Maria and Tora from 2039.
Manga and anime has moved from a fringe hobby in the West to becoming a mainstream pursuit with popular manga turned anime such as Bleach and Naruto airing on US television. Unfortunately US license holders lag months and often times years behind the Japanese publication of titles. The good news? Translations are available for free for nearly any manga title no matter how obscure. Finding your favorite title has never been easier.
Instructions
1. Look for scanalations, also known as scans, of the title. Type the title of the manga followed by the word 'scanalation' into your favorite search engine. Manga scans and translations are near professional in quality and only lag behind the Japanese release by a few days to a week in most cases.
2. Search for manga fan subs. Fan subs usually present the scans of the Japanese manga as is with sub-titles beneath the panels or along the bottom of the page. They aren't as easy to read as scanalations but if your manga title isn't available as a scan it may be available as a fan sub.
3. Visit an online forum dedicated to the manga you are trying to find or manga in general. Fan-subbers often post links to their subbed manga on forums or you can ask if any exist. Some fan-subbers take requests for new titles to translate.
4. Understand the legalities of ethics involved with manga scans and subs. Free English manga translations online fall into a gray area legally and involve tricky ethics. Most US license holders look the other way when free manga scans are online since it helps increase the title's popularity and gives them hints on which titles to license next. Scanners and subbers that remove volumes from their library once the official license holder's release a published volume operate in this gray area and are generally accepted. Those that continue to offer published volumes for free on their sites are technically breaking the law. You must decide where your own personal comfort level lies in this case.
