The creator of the manga series Otaku ni Yasashii Gal ni Watashi wa Naru! (I’ll Become a Gal Who’s Kind to Otaku!) has decided to post their work for free in English. This is after learning that most US app stores don’t carry manga which hasn’t been published by western localizers, so the option of buying manga directly is difficult.

The creator, who goes by the penname “sugar.” (the period is part of the name). First encountered a fan translation of their work on a pirate site. After tracking down the fan translator releasing the English version, rather than shut things down, they sought permission from their publisher to release the work for free in a semi-official capacity.

As a result, sugar. has been releasing chapters of I’ll Become a Gal Who’s Kind to Otaku! through posts on Twitter/X.

While they can’t exactly approve of manga piracy, the fact that western weebs can’t easily buy Japanese manga directly stirred them to act. They clarified their stance saying:

・I’m against pirated versions and illegal uploads (so, I contacted the translator and had them remove the URL of the pirated site that was originally written at the bottom of the page)

・I think it’s a waste for people overseas to not be able to read my works ・I can’t prepare it myself because it hasn’t sold enough to release an official English translation version

・So I’m taking this approach

・If the mood strikes you, please buy the ebook. I can’t live without income

The series follows a high school girl who’s actually an otaku. However she loves stories where gal characters befriend otherwise timid otaku characters. In order to realize her fantasies, she decided to become a gal herself, now struggling to fit in as either she makes friends with both.

You can read I’ll Become a Gal Who’s Kind to Otaku! starting here. You can support sugar. by buying the manga here.