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Launch HN: Azuki (YC W22) – All-you-can-read manga subscription

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Azuki (YC W22) – All-you-can-read manga subscription

#121

Post by tendersej »

olah_1 wrote: post #75
tendersej wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shameless plug: my current project https://www.nekostrips.com aims at making the process as frictionless as possible. Still very rough around the edges, but useful for hobby purposes. I have several improvements in the works.

Awesome! I will follow the development and try it out! Any plans to open source it? Is there a roadmap? My guess is that you’ll be adding custom font support (some unicode isn’t support by mainstream fonts and you can probably find a niche by supporting minority languages). also i suppose you’ll be adding bulk export to common comic book formats like cbz or cbr?

Firstly, thanks for your message, it genuinely made me smile :)

As for your questions:

- No plans to open source it, unless I stop working on it.

As for the roadmap, it is extensive. In random order (both in terms of importance and release horizon) I am planning:

- exports as archives (if I remember properly, .cbr and .cbz formats are just renamed .rar and .zip respectively) as you mentioned

- proper font selection/customization (and eventually, bring your own) as you surmised

- workflow improvements (shortcuts, bulk commands vs current clicking item by item)

- specifying bubble type, from visual type (text in closed bubble opaque or not, text over background) to purpose (speech, onomatopeia, in-world written text, meta explanation) and source (who is talking, to whom, etc)

- moving the current "zoom" level from chapter to series: link to Knowledge Base, for easier lexical reference (with regards to man(ga|hwa|hua) names are often transcriptions of foreign words / names which are often translated back with varying degrees of success).

- multiplayer

- making the app not just usable but ergonomic on mobile screens

- a lot more.

I will add a roadmap section on the app.

Origin story:

I worked as a translator (handwritten medical forms, business communications) during my studies and got interested in what was considered the state of the art for CAT tools. I ended up building my own out of scripts, macros and rule-based processing because nothing provided the ease, flexibility and low overhead I was looking for.

With nekostrips, I am convinced I can deliver a compelling tool for comics.

If you or anyone else feels like discussing further, you can contact me through the form on the app, or on social networks.

Re: Launch HN: Azuki (YC W22) – All-you-can-read manga subscription

#123

Post by latexr »

slap_shot wrote: post #29
toyg wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calm down - we're in the middle of a massive upward inflationary spiral across the Western world. I know I'd love to buy this, but I'm already double-guessing myself on whether it's worth $60 a year...

This is off topic but as someone who grew up in a household that made their living selling things in markets, where prices were openly negotiated, I just want to share a thought: While you're absolutely allowed to express that a product may not be worth a price, it seems tactless to make such a comment on a thread where the founders are announcing their product. I understand you're replying to someone who feels the p…

> it seems tactless to make such a comment on a thread where the founders are announcing their product (…) to say you're double guessing the price just seems like something you should keep to yourself.

If you identify a pain point and keep it to yourself, you’re doing a disservice to the founders. If they charge too much and no one ever tells them, the business will fail and they won’t learn why. Honest (polite) feedback is more beneficial than trying to spare their feelings.

> I can only imagine the amount of work this team puts into crafting these translation

This team is for now a middleman, they haven’t put any work into the translations: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30807307

Re: Launch HN: Azuki (YC W22) – All-you-can-read manga subscription

#124

Post by latexr »

bovermyer wrote: post #25
BasouKazuma wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, sorry about that! We’d definitely love to get it on Azuki but the process isn't too straight-forward and can take some time between negotiating with publishers and creators.

If you get it, I'd subscribe immediately. I just need to read volumes 33-36 to finish it out, but I don't want to buy them, as that seems kind of a waste... and I don't want to pirate them either.

> I just need to read volumes 33-36 to finish it out

The story is still fantastic and interesting, but not anywhere near an ending. Gon meeting Ging is as close to it as you’ll get. From there it ramps up again in full force with a huge new set of characters and the idea of a new world to explore.

Togashi has said he’d either finish Hunter × Hunter or die. Given the pace of release[1] and the state of the story, don’t bet on a conclusion.

Those extra chapters are still worth it, but be prepared for it to stop abruptly.

[1]: https://hiatus-hiatus.github.io/

Re: Launch HN: Azuki (YC W22) – All-you-can-read manga subscription

#126

Post by dollop43 »

ineedtosleep wrote: post #5

Nice. Wish you luck in this space, especially with the _other methods_ of reading manga around. Will definitely take a look. Question about the releases: are there any plans on having Japanese language versions of manga available as well?

Having Japanese language versions is a deal breaker for me for learning Japanese. There is amazon.jp, but it is not Netflix like service, kindle "unlimited" is pretty limited on what content is available.

Though I understand it is common practice for Japanese publisher to have region lock on Japanese version and ban international buyer to buy without obvious reason. Looking forward to see what you could do on this space. Wish you luck.

Re: Launch HN: Azuki (YC W22) – All-you-can-read manga subscription

#128

Post by goosedragons »

BasouKazuma wrote: post #48
foven wrote: post #39

Why should anyone use this over one of the competitors, like Viz or Mangaplus? This is rapidly becoming a saturated market.

Viz/Mangaplus only stream Shonen Jump titles. We are currently focused on the thousands of other titles that are out there that aren't getting that level of love. We are here to bridge that major gap so even more is available in English.

What about Crunchyroll though? They also seem to offer some of the same non-Jump titles as you (e.g. Cardcaptor Sakura CC)? And can I read offline with this?

Re: Launch HN: Azuki (YC W22) – All-you-can-read manga subscription

#130

Post by dagi3d »

BasouKazuma wrote: post #95
cultofmetatron wrote: post #69

Finally! Its been incredibly frustrating with the current model of paying $7-$10 for a manga volume. Gettign caught up with a series can cost over a hundred dollars vs being able to stream the anime with just crunchy roll or netflix. It just didn't make sense to me that the anime would be cheaper to consume given the relative production costs.

That's exactly why I started Azuki! I just want to read as easily as I can watch anime without blind buying a bunch of stuff.

I am curious how this pricing model affect the publishers/creators. I understand that from the consumer point of view, it looks quite appealing but wonder if for the players in the other side it would be the same. Is the idea that in the long term there will be a bigger user base paying for this new model which translates into a higher revenue stream than the actual one even if they end paying way less compared to buying those titles individually?
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