Notice regarding the English version of “Ranking of Kings”

We filed a lawsuit against Dragon Digital Japan, Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "DDJ"), our contracted translation company, in connection with the use of translations plagiarized from pirated copies in the English version of "Ranking of Kings" volumes 1 through 7, which were released on February 18, 2022 (hereinafter referred to as "old translated versions"), but we would like to report that we have reached a settlement with DDJ and that DDJ has released the following apology to the public.

Apology regarding the English version of “Ranking of Kings”
We were entrusted by BookLive Co., Ltd. for the production of the English version of “Ranking of Kings,” a popular manga by Sosuke Toka. The product was subsequently delivered to the said company. However, due to our inadequate staff management, fraudulent use of a pirated version was made and an inappropriate translation resulted, leading to the matter going viral on SNS. Furthermore, the retranslation resulted in further delay in the overseas release of the manga. As a translation company, we take these occurrences seriously and express our deepest apologies to BookLive Co., Ltd., the writer Mr. Sousuke Toka, and many overseas readers who were in eager anticipation of the English version. We will also try our utmost to prevent future recurrence of such matters.

November 6th,2023
Dragon Digital Japan Inc.

Cited: https://dragondigital-japan.com/  

We recognize that the act of using or plagiarizing pirated works in the production of translations is unacceptable, and that publishing translations with a disregard for quality tarnishes the value of works and, by extension, the value of Japanese comics as a whole, and shall not be tolerated.

We would like to offer our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this incident may have caused to many readers, Mr. Sousuke Toka, and to all other parties involved.

We suspended the distribution of the old translated versions on March 31, 2022, and started distributing the newly translated versions on March 15, 2023.

We appreciate your continued support for "Ranking of Kings" in the future.

BookLive Co., Ltd.