Izzy the Lizard: Well, it's been less than two and half months...barely. I'm sorry. I've been surprisingly busy and my fanfics stood forgotten until about a week ago.

SkywardShadow: I understand your opinion on the legitimacy of NaruSasuNaru. Really, I do. But I consider a "canon" pairing to be a relationship of a romantic nature, with mutual feelings between the characters involved, that has been confirmed within the story. For NaruSasuNaru, I would say that as of the latest chapter, if it is truly within canon then it is mostly, if not completely, one-sided (on Naruto's part). In Naruto's POV, he dwells on thoughts of Sasuke obsessively, to the point where he really could be interpreted as a rejected lover, if you chose to see it that way. In Sasuke's POV, on the other hand, he dwells on people and things that he wants to kill/maim/destroy with the same kind of obsessiveness. The only time recently that I can remember him even thinking of Naruto at all was during his fight against Killer Bee. So, I guess girls and Naruto love bad boys. :D

Thanks for favoriting: Ayase Reincarnated, Izzy the Lizard

Rule 3: Copyright Violation Is Not Bad

A certain percentage of the fanbase sees absolutely nothing wrong with ripping the publisher of their profits via scanlations.

On this count, I am guilty as charged.

A. Manga Scanlations

A lot of manga scanlations require you to download them, but I try to avoid things like that. I know of several sites where you can read scanlations for free online. The chapters of various manga series are posted by fans, so the quality of both the pictures and the translations is hit-and-miss. Typically the big-name series are of a consistently good quality.

The thing about manga scanlations, much like the illegally uploaded anime episodes floating around on the Internet, is that they've caused a really big stink.

Let me establish something before I go further. I own all the English-language Naruto volumes that have been released in the United States. I go to scanlation sites so that I can read the new chapters as they come out in Japan. Since I've invested so much time and money in this series, I don't feel that I'm wrong in doing so. Fans who live in other countries have as much right to know what happens next as fans in Japan do.

Most people who are involved with scanlations have relatively harmless intentions. People generally read them for one (or more) of these three reasons:

1: To follow the most recent chapters

2: To scope out a series

3: To read series that are unavailable in their native country

I'll elaborate.

1: Following the Most Recent Chapters

You read a series. You like it. You may (or may not) buy up the volumes.

Anyone who's bought a series that's ongoing in Japan would understand this problem. There will always be a discrepancy between the story in Japan and in other countries.

Naruto is a long, LONG series. It's at 47 volumes and still ongoing. I have no idea how much of my life has been committed to reading/watching/fangirling this series, and I'm secretly afraid it might rival the amount of time I've wasted doing the same thing for Square Enix games. But I think the editors know that when you've committed this much time to a series, you'll follow to the end no matter how many times each individual chapter compels you to go bang your head on a nearby wall.

And if the howling on the Internet community is any indication, there have been nothing but wallbangers lately. Or maybe Naruto fans just like to complain. They'll howl and rage and dissect it and trash it, but if you walk into their forums unfamiliar with the series and try to participate in the smack talk, they will promptly band together and destroy you.

I wandered into one forum once where the topic got to who Sasuke should be paired with. The yaoi and het shippers were arguing both with each other and amongst themselves. One person came in and said Sasuke was a douche and was going to die without being shipped anyway. When yaoi and het fans are teaming up against you, you know you're in trouble.

2: Scoping Out a Series

You see or hear about something. It sounds interesting. You read it before you buy it.

I've done this with a lot of series. Because frankly, I'm kind of picky about what I spend my money on, and since I never resell anything, I want to make sure I'll be damn happy with my purchase.

You can't always judge whether you'll like something or not based on just the first chapter. I consider ten chapters or so a sufficient amount to decide if you like a series or not. That amount would take you at least into the second volume of a series, and maybe further than that, depending on the length of the chapters. But if you read, say, all 400+ chapters of Naruto without doing a single thing to support the series, that's just blatantly ripping off the author.

3: Not Licensed in Your Home Country

I think we all understand this situation. Some series just haven't been licensed in your home country. Annoying? Maybe. But that's how it is.

