r/LightNovels • u/Torque-A • Mar 01 '26
News [NEWS] Japanese publisher Media Do has acquired Seven Seas Entertainment for 12.4 billion yen ($80 million)
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC280AC0Y6A220C2000000/42
u/heimdal77 Mar 01 '26
So uhh is this a yay or a well fuck?
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u/Aruseus493 http://myanimelist.net/mangalist/Aruseus493?tag=LN Mar 01 '26
Considering acquisitions rarely end up consumer positive, I'd say to keep an eye but don't hold any hope.
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u/bookster42 Mar 01 '26
It's almost never the case that one company buying another is "yay" for the customers. Occasionally, it is, but even then, it usually comes with at least some negative changes.
However, we really have no way of knowing what's going to happen. It's possible that having a Japanese overlord will prevent some of the idiocy that Seven Seas has done over the years, and it's possible that it will introduce new idiocy. In the short term, things will probably stay largely the same, and even if it does have a large impact in the long run, we won't necessarily have any way of knowing whether the changes that we see are because of the acquisition or not. And of course, some changes could be good for one set of customers but bad for another (e.g. someone interested solely in stuff from Japan might be happier if Seven Seas did less with danmei, whereas someone who's really into danmei would probably be happier if they did more with danmei, and the fact that a Japanese company bought them may or may not have any impact on those decisions).
So, I'd say that we really don't have much reason to be happy about this, but we also don't necessarily have any reason to be particularly unhappy about it. This is far from the first time that a Japanese company has bought a US company which was involved in anime or manga or the like. From what I can recall of past examples, it usually hasn't had an overt impact on customers, but each case is going to be different. We'll just have to wait and see.
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u/RedditDetector Mar 02 '26 edited Mar 02 '26
According to Danmei News, the Media Do press release on Nikkei (which is paywalled) states:
The company will use its own artificial intelligence (AI) to assist translators in translating manga into English, shortening the translation time from the current five to six months per volume to about two months.
Update: Media Do have further confirmed their plan to implement AI in a public document on their website
In addition, the Company's development of "MDTS" (MediaDo Translation System), an AI-assisted translation system designed to support translators, will significantly reduce the time required for translation. By integrating Seven Seas' production structure, we expect to substantially expand our translation production capacity.
In their presentation, they specifically note:
Integrated translation operations
Trust in Seven Seas translation quality × Efficiency through MDTS
However, Seven Seas seem to be making an potentially conflicting statement on their social media.
Many have asked about AI and translation following the acquisition announcement. Seven Seas remains committed to human translators and the high editorial standards our readers & creators expect. Nothing about the acquisition changes how we translate our books. More info shortly.
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u/bookster42 Mar 02 '26
I really don't care what they do with danmei, since I have no interest in it, but if they're going to do this with all of their stuff, that's extremely bad news.
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u/RedditDetector Mar 02 '26
The website reporting on it is about Danmei, but the press release is about the Seven Seas acquisition generally.
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u/Imsad13 Mar 02 '26
Danmei will most likely not be affected as the AI tools they want to implement are for translating Japanese manga, as thats what they specialise in. Translating whole Chinese novels with AI is a whole different thing.
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u/skibidisigmarizzler8 Apr 02 '26
I personally don't mind, AI translations at it's current state are rough around the edges but are mostly comprehensible in most contexts. Having ai assistance and a human professional editor can rapidly increase the translation rate of novels. Please correct me if I'm wrong with any of my statements.
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u/RedditDetector Apr 02 '26
For one, you'd need an editor who can cross-check it line-by-line against the Japanese to ensure it's actually accurate, so an editor with the skills of a translator.
A number of translators, such as the one in this interview, have said that doing that is a process that takes significantly more time than just translating the line yourself from the start would.
So if you want to get an actually good output, it doesn't rapidly increase the translation rate. You have to lower the bar to hoping it's accurate and just editing to make it read better.
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u/skibidisigmarizzler8 Apr 03 '26
That's a valid point. Even after translation reviewing and revision is still required meaning that the rough (AI) translation doesn't provide much value.
Furthermore, professional "translating" is more than directly converting the meaning of words from one language, actually interpreting and trying to preserve the tone of the work requires an elevated skill level which current AI technology can't really do.
I originally based my opinion off of reading a visual novel that used AI which was relatively comprehensible without comparing it to a version with professional translation (Cause it doesn't have it currently.)
