Happy 10th Birthday!

Hello Dear Readers! Today marks the tenth anniversary date of Decadence’s first project released, which was Love Devil. Happy Birthday, Decadence! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been running this group for that long and that I’ve been into scanlation even longer. (I’m getting old!!! sob) But I’ve made so many friendships and met so many people along the way that I don’t regret it and I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to get it out. It will always be extremely special to me. ♥ I am very hopeful that Decadence will be around for another, 5, 10, 15, 20+ years!! (Even if I have to get my kids to help run it :P)

A special thank you goes out to all of our wonderful staff! We have such a great team and we really prop each other up and offer grace and understanding as each and every one of us goes through busy periods in our lives and everyone does a fantastic job of taking turns and helping out when needed. We wouldn’t be where we are now today without each and everyone of you on the team. You guys are amazing and I’m so proud to work with you all on something we love to do! Cheers to another year in the books!
– Roze, founder & admin

For further celebrations, we have some special treats for you! Updated Statistics, Staff Origin Stories, and 20, that’s right I said it, T-W-E-N-T-Y releases for you to enjoy! Our staff have been slaving away to bring a massive amounts of goodies!

Group Statistics

Based on MangaDex data:
Chapters released: 1060
Total series: 84
1000th chapter released: Teach Me More ch29
Completed projects: 60
Active projects: 16
Dropped projects: 7 (most of these due to being licensed)
Ardour: 1

Staff Origin Stories

“Roze here! I started getting into manga probably about 16 years ago and shortly after that I found online scanlations. Some of my first mangas I ever read were Fruits Basket, Tsubasa Chronicles, when I dove into online scans I was super into any shoujo smut and read several of Yoshi Yukihara, Enjouji Maki, Mayu Shinjo work and so much more. The depths of the pirate seas I sailed eventually lead me to reading Black Bird, which was being scanlated by the group Transcendence at the time. They had a lot of recruitment ads and I dabbled a bit in photoshop at the time just for fun and I finally decided one day that I was going to try joining and taking the test because it was my time to give back to the community. After some rigorous training (yes those Ardour raws that are currently in our test now were in the test I took about 14 years ago.) I join Transcendence as a cleaner and a typesetter. I worked with them on/off for about 3 years while I was in high school and later college. I ended up being put on a “Fire Squad” list where they would email me if they were desperate for help because I was busy in real life. One day about 11 years ago they emailed me asking for editing help and I came back in full force and took over a lot of managing the projects and getting them caught up and I went through proofreader and quality checker training as well. A few months in I came across a Yuki Yoshihara manga that hadn’t been translated and I wanted to do it because Yuki was my favorite author at the time. I brought it to Transcendence admins and because Yuki is known for “doing smut”, they didn’t want to pick it up. We ended up starting our own “sister” group and Decadence was born and our first project was Love Scatters but our first release was the 2nd project we picked up which was Love Devil. Decadence started out really small with just a few staffs that were being shared between Transcendence but we were mighty! We did joints with a one person translation group to help get us off the group and bring in new recruits. After a few months, the admin over at Transcendence decided to step down and I stepped up and Decadence became a subgroup of Transcendence for some time. Later on, we branched back out on our own and Transcendence shut its doors but we still carry Transcendence with us in our hearts. The rest is history and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to let Decadence go. One day I will make my kids run it.”
-Roze, Decadence Founder/Admin

