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Manga Reborn's Kickstarter Adds Machiko Satonaka's The Old Testament Manga

Manga Reborn announced an 11th title for its Kickstarter campaign on Friday: The Old Testament (Kyūyaku Seisho) by Machiko Satonaka. Satonaka also offered up original artwork as a reward for backers who pay US$300 or more. As of press time, the project has raised US$3,426 of a goal of US$6,000 with seven days left until the end of the campaign.

The Old Testament is an adaptation of stories within the Bible drawn by Machiko Satonaka, who has won various awards for her works such as the Kodansha Cultural Award, the Kodansha Manga Award, and the Minister of Education Award. She has also received a commendation from the Minister of Cultural Affairs.

Manga Reborn also made an update to its Kickstarter page on Monday detailing how the company intends to use the money gained through this campaign.

Manga Reborn, a website that allows users to legally read manga digitally in English and in Japanese, launched a Kickstarter campaign in September to translate 10 manga titles into English and distribute them digitally through the website. Pledge levels range from US$1 to US$2,500 and rewards include digital copies of the English versions of the manga, a digital English version of Shuho Sato's nonfiction novel Manga Poverty about the state of the manga industry, the ability to choose the next title to be translated on Manga Reborn from the company's library, original art, and a tour of the COMITIA event in Japan.

All the titles in this Kickstarter have never previously been published in English.

Manga Reborn launched earlier this year and currently hosts around 500 manga on its site, with 100 of those manga being available in English. Manga Reborn uses crowd-sourcing from its users to translate the manga on its site. The company notes that Kickstarter donations "will be used to find and recruit the best localization team, contact authors, license new manga, and turn this manga into digital content."