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Popular hentai manga website Fakku! has announced on Twitter on Saturday (Philippine time) that they have officially removed all “scanlations”, or fan-translated manga, from their website.
This move comes after the website launched their “Fakku! Books” service in August 2014 which made the site an “official manga publisher”, and more recently, their “Fakku! Subscription” service in July last year.
Today we officially removed all scanlations from FAKKU, going forward we will have entirely licensed material in collab with artists
— FAKKU (@FAKKU) January 1, 2016
The social media account also posted that they expect that a lot of the site’s members will be disappointed with the action, but adds “this is an important step that we are proud to make.”
In an interview with noted blogger & pop-culture writer Lauren Orsini for Forbes.com in July, Fakku! Founder and CEO Jacob Grady says “I’ve always believed that creating a product worth spending money on would be enough to get people to support it”.
He also added that by making the R-18 website legitimate means directly supporting the manga artists, and showing Japanese creators that there are support for official manga releases.
Currently, Fakku! is selling licensed hentai manga for USD9.95 (about PHP470) in digital format and USD19.95 (about PHP935) or USD24.95 (about PHP1,170) in hard paperback, depending on the title.
The website is also simulpublishing Wanimagazine’s Comic Kairakuten and Comic X-Eros the same time as Japan as a part of its subscription service, priced at USD 12.95 (about PHP610) per month.
All titles are available in uncensored format and translated in English.
The website is following the format of the popular streaming service Crunchyroll, which started off as a video-uploading website in 2006. Some of the site’s content at that time are fansubbed versions of mostly anime shows or bootleg versions of its American releases.
In 2009, all copyright-infringing content has been removed from the website following a deal with Japanese television network TV Tokyo to host episodes of Naruto Shippuden.
In October 2013, the website has launched “Crunchyroll Manga”, which distributed & “simulpublished” official releases of popular manga titles from Kodansha, including Fairy Tail and Attack on Titan.
In December 2013, The Chernin Group, which invested in several online & entertainment companies, acquired “controlling interest” in Crunchyroll, rumored at around USD100 million.
