Translator
Translation requires an understanding of Japanese and English and a strong understanding of the cultures you’re translating to and from. A high reading comprehension level and strong creative writing skills are also necessary. Without these skills, you may be able to produce a translation, but you will struggle to convey tone and the individual personalities of each character.
Translators write a rough draft, revise it themselves, then send it off to an editor. After suggestions have been made, the translator and editor will go edits together. Once the translation has been lettered, beta readers will make a final round of suggestions based on their reading experience.
We never recruit for this role, but if you want recommendations of groups to join, we’d be happy to provide them.
Translation Checker
Translation Checkers (TLC’s), review translations to make sure the conversion from Japanese to English hasn’t created any mistranslations. Currently, TLC’s are only conducted on scripts written by translators other than the head translator. However, this is something we eventually hope to make a normal part of the translation process. We don’t advertise openings for this role, but please message us on Discord if you’re interested.
Editor
Editors work with translators to smooth out the script before it’s lettered. They look for grammatical errors, typos, areas that feel unnatural, and more. Examples include:
- Awkward and cumbersome lines
- Out-of-character lines
- Sincere lines that come off as sarcastic
- Errors in the flow of logic
- Unintentional double entendres
Because editing a translation poses many unique challenges, this is the hardest position in our group. Thus, our editors come to us with experience gained from editing in real life and/or a very high level of reading comprehension. They are also almost always native speakers of American English.
Beta Reader
Beta readers exist to make sure the reading experience is as good as it can be. They go over every chapter before release to check for similar things that an editor would check for, although less intensively.
Nowadays, beta reading is something many of our members fulfill as a secondary role, so we don’t recruit for it.
Cleaner
The bulk of cleaning happens through fully-automated Photoshop actions/scripts, which are created and tweaked by cleaners. Cleaners also handle the restoration of patterns and Takagi-san noses.
This role requires experience. We are always looking for cleaners who know their way around low quality paper.
Cleaner Lite
This is the easiest but most tedious role in our group. It also functions as an entry position which members can branch out from if they like. As such, they are required to work on all series we do. A cleaner lite has three main jobs:
Rotacropping: Scanned raws are often slanted and thus need to be straightened (rotated), followed by having the excess cropped (together forming the word rotacrop).
Bubbling: This is the process of removing any text that will not need to be redrawn.
Dusting: When a page is cleaned, the cleaning script often leaves behind specks of white and black that have to be removed. This is by far the most tedious part of being a cleaner-lite, but we have scripts to help make it less difficult.
Redrawer
Redrawers remove any text that is placed directly over art, including tones, patterns, and lines. Since this is art restoration, it requires prior experience.
Letterer
Letterers apply the translation script to the Photoshop files. They use predetermined fonts with mostly predetermined settings, and their key focus is to make sure the text looks visually consistent across a single chapter. This job favors those with an eye for detail.
Specialized text such as signs are sometimes handled by SFX letterers, sometimes by regular letterers.
We only recruit for this role internally. If interested, you’ll have to join on a different role. No prior experience preferred.
SFX Letterer
SFX are primarily lettered by hand on a drawing tablet, though we occasionally use creative fonts for small SFX. SFX letterers may use whatever software they want when creating the SFX, but it’s generally preferred that they be able to export their work to Photoshop without damaging the integrity of the PSD files.
This role doesn’t require prior experience or Japanese or redrawing skills, but it does require a drawing tablet.
We are always recruiting for this role.
Quality Checker
Quality checkers go over each chapter before release to make any necessary adjustments. Most quality checkers have a specific area of expertise that they are in charge of.
This role is fulfilled by group administrators, so we don’t recruit for it.
Raw Provider
Raw providers handle the scanning of physical manga. This requires a scanner of decent quality that can output 600dpi color PNG files.
Because of the legally questionable nature of this role, we don’t credit our raw provider. We don’t recruit for this role, but if you are interested in it, please contact us.