“Hello everyone.
How are you doing?
This is Keanu (yes, I can hear the “wooosh” SFX in the background).
I have been reading manga since I was about 8 and my very first was Versailles no Bara. I was well acquainted with the anime, being myself a child of the 80s. It was a blast. I was fascinated by the difference between manga and anime. From 2005 to 2011, I started to grow my collections thanks to Takahashi Rumiko and I have several shelves full of volumes. Be my guest! However, I had to put my passion on a hiatus due to work and life-long studies. Though, in 2017, I serendipitously became aware of the world of scanlations thanks to Kaikan Phrase by Shinnjoi Mayu. So the old flame was re-ignited in 2022, as a reader.
At some point, early last year (2023), I stumbled upon Tsumari Sukitte Iitaindakedo, and I was itching to read the last chapter. I found a Portuguese translation by Otaku Scans and I requested their permission to use their scanlation as a raw for my English re-translation. They were really kind and cooperative and allowed me to proceed. Little did I know about scanlation process, back then. That’s how I tentatively translated, cleaned, and typeset my very first manga. It never saw the light of the day since, luckily, in the meantime, Decadence released the last chapter.
A few months later, I sent my test as an Editor to Decadence. Shortly after, my message was returned, and the new adventure began with my training. Not to mention how excited I felt when I finally passed the first part of my test, started my training period, and I was assigned Chapter 24 of Teach Me More (which I was reading, back then). Even more stupefying my first chapter as a cleaner: the so-called “Sugar Baby” chapter 4. I was working on something that came out of the pen of one of my favourite mangaka.
Starting off from scratch is always great: it’s enchanting. I still look in bewildered awe at the transformation process from raws to the final product. It’s breathtakingly incredible amount of skils and expertise of my mentors Roze, Kanedian, and Sevs and all the fellow team-members. Especially their perfect re-drawing and lettering fascinate me since I am still a reader, after all.
Editing for me is a passion: I feel like a cog of the big engine. I learn something new day by day and I am grateful for that. Cleaning a page and then filling it again is therapeutical for me. What do I enjoy the most? The final message from our Quality Checkers when a chapter is ready to be released. It may be a simple “good work” line, but it’s the result of our team’s work to deliver to our faithful readers the best quality chapters.
Decadence is a very professional and warm staff and I feel grateful to be actually one of the new members of this family.
In conclusion, the long-winded Keanu wishes you 10… no, 100 more years filled with manga and scanlations! Happy anniversary, Decadence!”
– Keanu, Editor, Proofreader

“Your incompetent translator burcu is here to give you her scanlation origin story!

I first got into anime/manga back in 2007, thanks to… Naruto! Yup, I was an adult shounen fan, but was also interested in shoujosei. However, I mostly focused on anime, and have read very few manga. And I was simply a lurker and a leecher for more than a decade.

In 2018, I accidentally discover that I could somehow translate form Japanese to English when one of my favorite childhood anime, Captain Tsubasa, got a reboot. It wasn’t being simulcast, and I saw that the fansubbers were looking for someone to help them translate it from French. I said, Why not? I speak some French!” As I was checking my first episode out while waiting for the French subs to come out, I ended up translating 10 minutes of it from Japanese to my great surprise. Thus started my translation journey…

In time, I discovered that I also liked reading in Japanese, and wanted to read more. I had been reading some manga in Japanese since 2014 in my corner (Haikyuu was my first one!), and tried translating them in my head. Fast forward to 2020, I’ve decided to read Yume no Shizuku, Kin no Torikago one day with zero expectations, because I was almost certain that it was an orientalist fantasy-type manga… How wrong I was! I was hooked, and wanted to help the scanlators with all those Turkish names and terms at least. They happened to look for translators as well, so I took their TL test and joined Friendship Scans (RIP). As much as I loved DoD, I wanted to be in a more active group and get more into scanlation, so I started checking out the recruitment boards on MD and MU forums.

I was looking to join a shoujosei group, and saw Decadence’s post. I was impressed by the recruitment section on the site, and how organized things looked. I lurked in the server for some time to see the vibe of the group, and was convinced that they were good people who were adults (don’t forget that I’m an old lady and don’t think I can work with younger fellows ;). So, I submitted my TL test (11.10.2020), although I hadn’t read any manga scanlated by Decadence before, lol. I went through my training with chiisai-hime and Sedna. My three training chapters were Mitsuyokon 22, Hoikumen 4 and that one project that was released by another group before we could get to it… I became full staff on 29.10.2020, and have been a part of the team ever since.

I tend to make bad choices in life, but on rare occasions like this, I do the right thing. I don’t exaggerate when I say scanlation helped me a lot during the bad times I’ve been through. I could take my mind off things that were stressing me out. Knowing that I can make someone in some corner of the world happy by translating manga that publishers don’t touch but that someone wants to read fills me with a sense of accomplishment, and I feel like I can connect to them even though we don’t directly communicate.

Here’s to many more Deca-birthdays we’ll celebrate, my fellow team mates! I love you all, and thank you bearing with me for more than three years now!

