AI localization company Orange Inc. added Shinichi Okada and Hiroto Ōishi‘s Doreiku (Dorei-ku: Boku to 23-nin no Dorei) manga to its “emaqi” e-bookstore service during the week of December 13.
The company describes the manga:
“Anyone want a ‘servant’?” You don’t need a genius-level intellect or superhuman strength. With a device called SCM, any victor can claim their opponent as a servant.
24 contestants have gotten their hands on SCMs, each driven by desire, vengeance, or their own personal goals. Now, they’ll clash in a brutal survival game where the stakes couldn’t be higher!
The manga is an adaptation of Okada’s Boku to 23-nin no Dorei novels, which initially serialized on the novel submission site Everystar. Futabasha published three volumes for the main series, as well as two spinoff volumes.
Ōishi launched the manga adaptation on Everystar in 2012 and Futabasha published the full series in 10 compiled volumes. Ōishi also drew a four-volume Dai Doreiku: Kimi to 1-Oku 3-Senban no Dorei manga in 2017-2019. Takayoshi Kuroda drew a three-volume manga for the franchise titled Dorei-ku: Gang Age in 2019-2020.
A television anime adaptation of the manga titled Doreiku The Animation debuted in April 2018. Sentai Filmworks released the anime on home video.
A live-action film adaptation starring Sayaka Akimoto and Kanata Hongō opened in Japan in June 2014.
Orange launched the emaqi service in the United States and Canada on September 3. The “emaqi” platform featured approximately 6,000 volumes of manga from 13 publishers in its launch, with plans to add at least one new title previously unpublished in English every week. Orange Inc. announced that it has secured translation, publishing, and distribution rights from publishers including Shonengahosha, Futabasha, and Akita Publishing. The company also acquired distribution rights from Kodansha USA Publishing.
The company’s partnership with Shueisha to localize one-shot manga from Shonen Jump+ allows readers to read newly translated stories in English several times a week, for free. Both the emaqi and Shueisha‘s MANGA Plus services are simultaneously publishing the one-shot manga. MANGA Plus had also announced its new program to release all one-shots from the Shonen Jump+ service in English simultaneously.
Readers can create a free account on emaqi and access the platform’s wide range of content. Each manga has a detailed synopsis, and sample chapters or previews that are available for readers to try out. Readers can buy individual volumes of a manga title, or subscribe to an ongoing series directly through the platform.
emaqi is web-based, and Orange is considering launching the service as a mobile app next year.
Source: E-mail correspondence
