Irodori Comics’ On Takahashi is probably best known for being quite vocal against pirate groups. He was one of the prominent voices championing the shut down of groups like Manga Rock back in August of 2019. However, some digging by manga fans uncovered that one of the translators working on the English translations of The Testament of Sister New Devil for an unlicensed group is none other than On Takahashi.
Twitter user imocx_ posted up a lengthy thread about the discovery on May 27th, 2020.
@OnTakahashi, the CEO of @irodoricomics, is always whining about how “piracy is evil”
So why is he accepting money to work as a translator for piracy groups?
Here’s 1 example, he works for a piracy group stealing LNs & sales from @kadokawa_PR, a massive publisher from Japan pic.twitter.com/Np6AsqAaKz
— p10455 (@imocx_) May 27, 2020
This piracy group has a PAYWALL for pirated novels
According to their piracy site, you “donate” money to the owner, and he gives a small amount to the translator, and the “donor” gets to read the translation before non-donors
Donations to avoid taxes, that’s a crime too pic.twitter.com/YZWL3J1Ggm
— p10455 (@imocx_) May 27, 2020
The piracy group turned off the invite link to their Discord and banned half of their members from their Discord and now they’re deleting their messages and trying to sweep everything under the rug.
Damage control is real. pic.twitter.com/mRPm8nGGdx
— p10455 (@imocx_) May 27, 2020
OnTakahashi got the role “Japan Guide” in the piracy group’s Discord and he’s full of shit as usual
In Japan, just like anywhere else, people will look at the content or the summary before deciding if it’s worth paying for. No one looks at a title and says “take my money” pic.twitter.com/VwO9QLw44I
— p10455 (@imocx_) May 27, 2020
@panda_ookuma You’re the illustrator for that light novel.
What are your thoughts on the CEO of Irodori Comics and that piracy group stealing money from you and the writer?
— p10455 (@imocx_) May 27, 2020
@gomanga You should check this out.
The CEO of Irodori Comics, a self-proclaimed hero against piracy, got caught working with piracy groups that distributes illegal translations of unlicensed novels.
This is going to hurt everyone’s reputation if it goes unchecked.
— p10455 (@imocx_) May 27, 2020
Based on the Wayback Machine captures, it does appear as if On Takahashi’s name is featured in the byline of the chapter preview.
In a Discord channel you can see Takahashi commenting about the progress of the translation. Back in January of 2019 he allegedly apologized and explained why the latest chapter’s translation was delayed.
What’s interesting is that the entire project isn’t designed to pay the original rights holders royalties from donations or crowdfunding, the project is being funded by the community and the translators are being funded directly, but nothing is going back to the original license holder, Kadokawa.
In fact, on the translation website they inform visitors that the money is being paid directly to the translations over on the FAQ page.
So Takahashi is allegedly engaged in the very kind of business he was critizing Manga Rock for, where there was a big brouhaha over Manga Rock monetizing their service, as discussed by Uchuu Shelf.
According to imocx, the Discord admins began purging users from the channel if they brought up Takahashi’s hypocrisy. They also limited the Discord invitations. What’s more is that after this was brought to the administrator’s attention, Takahashi’s name was removed from the current translation preview page on Shinmaimoutranslation.com. However, it’s unclear if he’s still working on the project for CBC.
(Thanks for the news tip kn1ka)
