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Manga Reborn Kickstarter Makes Funding Goal

Manga Reborn, a website that allows users to legally read manga digitally in English and in Japanese, reached its funding goal of US$6,000 for its Kickstarter campaign before the campaign ended on November 3. The campaign raised a total of US$7,098.

Manga Reborn launched the Kickstarter campaign in September to translate 10 manga titles into English and distribute them digitally through the website. Pledge levels ranged from US$1 to US$2,500 and rewards included digital copies of the English versions of the manga, a digital English version of Shuho Sato's nonfiction novel Manga Poverty about the state of the manga industry, the ability to choose the next title to be translated on Manga Reborn from the company's library, original art, and a tour of the COMITIA event in Japan.

The campaign added Machiko Satonaka's The Old Testament (Kyūyaku Seisho) with seven days left in the campaign. All of the titles featured in the Kickstarter project have never been previously published in English.

The campaign reached its first stretch goal of US$6,500, so all backers will receive digital copies of The Old Testament.

Manga Reborn launched earlier this year and currently hosts around 500 manga on its site, with 100 of those manga being available in English. Manga Reborn uses crowd-sourcing from its users to translate the manga on its site.

The company notes that Kickstarter donations "will be used to find and recruit the best localization team, contact authors, license new manga, and turn this manga into digital content." The company has also posted a more specific explanation as to how the money will be used.