If this is your situation, well, there's nothing you can do about it. Are you still guilty of copyright violation? Hell yes. Should you sink into a spiraling pit of despair because of it? Please don't. You are not the fans that publishers hate.

B. Abuse of Scanlations

There are people who go through the effort of acquiring the latest manga chapter, translating it, and uploading it to the Internet for your reading pleasure. There are people who benefit from the scanlators' work. And then there are people who take great enjoyment out of manipulating the system.

They read all the scanlated chapters for free just because they can, with no intention of ever buying the series.

It's not right, no matter what series it is. But let's face it, Naruto is long. Very long. If it was in novel form, it would be a series of doorstoppers, just like---well, basically any fantasy series that's been popular within the last ten years. Looking at literature trends, long series are in. The thicker the collective series, the better. People balk at series that have the potential to waste incalculable amounts of time in their lives, and yet they still invest that time. Series that are long give the author much more breathing room both for plot and for character development (although there are many excellent short series, don't get me wrong). If you read a really long series and don't care for it, then you'll feel deflated at the end, like you've just wasted a whole shitload of time (which you have). The potential payoff if you do enjoy it, however, can be great.

I'll use two popular literature series as an example. These are popular to such a degree that everyone should have heard of them. First up is Harry Potter. The epilogue of the final book ruined it for me. My sister felt the same way about the end of the Twilight series (which I've been avoiding). I gave a strangled fangirl cry of horror when Sirius died, and had a similar violent reaction when Lupin joined him. My sister was turning every page of the Twilight books hoping that Bella would die a horrible, horrible death, and liked it a little too much when I joked about an Edward/Jacob pairing (or should it be Jacob/Edward?). The fact that either of us cared about freaking fictional characters was a pretty good indication that the authors did their job---making the reader feel something, one way or the other.

In terms of its scope and popularity, I would say that Naruto could be called the manga world's Harry Potter. People debate over a work of fiction. They ogle over pictures on a page, calling this character or that character "hot". My sister and I got into an argument once over manga characters. We have our own individual collections but read each other's manga, see. So one evening we went through the various series we collectively own and claimed the various male characters we liked. She claimed way more characters than I did, because I'm the sort who finds one or two, maybe three male characters in series that I really adore, and they are absolutely and unconditionally mine. I took Itachi straight off. She took Sasuke, who she has a love-hate relationship with. We almost got into a catfight over Gaara. (I just let her claim him. He's actually mine). We headbutted similarly over other series.

We even made our own agreements regarding shipping. I had my guys to fangirl over and she had hers. We decided that we would not intership characters. If she wanted to ship one of her characters with one of mine, she had to ask my permission to "borrow" my character, and vice versa. So yeah. This is where you back away slowly.

Of course, since we only claim male characters, intershipping = yaoi. There are some yaoi pairings I absolutely squee over, and none of them are in Naruto. The fact that I care at all about drawings on paper and which drawing they end up with shows my love for this series.

So, if you care this much for a series, the only appropriate thing to do would be to buy the damn books. If the publishers aren't making a profit, that equals trouble for the author. It's only courtesy to repay the author for the enjoyment he (or she) has given you by giving them a little pocket money.

I, for one, like the feel of having a book in my hand. I have a limited patience for things I read online (admittedly, in some fanfics with extremely long chapters, I've done an inward groan and then skipped around to get the gist of it). I can read my manga volumes at any time, and I have as fun a time collecting them as I do actually reading them. I can go back to my favorite parts (the scenes that stay in my memory tend to be some kind of tragedy, whether it's an event or a mournful interaction between characters).

And really, if you were a mangaka, you'd getting pissed if some punks were cheating you out of money.

Final Words:

No one will deny the usefulness of scanlations. However, those who utilize them should always be aware of the line between a fan and a parasite. Remember, no one likes parasites. When they find one trying to suck their blood they tend to kill it horribly. So do keep that in mind. And if you are one, don't attach yourself to an arm and make your parasitic status obvious. Keep skulking in the shadows until you're noticed too late and have already had your fill.

Scanlations have been problematic to the point where some publishers will sue you if you make them. I have no idea how many read them, but if the spoilers in fanfics are any indication, I'd say the number is nothing to sneer at.