First of all, the title is a bit of a misnomer, but I’ll explain why it’s important to drive home that Orange Inc’s Emaqi (the title of their manga service) is an AI translated manga service before anything else- anything translated by a person comes from somewhere else. When you compare it to other digital platforms such as Azuki Books (which will be done in detail later), the conclusion you arrive at is, “you should not use this service for much of any reason”. It’s really as simple as that. No value proposition exists to entice readers, and with AI looming over new series arriving in English, it becomes a pointlessly selfish affair that likens itself to large companies being suckered out of money by consulting firms. It’s an entirely wasteful platform, and this post is here to explain why.
Emaqi and Quality
Though the former word is fictitious, it makes for an awful pairing with quality. Official releases that have been brought in from their primary sources are far from terrible, but Orange’s own AI works are rather questionable in terms of output and fidelity. The easiest knock against their AI translated manga is that the page resolution is just… not good, to say the least. There’s a great deal of variance in that, where titles like The Vermilion Mask and The Morning After nearly get to where they should be in fidelity… if you were looking for half the resolution of a typical digital copy. When you buy a digital manga from a publisher, the result is something that sits very pretty at say…. 2000 x 3000 pixels, or in extreme cases such as Blue Period, reaching as high as roughly 3500 x 4900 . When you buy (yes, buy) from Emaqi- even with their borrowed titles- the best you’ll get is 1600 x 2400, or roughly only 60% of the pixel count as a proper release. Now, in the case of digital manga as a service, that is par for the course. Azuki Books themselves also operate with a maximum resolution of 1600 x 2400 pixels- but they also opt for webp files for higher quality compression and smaller file sizes. Dealing with lower resolution and dense images means that the gains aren’t monumental, but it’s hard to not say it’s noticeable when comparing to the two.
So yes, it’s a nitpick on Emaqi’s official releases, but their AI translated manga is even worse. How much worse? Well, their AI translated manga has a resolution that’s capped at 853 x 1200, or a woefully pathetic 17% of what you get in a proper digital release. The result isn’t necessarily something that’s un-readable (though Bachi Bachi makes that debatable), but when you place it up against proper images from other digital series, let alone proper digital purchases, you can really see how much of a difference it makes in the experience of reading digital manga.
The Value Proposition of AI Translated Manga
Wherever AI goes it only serves as a way to cheapen something, rather than to increase value. The bottom line is cutting costs in industry rather than improving a product, and that is very much the case with Emaqi’s AI translated manga. Before we touch on quality however, it’s important to note how much “value” Emaqi delivers on its promise. You can read hundreds upon hundreds of existing series through Emaqi, and…. ten AI translated manga. As a roll out, it’s rather pointless in that sense. It’s a platform that delivers an overwhelming majority of content that already exists, and neatly tucks away this small handful of titles that come from only 3 publishers, and subsequently 3 magazines. It’s not much of consequence aside from discussion as to consent for translation and whatnot, but having seven titles come from Shonen Gahosha’s Young King Comics, two from Futabasha’s Action Comics, and one from Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shounen Champion is interesting nonetheless.
Getting back on track however, the real area that AI translated manga attempts to make its value known is through its cost to the consumer. At 5 (USD) dollars a volume, it’s a decent price… save for a few massive caveats, of course. Firstly, you cannot download your manga in any form- this is an online and website only platform. Secondly, you’re still paying for a subpar product with worse overall resolutions (and translation errors like the one below for Vermilion Mask). Thirdly, they only seem to be positioned as a “deal” by offering official manga locked to their service at their full retail prices (or sometimes even more expensive, like Vinland Saga). When you consider offerings like Kodansha’s K-Manga app, Manga Plus’ free weekly chapters, or any number of unlimited subscription services, Emaqi’s value proposition completely collapses. You can’t get their cheap AI titles at a higher resolution, you can’t get their preexisting official releases at a discount, and you can’t save with a subscription or limited free features.
A Subpar Experience
While the AI translated manga is absolutely the main dish in this disappointing display, the website itself is also a rather shameful display of disorganization and nearly hostile user interfaces and experiences. Arrows that seem to denote carousels will bring you to a new page despite the line of titles extending off the screen. The search function exists only as a directory rather than producing any sort of search results that you can properly scroll through. There are series that are incorrectly labelled under specific demographics. The page is actually too wide and overflows, creating a horizontal scroll bar for what seems to be no reason. Lists on the home page are never equal lengths and present a truly odd and grating experience. Banners have awkwardly superimposed covers, navigation is counterintuitively placed, there is no filtering, there is no sorting-
There’s… nothing, that screams of being worthwhile with this website. It’s a mobile first design that cobbles together something that feels like a university student’s final project. Images are plainly displayed and delivered making it easy to download them, there’s no consistency in text or formatting etc etc. It is very simply, a mess of a website that speaks to how much low hanging fruit consumers will devour these days. It’s a hostile and lazy experience where you can’t even openly browse everything that Emaqi can offer a consumer. If you want to read digital manga that’s not coming straight from JP publishers, go use Azuki Books. Emaqi is a waste of time.
Say No To AI Translated Manga (And Bad Experiences)
At the end of it all, Orange Inc. makes Emaqi an incredibly easy website to say no to. Even forgetting the AI translated manga that’s festering in the corner (along with the terrible fate they share with Shounen Jump Plus’ one shots), the service has no value to provide to customers. It’s not a better experience than existing platforms, it’s not a cheaper service nor does it offer more content for free, it has a terrible user experience (especially on desktop), it’s website only and so on and so forth ad infinitum. There is no reason people should pay to use this service- and even if there was, for the love of all things manga, just. Don’t.
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