Japan is already famous for its manga offerings that are also adapted into anime. Most recently, a number of leading manga publishers in Japan invested in an artificial intelligence firm focused on manga translation, Mantra.
Among the firms that invested in this Mantra are Kadokawa, Shuesiha, Shogakukan and also Square Enix Holdings. A total of 780 million Yen was invested in Mantra by the combination of these companies.
Mantra uses image recognition capabilities to identify the text on the manga, and then perform the translation. Manga is sometimes difficult to translate due to context and characterization. Mantra tries to solve this through the support of artificial intelligence and image recognition. The translation done will also be further improved by a human translator.
Mantra's service is already used by several parties, including in translating the works "One Piece" and "Spy x Family" into Vietnamese. Although now the translation efforts are moving faster, there are manga companies aiming for the simultaneous introduction of new episodes or manga worldwide in various languages through the use of this Mantra.
This translation offering is also expected to reduce the rate of piracy. At the same time, it is shared that only 2% of Japanese works have been translated into English so far.