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Human Versus Machine Japanese Translation Mini Battle

Date: 2024 May 09 20:06 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The manga tech start up Orange Inc recently raised over 19 million USD in funding for machine translated manga. We were quite intrigued because machine translation hasn't always worked out in the past for manga titles. One recent example was the Ranking of Kings Manga that had to be pulled because the quality of the translations were so poor. What's worse was the lack of quality control from everyone involved in the publishing of the title.

As we were curious, we reached out to some professional translators to ask their opinions on the current state of translation.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Manga Tech Startup Orange, Inc. Raises JPY 2.9B (USD 19.5M) in Pre-Series A Financing

Date: 2024 May 09 20:06 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The people from manga tech start up Orange, Inc have sent us details about their latest fundraising. They've managed to get JPY 2.92 billion (approximately USD 19.5 million* ) fundraising in pre-series A financing.

The company pitches itself as a a manga localization technology company that uses deep learning models to translate manga. In a web comic they explain how it's not cost effective to get humans to translate the bulk of manga published in Japanese. As a result they claim less than 2% of Japanese manga has been translated.

The pitch also says they'll have skilled translators polish the output, while in reality, for a translator it's actually easier to translate directly than to tidy up machine translated text.

Machine translation does have it's place. It's frequently (and successfully) used to translate text with a consistent context, such as instruction manuals and technical documents. This text is often very dry, but also very limited in scope with fixed and repeated text. Once a human has corrected it the machine model can then use the preferred translation for that expression again and again, which makes sense in an instruction manual.

Manga however is a creative endeavour and as a result the translations have a very wide scope. Translators have to be creative, who is speaking? What's their background? What mood are they in? What's the context of what they're saying? Is it a pun? Are they speaking formally? Do they have a regional accent? This and many other factors have to be taken into account words don't always have a one to one mapping, as context and intent makes manga translation an art form unto itself.

We're reminded In an industry where companies are trying to lower translation costs at the expense of translators wages, it can make it difficult to earn money as a freelance translator when companies are trying to race to the bottom.

We're thinking if you gave the Otaku News Team 2.92 billion JPY, we wouldn't publish as much manga as Orange Inc are intending to, but we'd pay our translators, letters and other production staff a decent wage. So if any companies looking to send us almost 19.5M USD to publish, then please do get in touch. We've got a list of manga we'd like to license and translate!

On a more serious note, we reached out to a few professional translators to ask their opinion on the Orange Inc News and machine translation in general. We also got them to do a translation mini battle.

Voidol3 Anime Style Voice Changing Software Release Details

Date: 2024 January 06 12:47 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Retail

The good folks from Japanese software firm Crimson Technology have sent us details about their English language launch of Voidol3. This is real time voice conversion software primarily aimed at streamers, v-tubers and people who have the need to change their voice in real time.

We reviewed Voidol2 when it came out a few years ago.

This new version is available for Windows and macOS. You can purchase the standard version for $270 (USD) or upgrade from Voidol2 for $170 (USD).

Voidol2 Anime Style Voice Changing Software Review

Date: 2022 February 08 21:06 | Posted By: Voxie

Category > Features

After we heard about Crimson Technology's voice changing Voidol2 software we were curious to know more about it. It's aimed at those who want to change their voices to that of a Japanese school girl, robot or something else for whatever reason. It's mainly aimed at streamers, VTubers and other content creators.

Thanks to the good folks at Crimson Technology we were able to get our hands on a review copy to give it a go.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Voidol2 Anime Style Voice Changing Software Release Details

Date: 2021 November 25 21:59 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The good folks from Japanese software firm Crimson Technology have sent us details about their English language launch of Voidol2. This is real time voice conversion software primarily aimed at streamers, v-tubers and people who have the need to change their voice in real time.

The software has many voice modes and can make you sound like an anime character or even a robot and everything else in between. It retails for 13,200 JPY (about $114 USD / £86 GBP), but is currently on offer for 8,800 JPY (about $76 USD / £57 GBP). It's available to download on Windows or Mac via Sendowl.

Hatsune Miku at the Photographers' Gallery in London

Date: 2015 August 22 14:24 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

London based fans of everyone's favourite Vocaloid will want to head down to The Photographers' Gallery in Central London. Their media wall is currently showing Hatsune Miku as part of the d(^_^)b Exhibit, which runs up until Tuesday 15th September 2015.

Fans will also want to attend the Vocaloids and Alternative Universes talk which is set to run at the gallery at 6pm on Tuesday 8th September 2015. It's set to explore the theme of "How are new forums are being created online through fan and user generated music and images?" It should be an interesting discussion, but we wonder why no-one who is a Japanese Culture expert is on the panel? The talk costs £8 to attend or £5 for TPG members and concessions. It certainly does look interesting and worth attending.

Hyper Japan Event Details - July 2014

Date: 2014 July 03 15:28 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

UK based fans of Japanese culture including anime, manga, food, J-Pop, cosplay and more traditional things will want to head to London on Friday 25th to Sunday 27th July 2014 for Hyper Japan.

The annual J-culture event returns promising to be it's biggest Hyper Japan yet.