Useless stats (as of 21.1.2024):
– The number of chapters I’ve translated for Decadence: 204
– The first project I saw from start to finish: Teach Me More (pls make me forget this)
– The one project I will never see the end of: Switch Girl”
– Burcu, Decadence’s Lord & Savior Translation Guru

“Kanedian here, and I think I’ll have the shortest origin story on the team since I probably have the least history with manga. I was into anime first and got into the fansubbing scene when I was in high school. Naturally, that led to me trying manga, but to be honest, I couldn’t really get into it at that time, only reading mostly short manga here or there. But I lost interest in both anime and manga by the time I started college. A few years after graduating, I got back into anime and got the urge to get back into fansubbing, but anime streaming services like Crunchyroll had pretty much killed the anime fansubbing scene by then. But I guess what I really wanted was to get back into actively contributing to ~~piracy~~ the spread of foreign culture, because I decided to give scanlation a try. I was playing the Ikemen Sengoku otome game at the time and heard there was a manga. When I looked it up, two different groups had put out the first chapter. I liked Decadence’s release better, so here I am! I’ve joined (and left) a few other scan groups since then, but Decadence remains my favorite and I’m really thankful I found this group.”
-Kanedian, Decadence Admin, Editor, Proofreader, Trainer

“Who you gonna call? Decadence! No wait, it’s just me here, Sevs. I think I’m competing with kanedian about the shortest origin story! I’ve been reading manga since my early teens, of course I started with Naruto and Fairy Tail before I found the real bounty of manga, shoujo and smut. I tried joining a scan group back then but nobody was training newbies at the time (despite all the recruitment pages in everything I read). Skip to years later when I had some free time while going to uni, so I finally decided to try joining a group again to help out with faster releases and bringing manga that wasn’t getting an official release to a wider audience. However, I first tried joining a different group that was slow on releasing a shoujo manga I was currently reading, so I thought I’d try help them out (they’re inactive now). But before I got an answer from them I was reading Love Devil, where I saw Deca’s recruitment page and that they were offering training, which few groups offered! I finally began my scan career by applying as a cleaner here, and Roze started my training 2 days after. I’ve now been here for 5,5 years (6 years in june) and it’s been the best with some amazing people who’ve been there for me through thick and thin.”
– Sevs, Decadence Admin, Editor, Proofreader, Trainer, Quality Checker

“Okay, let’s go! Hi, it’s phuji! I typeset (and most recently, I proofread) here at Decadence. I’ve been part of this group for just a little over a year. I began solely as a perma-TSer for Deaimon, but as I continued to work with the people here, I felt encouraged to take on more projects with them. Looking forward to working with everyone in the coming year!

My scanlation journey began on a whim in 2021, when I joined the currently-defunct Dragomir Scans as a typesetter and proofreader. I don’t have AS strong of a connection to anime and manga as you might think—my foray into scanning genuinely started “because I felt like it”, which… lines up with just about everything else in my life, haha. Anyway, what began as an impulse decision led to a genuine love and interest for typography and graphic design, and continuing to chase those impulses has led me to be an active member of four different groups… but I consider Decadence to be my main group lmfao. I respect this team so much for their dedication and technical proficiencies, and I’m super glad that I get to learn from them!”
– Phuji, Typesetter, Proofreader

“My first exposure to anime was when I saw it on a TV channel aptly named, ‘The International Channel’. My first animes were The Slayers and Dragon Ball GT. Even though the episodes were in Japanese and had no subtitles, I watched them anyway. I was drawn to them.

I originally got into manga because I didn’t want to wait for the anime episodes to come out. I was binging a series, got caught up and wanted to keep going. I learned about scanlation groups when I saw postings for positions at the end of some of them. I didn’t realize that people could get together and do it themselves. I was drawn to proofreading because I like to nitpick and check my text messages for typos before sending them. So, I decided to give it a try. I wanted to work on comedies, and, fortunately, Decadence Scans had them. I didn’t mind that some of them had smut. Actually, I prefer it because it makes it even funnier.

My favorite series so far has been Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo (An Incurable Case of Love) because it takes place in a hospital. It was special to me because I come from a family of nurses, and I was able to bounce ideas off of them. I was able to share with them something that I enjoy, and they could share a passion of theirs with me.

It’s been over four years now, and I still enjoy it. You may think it’s weird to want to proofread for fun in my spare time, but I like being able to learn a new skill and keep my mind active. Also, the staff is composed of great people, and it makes the experience so much better. I’m thankful that they took a chance on me.”
-Planson, Proofreader

“I started scanlation back when I was in the last years of high school, because I heard from one of my friends that she used to do it. It somehow never occurred to me that all the manga that I was reading online would’ve needed people to put it there. So that’s why the concept of scanlation fascinated me and I wanted to join too. But there was a big gap between then and when I started scanlation again with Decadence. And the reason I chose Decadence wasn’t really that flashy. I was just browsing on mangaupdates, and happened to see their recruitment post, and I thought the group name was cute, so I applied. That’s really all there is to it. But the journey since then has been amazing, and I don’t regret a single day of it.”
-Guacamole, CH Translator, Editor, Proofreader

“I’m here because I like cute things! Do you like cute things too?

