The past couple of decades have seen a huge surge in the popularity of everything Japanese, with people from around the world creating an audience far bigger than that of Japan. Iconic brands like One Piece and Dragonball Z are staples of media in many countries, but fans abroad haven’t always had the easiest time getting hold of Japanese media. Today, we’re going to help with that.
Manga
For the longest time, veteran manga readers had to rely on either learning Japanese and ordering the original volumes from the source, or grabbing one of the scarce translated copies available locally. Over the years, places like bookshops and the like have certainly improved their game, with most having at least a small stock of the biggest titles. However, the full selection is still hard to find.
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Thankfully, as the era of print seems to be passing, online options have taken over and availability is just the first perk. For instance, using the manga reading app from the legendary Shōnen Jump means that you not only get access, you can have access at the same time as Japanese audiences. On top of that, they are adding interesting new features all the time.
Anime
Thanks to being animated and therefore easier to market to foreign audiences, we’ve had a market for anime far longer than manga. In most cases, however, this meant getting the inferior dubbed versions through local channels. Online and app services have recently made several subbed shows more available, but licensing can still limit their reach.
If you’re using something like Crunchyroll, a VPN can unlock a much wider range of entertainment for you. By using a foreign connection identity, you can access shows not available in your own country, and that extends beyond anime as well. For example, if you’re a casino fan, you would be able to play casino games through a VPN that you wouldn’t normally be able to see at home, including some through dedicated casinos designed to work with a remote connection.
Games
The good news for lovers of Japanese games is that, thanks to many global networks, the vast majority of Japanese games have made their way into markets around the world. For lovers of specific visual novels or niche RPG series, the situation is not so simple, as releases outside Japan often just don’t happen. Unfortunately, the list of official solutions for this is either short or non-existent.
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That’s where the world of fan translations comes in, particularly for older titles without any hope of an English release. There are massive fan projects working on translating older titles even long after the original has been forgotten by the wider world. The practice is in something of a gray area, but game companies seem to tolerate the idea, so long as fans don’t interfere with any official translations in the works.
Overall, the list of media kept to Japan only is shrinking as each year passes. In a few years, we’d expect most alternative methods to become obsolete as we enter a global internet era where language is far less of a concern.