It'll have all sorts of fun things to see and do. Including a game and anime park, fringe market, a section of pure kawaii, plus much more!

REZtron - Otaku News Event Review - Wednesday 18th September 2013

Date: 2013 September 23 16:37 | Posted By: Guest Contributor

Category > Events

Written by Voxie and Franki Webb.

What does a gamer look like? Today this is an impossible question to answer. It's 7:45 pm, and as we walk into REZtron, we see a crowd ranging from 20s to 40s, male and female, from a range of backgrounds. It's clear that a gamer as no specific look.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Necomimi Brainwave Cat Ears are now available to buy in the UK

Date: 2012 June 27 15:46 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Retail

Following on from our story on Brainwave Controlled Robotic Cat Ears, they've finally hit retailers in the UK! United Publications is now listing them for a very reasonable £73 a set. This will make an ideal gift for cosplayers, furries or those who just like wearing cat ears.

Souce: United Publications

Netflix Streaming Service opens in UK/Ireland

Date: 2012 January 08 23:45 | Posted By: Eeeper

Category > Anime

American streaming service launches in the UK and Ireland with selection of anime films and series available for streaming.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

BBC News on the OS-tans

Date: 2010 December 13 16:54 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Fandom

BBC News have discovered the cute Japanese take on Operating Systems, the OS-tans.
The cute anthropomorphic characters of operating systems which later spread to characters of popular programs being made too.

Originally a fan made effort article points to how in some places anime style characters have been created as official mascots such as Microsoft's Silverlight having it's own character in Taiwan.

Ruth Keattch of Sweatdrop Studios comments on them in the article and introduces the readers to the basics of the OS-tans.

Fans of the OS-tans might also be interested in Ubunchu The Ubuntu Linux Manga.

Souce: BBC News

The Anime Machine: An Illustrated Lecture at London's BFI Southbank

Date: 2010 June 23 15:35 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

Fans of futuristic technology and anime who can get to London will want to head over to the BFI Southbank on Sunday 11th July 2010 for their special lecture on the world saturated with technology. Called The Anime Machine: An Illustrated Lecture by Thomas Lamarre it's set to start at 6pm. You can also get a joint ticket for a screening of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

Fans of more tradional Japanese cinema will want to consider the BFI Southbank season of Akira Kurosawa and His Influence.

As always we advise booking in advance for such events to avoid disappointment.

Souce: BFI Southbank

Japanese Cars at the Science Museum in London

Date: 2008 October 19 12:55 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Fans of design, cars, science or just cool Japanese stuff in general will want to pay a visit to the Japan Car exhibition at the Science Museum in London, from 29th November 2008 until 19th April 2009.

The exhibition is set to focus on size, environment and "moving urban cells". It will also display cars along other elements of Japanese culture, including bonsai, art and design.

Learn Japanese on-line with Urban Japanese

Date: 2006 November 28 16:53 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Press Releases

We've been sent a press release from Japanese video game and toy concept development company Gamewax, who have developed a interesting concept in learning Japanese remotely. They claim to be the UK's first fully interactive recordable on-line Japanese language school, Urban Japanese. Distance learning is nothing new, as universities and other education institutions have been tinkering with the concepts for years now, but this is certainly the first private company in the UK we're aware of that offer Japanese lessons.

Japanese School Girls on Discovery Science UK

Date: 2006 July 18 11:48 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Anime > TV

Being the eagle eyed people we here at Otakunews are we've spotted a new show on Discovery Science UK. Japanese school girls is a gadget and technology show fronted by four Japanese school girls. Two episodes air today (Tuesday 18th) at 7pm and 7:30pm on Discovery Science.

Souce: Discovery Science

Europe Needs Bigger Robots Push

Date: 2005 October 07 08:22 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Technology > Robotics

BBC News are running a story titled Europe Needs Bigger Robots Push, at first we were hoping the EU needs some Gundams or other giant mecha, but infact it's an interesting story about how advanced Japanese robot research is compared to Europe.

Apparently the EU is going to give a boost to selected companies to aid in their development of robots.

Souce: BBC News

Cover Competition - The Anime and Electronics Shopping Guide to Tokyo

Date: 2005 January 06 18:55 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Fandom

David Cotterill (aka Dragon) has dropped us a line about his new book - The Anime and Electronics Shopping Guide to Tokyo, a self published using print-on-demand technology to ensure that each copy ordered is as up to date as possible, it's due for publication in February. Currently Dragon is running a competition for his book to design the front cover and inside icons for the book. The winning entry will get a free copy of the book and DVD of your choice from United Publications. More details can be found on Anime.org.uk's News Section.

The Otaku News Crew suggest the winner selects a nice DVD boxset. ^_-

Souce: David Cotterill

New Eurostar Rail Link To Use Bullet Trains

Date: 2004 October 27 18:31 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Technology

The BBC are reporting that the new Eurostar rail link will be using trains built by Japanese bullet train manufacturer Hitachi. The new trains due to roll out in 2009 will run at 140mph, 46mph slower than the fastest Japanese bullet trains currently in Japan. The Otaku News crew hope that they don't get delayed by leaves on the line like conventional trains in the UK.

Souce: BBC

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