Ever since the rise in popularity of the manga industry many people are interested in buying and collecting manga, some are just using pirated websites to read while some are buying original mangas to support their favorite mangaka and build a collection for themselves. But the problem comes in when you stumble upon a manga that is being sold at a much cheaper price than the original one and you are skeptical whether it is a cheap knockoff or just a used manga.
How can you spot fake mangas?
It is not easy to spot fake manga just from the cover. A buyer has to dive into it and observe many details like graphics, translation, print quality, and odd scenes to conclude if the manga is legit or a bootleg. Talking about the cheap mangas a company called TR Media is getting popular for selling mangas at a cheap rate but the question is—are these mangas legit or just bootleg?
Well, it is not easy to answer the question because of the mixed opinions of people on the internet. The thing that is commonly observed in the manga sales by TR Media is that they are a bit off in physical aspects but the content inside seems to be the same.
According to our research, some of the people that were buying mangas from TR media decided to inquire about the rumors of selling fake mangas and asked their side of the story but the company just ghosted them and never replied. However, some people claimed that the mangas sold by TR Media are legit because the content inside seems to be the same.
In my opinion, the only legit way to find about the originality of manga sold by TR Media or any other vendor is to look for a license page in the manga that can be found at the start, middle, and end of the manga. The license will prove the authenticity because a manga having a license page proves the fact that the company is allowed to publish the manga written by that writer in any part of the world.
Difference between Fake and Authentic manga
The first and most noticeable difference between a fake and an authentic manga is the price. The original manga is sold at a comparatively higher price because it contains the official license of publishing the content of a certain writer and another reason behind the high price is that the high price contributes to the hard work of the mangaka.
The second difference is graphics or print quality. Since a lot of money is spent to create high-quality graphics in the manga. The authentic one contains images that are produced by the original publisher such as Viz, Yen Press, Kondansha and Shueisha. But the fake manga may contain low-quality graphics and poor paper quality.
The third difference is missing vital story arcs and irrelevant scenes. The authentic manga contains the scenes and arcs written by the original writer but it is found that some story arcs and scenes are missing in the fake manga for the sake of cutting the printing and paper cost.
Impact of fake mangas on the original manga industry
As we can see there are pirated manga websites that are operating to provide free manga reading facilities which is such a terrible thing because its impact on the manga industry is beyond our imagination.
It is a violation of copyrights and a severe crime. Because of these pirated webs and bootlegs mangas the industry is facing many financial problems which ultimately affect the writers and artists. The writers of our favorite manga are being paid very little compared to the amount of hard work they put in their work. Most of all it is unethical to use the intellectual property of a person for personal gains without paying a single penny to the owner.
Now, it's up to you whether to support these crooks or support the mangakas.
