Raw manga ·
Raw manga translator: read Japanese raws in your language
A raw is a chapter in its original Japanese, before anyone translates it. RuneManga reads its vertical text, erases it and letters the translation into the bubbles, so you can read new chapters the day they come out in Japan.
Translate raws you are allowed to read: chapters on official Japanese sites and apps, and free chapters publishers share. RuneManga does not host or link to chapters.
Why people read raws
- New chapters come out in Japan first, often weeks or months before an official translation.
- Many series are never licensed in your language at all.
- People learning Japanese read raws to practise, with a translation to check against.
How to translate a raw chapter
- On a website: add the RuneManga extension, open the chapter and click the R button on a page, or turn on Auto to translate the pages as you scroll.
- From files: open the WebApp and drop in the pages, a ZIP, a CBZ or a PDF. RuneManga translates them in order and you download the chapter.
- Pick the language you read. Japanese is detected by itself.
- Compare with the original: press and hold a translated page in the extension, or switch between Original and Result in the WebApp.
What makes Japanese raws hard
- Vertical text: Japanese bubbles run top to bottom and right to left. RuneManga reads them in that order and letters the translation horizontally.
- Tall, narrow bubbles: they fit vertical Japanese but leave little room for horizontal lines, so the translation is wrapped and sized to fit.
- Text on the art: captions and lines drawn outside bubbles are translated too, while sound effects stay as they are.
- The background under the text is filled in again, so the page still reads as one drawing.
Readers that work
- Sites that show pages as ordinary images, including ones that load pages as you scroll.
- On a reader that protects its pages, use Translate an area in the extension, or translate pages you have as files in the WebApp.
What to expect from the translation
Machine translation of manga is good enough to follow the story and most jokes, but names, puns and slang can come out wrong. RuneManga translates with RuneLingua, its own AI translator for manga and manhwa, and you can fix any line afterwards in the editor.
Questions
What is a raw manga?
A raw is a manga chapter in its original language, usually Japanese, with no translation. The word comes from reader communities.
Can RuneManga translate raw manga to English?
Yes. It reads the Japanese text, translates it into English or any of 93 languages and letters it into the bubbles.
Is it free?
A free account gets 30 credits to start and free credits to claim every day. One credit translates one page.