I fell into the rabbit hole of anime less than ten years ago and have been enjoying it since. Somehow through consistent repetition and watching way too many episodes I found myself becoming passably proficient in Japanese and wanting to share more cute things with the world. January 2021 saw me joining Decadence as a way-too-excited newbie and January 2023 was when I proposed that we take over the Deaimon series from Dragomir Scans who were looking for a new home for it.

If you have yet to pay attention to Deaimon or Ashi-Girl, I now cast a magical spell such that a fluffy cloud of fuwamofu carries you to church; in the church of cute, I am an evangelist — have a seat while I proselytize. When reading either series, there is no way to not have a good time. Wakagimi naturally exudes an allure that makes you want to root for him, and Itsuka naturally evokes stirrings in your heart to want to protecc that smile. Join me as we break ~~bread~~ Wagashi confections and heed the word of the Lord (of Hagi): Cute is justice, justice is Decadence, and Decadence is ten years old!

Stick with us as we bring you more cute things that we love. Meshiagare!”
-Metapzl, JP Translator, Typesetter

aBeluga checking in! I’m an Editor here in Decandence, with a penchant for smut projects. 😉

My first experience with manga started when I was about 7? My relatives, with an average of 8-10 years age gap, bestowed upon me their sacred manga collections. Those collections include the classics (e.g. Doraemon/Dragon Ball), Shoujos (e.g. The Glass Mask, Alpen Rose, Sailor Moon), as well as titles not meant for my age (e.g. Love Hina, Haou Airen, Kaikan Phrase). And thus, the journey began.

My otaku self can’t stand how slow mangas were published in my country. And that’s how I discovered the world of scanlation. I was more of a silent reader and if it’s not because of the pandemic, I don’t think I will even considered to join a scan group.

I have read several projects by Decadence without realizing they were all scanlated by the same group. But the project that convinced me was Koneko-chan, Kocchi ni Oide, which I immediately signed up as a permanent typesetter after I finished training.

It’s been almost 4 years now and I’m so glad I got to work with such amazing group of people. I may not be as active as when I first joined (motherhood took a lot of my time now), but there’s no other group I rather be in.

Scanlation was my pandemic hobby. I started watching anime and reading manga in high school and was into all the popular shonen series (the only exception I remember being Kaichou wa Maid-Sama LOL). After high school, I kind of lost interest in animanga. Fast forward to the pandemic and me having a lot free time, I fell back into it even harder than before and found Decadence because of Koi to Yobu! I actually hesitated to apply for a few months but am so glad I did, because I couldn’t have asked for a better and more supportive first group. Super grateful for everyone here, for everything I’ve learned and for such great community. And everyone here has great taste in manga. I’ve joined (and left) a few different groups since then, and don’t have nearly as much free time now, but Decadence is my main group and the one I hope to continue in for many years to come.

Attolia here! I got into manga with Fruits Basket wayyy back around 2010 (my eternal nostalgic love, go watch the reboot!), and then fell headfirst down the rabbithole with all things shoujo. In high school, I came across Seigi no Mikata and at the time the scanlation was incomplete (Ah, we all know that pain!). Heart broken, mind obsessed, I decided I HAD to teach myself Japanese so I could finish the series. With basically no knowledge on how to find resources or any structure… It did not work hahaha.

In college, I got involved in the scanlation community thanks to Covid. I was reading Mitsuyokon and I HAD to know what happened next. So, as you can see, I’m a very selfish scanlator, hahaha. I started with typesetting, proofreading, and then started doing a wee bit of translating. It was all incredibly fun and I encourage anyone reading this to get involved if you can! I’ve joined and left lots of scan groups, but Decadence has been there from the beginning and will be till the end (Thanks Roze, our fearless leader and lifelong scanlator!) Fast forward almost 4 years and 2 hiatuses, I’m still incredibly lucky to be involved with this awesome corner of the internet. Even though I no longer have the time or commitment to juggle 10 series at a time, Decadence will always own the scanlation part of my heart. (And I will come back and finish my series!)

Since we’re all about manga here, I’ll leave a list of the important manga in my scanlation life:
First manga: Fruits Basket
First translation attempt: Seigi no Mikata (and thank god that’ll never see the light of day)
First actual translation: Mitsuyokon Chapter 20
Project that currently lives only in my brain and will possibly never leave: Kechonpa