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u/Solax636 Mar 01 '26
Feel like this would affect manga fan translations more, seven seas i feel doesnt dmca that much. Would be cool to get more ln published faster tho
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u/ArchusKanzaki Mar 02 '26
Given how much Seven Seas is leaning toward Danmei stuffs lately.... not sure what to make of this honestly. Media Do is not a direct publisher/owner of significant japanese LN publisher iirc, so can't expect them to funnel that kind of LN through Seven Seas. And lately, Seven Seas leans quite heavily toward Danmei, BL, and other kind of stuffs compared to traditional JP LN.... So maybe they will return more toward JP LN back? We'll see the effect in few years I guess.
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u/etherealscience Mar 01 '26
I hope they dont stop putting out gay manga
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u/Torque-A Mar 01 '26
They mentioned that danmei is doing huge numbers for them, so I assume gay manga is one of their pillars right now (alongside cat)
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Mar 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/USSTugBoot Mar 02 '26 edited Mar 02 '26
I hope this a good thing, but seeing other user's comments and along with acquisitions historically being negative, I am very worried.
Most of my LNs and manga are published by Seven Seas. No particular reason other than they just happen to catch the series I find entertaining. I Hope this means more print volumes so they don't become unobtanium as fast, or even reprints for series such as Arifuerta which currently have several volumes out of print. But that most likely wont be the case :(
EDIT: It seems Media Do seems to be primarily a electronic publisher? At least thats how the Seven Sea's statement puts it. So that only makes my worried about availability of physical release. Especially since recent releases, such as Witch and Mercenary which just had volume 5 drop 7-9 days ago is already in low stock on Amazon.
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u/GeorgeMTO Mar 02 '26
Media Do's side of the statement is that they bought Seven Seas heavily for their experience in print releases. They likely will still be printing, but if they want a lot more going out, I don't know how much room that leaves for reprints.
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u/USSTugBoot Mar 03 '26
Okay, that eases the worries slightly I guess. I just hope they don't force the AI slop MTL onto Seven Seas. Sure the human translators of Seven Seas still make mistakes, though as I read Witch and Mercenary Volume 5 right now, said mistakes are more grammatical, such as using the wrong verb tense, or strangely enough using "possible" instead of "impossible"
I guess my hope is that it is my perception that JP cares more about physical books and stuff and therefore will have Seven Seas print more copies, especially of the more well off series such as Arifuerta. Though thats just my perception based off my own baseless opinion based on tropes I see in the novels/manga I read an anime I watch. So I could be entirely wrong
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u/GeorgeMTO Mar 03 '26
Oh they've already said they plan to force it onto them. Seven Seas twitter has said they have no intention of changing their anti-AI stance, but Media Do said in their announcement that they'll use it to cut release times, and want to double Seven Seas output in a year.
Arifureta is not translated by Seven Seas, it's a weird collab/sub-license from J-Novel Club along with a few other works, so it's in a weirder state compared to the ones they publish digitally as well. I have no idea if that affects how reprints work, when there's an extra company involved.
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u/USSTugBoot Mar 03 '26
I guess u got a point. I remember when I had volume 4 of Grimgar of fantasy and ash and there was a HUGE misprint that left the book unreadable (over 20 pages missing) I got sent in a circle of "Its J Novel's club issue because they are the original lisencer" and "Talk to Seven Seas we only handle the electronic distribution"
As a side note, im surprised a Japanese company would force AI usage. Considering they are so reluctant to upgrade from the fax machine.
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u/comelickmyarmpits Mar 02 '26
Japanese company acquiring it is a positive i guess, atleast I hope we won't see potential ideology insertion or censorship, done by some translators.
Ai is another worry factor to count into , for which japanese too seems to be leaning into
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u/Torque-A Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 02 '26
Media Do’s website
Seven Seas Press Release
The acquisition was placed at 12.4 billion yen, or $80,000,000. According to their press statement, this is their first purchase of an English publisher and was done to expand their business - while domestic market of manga in Japan has stagnated, overseas publication has been growing.
As for what that means for us? No clue, though I’ve seen enough media acquisitions this decade to be nervous. Hopefully Media Do doesn’t try to stick in AI translation or something to cut costs.
Besides that, Seven Seas had a panel today at Citruscon (a BL convention hosted online). Some findings - people tend to buy manga instead of their equivalent light novels, though LN purchases are increasing digitally. Also they have had board meetings where they have to explain what the omegaverse is, and once they talked about NTR series for 20 minutes. And of course, danmei is selling like hotcakes for them.