Author Uploaded His Own Manga to MangaDex and Publisher Forced Him to Stop

Shiten Akiyama is a Japanese mangaka who wanted to connect with international fans and allow them to read his work. To do that, he did something very unusual: he personally used an AI program to translate his manga and uploaded it himself to MangaDex.

According to Shiten Akiyama, fans were free to share his manga wherever they wanted. Since HORIZON is published in a small magazine in Japan, the author likely saw this as one of the few ways to promote his series overseas.

I read the two translated chapters of HORIZON that he made available, and I was somewhat confused by the story. It follows an adult woman who decides to go out at night wearing her old school uniform. There, she meets a boy she finds cute, but the genre seems to shift from mystery into sci-fi as the plot progresses.

However, things did not end well. The author’s publisher was not happy at all about the situation, and he was forced to stop distributing his manga for free online.

According to the mangaka, he was compelled to cease this activity. Even though he is the creator of the manga, he said he cannot freely handle his own work, as the publisher holds those rights. The company was clearly unhappy to see the title available on a pirate website.

He stated: “The number of overseas manga fans may not grow any further. Still, I’m glad I got to meet all of you. I always pour my all into the manga right in front of me. Other issues are insignificant to me.”

Now the question is whether someone else will begin translating HORIZON and whether international fans will continue supporting the author.