It’s crazy how you look back at the stories you used to love and suddenly you really feels Harry Styles song “you know it’s not the same as it was.”
I was in high school when I first got into visual stories like webtoons, web novels, manga, and manhua, and I definitely had a specific type back then. I was obsessed with the damsel-in-distress/CEO trope. You know, the FL has a one-night stand with a CEO, gets pregnant, raises the baby alone, and then years later the CEO finds out he has a child. Or she gets forced to marry him. That trope was everywhere and I ate it up. Then there were the ghost bride stories. I remember being so obsessed with Bride of Hades. And of course, the world ruled by cats. That one will always have a special place in my heart TOT (i miss being in hs huhu). I also loved the transmigration stories set in ancient Egypt or China, where the FL suddenly becomes a king’s concubine or something equally chaotic. The Pharaoh’s concubine had me so hooked wherein I even saved up points on an app just so I could finish that one. Then there was Imitation, which really had me going upside down, I just loved that story.
It’s funny because my taste in stories now is so different from what I loved when I first started reading. Thinking about those stories is honestly nostalgic. Now, I read lots and lots of stories with gay guys lol. Crazy but I used to avoid the bl genre HAHAHA CRAZY HOW THINGS TURNED OUT TODAY
What about you guys? What were some of the first genres or stories you became obsessed with? And has your taste changed a lot since then? ヾ(☆▽☆)
Rarely do I ever lose my shit over what I read, but yk what? I seriously get annoyed when the MC misunderstands the ML over something and, rather than communicating, they just run away and whine.
They’ll force the ML into a divorce or breakup, acting all mighty and dramatic, then the ML will try to stop them like, “Let’s not deal with this right now,” but the MC will get all mad and whiny like, “NO, RIGHT NOW! I want to divorce you!”
Then the ML has no choice but to sign or agree, and afterward the MC will be sobbing like, “Huhu is that how easy it is for him to just let go of our relationship?”
Like brooo, I just can’t TOT
And then somehow they’ll get back together easily later on, bending over backwards for the ML like nothing ever happened. Suddenly they have this dumbass realization that they “can’t live without him” and that they “love him so much.” Like yes, you can live without him you’re just being dramatic.
It’s so boring. The whole cycle is just misunderstanding - breakup - crying - “I can’t live without you” - getting back together like nothing happened.
I’m not going to pretend I’m some saint here. I read on unofficial/illegal sites too. I’m currently in college, and at this point I’m trying to save as much money as I possibly can. So yeah, here I am, reading on these sites lol. But I also want to make it clear that I’m not someone who has never supported authors officially.
Back in hs, I actually used to spend money buying official chapters. I even bought official merch, books, etc. Honestly, looking back, it’s kind of crazy that I was able to casually spend money on that stuff while I was still in high school TT. Bidding on twt for signed books Lol I still buy official merch when I can, too. I love supporting the series I actually care about. It’s just that now that I’m in college, my priorities are different and I’m much more conscious about where my money goes. Sometimes I simply cannot justify spending money on every single chapter when I’m trying to save.So yes, I knowingly use unofficial sites. I’m not going to act morally superior about it.
BUT.
The AI translators that keep spamming communities and promoting their paywalled sites are seriously starting to piss me off. What made unofficial translations fun in the first place wasn’t just getting chapters early. It was the community around them.
I actually love when the translation groups would leave random messages between chapters, make jokes, talk directly to readers, or occasionally pull some ridiculous prank with fake subtitles. Sometimes you’d get to the end of a chapter and realize the translator was just screwing with everyone. It was stupid, but it was FUN. There was an actual feeling that people were sharing something with other people.
And yeah, some groups asked for Ko-fi donations or support. I honestly didn't mind that. If someone is spending hours translating, cleaning, typesetting, proofreading, etc., asking for donations is understandable. At least there was usually some transparency and a sense that they were actually part of the community. A lot of those groups would also stop translating a series once it got an official English release. They understood that the unofficial translation was filling a gap. Once the author had an official English release, they stepped aside.
Now we have AI generated translations being mass-produced, dumped everywhere, and used to funnel readers toward paywalled websites. And that's the part that annoys me. It feels less like someone sharing a translation with a community and more like a spam with manhwa attached to it.
AI translation itself isn't even necessarily the problem. Technology can obviously make translation faster and more accessible. The problem is when people use it to pump out low-effort translations at ridiculous speeds, spam every community they can find, lock chapters behind paywalls, and turn every untranslated series into another way to make money.
And again, I KNOW THE IRONY.
I'm literally sitting here reading unofficial translations because I'm a broke college student trying to save money. I'm not pretending piracy is suddenly morally good because I'm doing it.
But there's a difference between "I want to read this because I can't afford to buy everything right now" and having every community constantly flooded with AI translation spam designed to drive traffic toward someone's monetized website.
I miss when scanlation communities felt like communities. Give me the human translator leaving a dumb message at the end of the chapter. Give me someone ranting about how difficult a particular panel was to translate.
I'd take that over another soulless AI translation followed by: "Read the next chapter on our website!" any day.
It's wild how some scanlation groups have gone from being hobby communities to basically running businesses off content they don't even own.
The whole point of scanlations used to be filling gaps, translating series that weren't officially available so fans could enjoy them. Whether you agreed with the legality or not, there was at least an understanding that it was a fan driven effort. Now, some groups lock the latest chapters behind paid access or push subscriptions and memberships as if they have the rights to monetize the work. They're charging people to read manhwas they didn't create, don't own, and don't have permission to distribute. The artists, writers, and official publishers see none of that money. Instead, a third party profits from someone else's intellectual property while presenting themselves as the gateway to the series. If you're going to pirate something, at least don't pretend you're entitled to build a business around it. It's one thing to translate as a fan project; it's another to put a price tag on unauthorized copies. That crosses the line from "sharing" into monetizing someone else's work.
If you genuinely support the creators, encouraging readers to buy the official release once it's available makes far more sense than squeezing every possible dollar out of pirated chapters. At the end of the day, if a scanlation group is profiting from unauthorized translations through paywalls, premium access, or aggressive monetization, it's hard to argue they're doing it "for the fans." At that point, they're running a business on intellectual property that belongs to someone else.
Why are there so many chapters posted by different scanlation groups now? Three duplicate uploads is already annoying, but sometimes there are four versions of the exact same chapter.
And what the hell is with some scan groups promoting their own websites and charging readers to access translated chapters? If someone's willing to pay, that money should go to the actual creators. Sure, translating takes effort, but trying to profit off someone else's work still doesn't sit right with me.
Also, what's going on with some scanlations these days? Are they just using AI or some shitty translator? Half the dialogue barely makes sense, and the translations are so awkward they ruin the reading experience.
did how keep yourself happy
