Orange’s service. “Editing and correcting them takes more time and effort than translating from scratch, resulting in higher costs and lower efficiency.”
Despite this criticism, Orange has received significant investment from various venture capital groups, including Shogakukan, a Japanese publisher, and JIC Venture Growth Investments, supported by the Japanese government, raising a total of ¥2.92 billion ($29.2 million). JIC believes that investing in Orange will strengthen Japan’s industrial competitiveness.
Just as Spotify provides music and Netflix provides movies, Orange hopes to offer diverse and affordable digital content to readers worldwide. “We aim to create a world where everyone loves manga,” says the Orange team.
References:
Orange, The Japan Times, Comics Beat, Nikkei Asia