Starting Wednesday, major publishing firm Kodansha Ltd. will make new manga installments digitally available in English worldwide on the same day they're released in Japan.
Kodansha hopes the business decision will help curb the increasing threat to its overseas sales posed by bilingual anime fans known as "scanlators" who translate content and make it widely available.
In collaboration with Crunchyroll, a popular U.S.-based website that streams Japanese anime, the simultaneous release project will use the site's platform to release new installments for 12 popular Kodansha series, including the smash-hit "Shingeki no Kyojin" ("Attack on Titan"), "Fairy Tail" and "Uchu Kyodai" ("Space Brothers").