Show HN: Instantly Translate Manga – TranslateManga
translatemanga.netSince I was young, I've loved anime, and over the years, manga has brought me joy, given me courage, and sparked excitement in my heart.
However, as I read more, I realized that many of these manga weren't translated at all. I also came across some AI-based translation tools, but the results often fell short.
So, I decided to create a tool that allows manga fans to read and enjoy their favorite manga, no matter the language or whether a translation team is available.
This product has just been launched, and there are certainly areas that can be improved. However, with time, I'm confident it will only get better.
You're welcome to try it out and share your valuable feedback!
You have much competition in this space with for example https://ichigoreader.com https://ismanga.com and many more (just search the chrome extension store for examples). What is your plan to stand out and remain competitive?
On a side note, if anyone’s been watching the fan translation community, it’s clear this is the end game.
I don't actually think it's 'the end game.'
A vast majority of AI translations are usually enough to get the gist of the story but tend to miss a lot of really important with-context story clues. What I've found is that the best case is that you can get a 'speed translation' with AI, and then have a translator come in behind and clean it up. Much like using AI to generate the base of an image and then painting over top of it to fix any artistic choices it's made that the artist doesn't agree with.
I agree that AI translations are not close to the standards many people would expect, but there is a significant, growing population of readers (many with EN as a second language) that are find with reading MTL using extensions such as this or fan-translated MTL with human assistance, and it is what many new fan translators are opting for as old groups retire. The “speed translators” using MTL also demotivate the slower, better translators, as many people will no longer be as interested in their release. I don’t think human translation will cease for a long time, but in the meantime, MTL as a percentage of new fan translations will continue to grow
This might be useful for just checking the general content of a chapter you're interested in if it hasn't been translated yet, but it's not clear if it handles things like varying fonts / sizes used to convey the emotion of spoken dialog, does consistent translation (eg does it remember stylistic choices it has made chapters before it), or handles tricky items that might be difficult to localize.
Also, how does it work, what is the tech behind it? Are you doing any of the training yourself?
Another thing I'm not sure machine translation can really "nail" is cultural context, or even little linguistic cues and other tidbits. I like when translators explain in the margins that one character is speaking in a certain register for XYZ reason, or that there's been a shift in a certain relationship signaled by a change in how they address each other, etc.
That said, I did just read a great series last night whose human translation ended right before the final two volumes, and hasn't been updated in nearly 8 years... so I may need to try some machine translation on those last two volumes just to see how things end.
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Looks like this got slashdotted, uploading an image and clicking 'translate' just spins forever.
I think MTL is a great tool but there will always be a place for proper scanlations.