Dou shi you?!??!?!?!?!

Mina-san, I'm conflicted. :|

Thanks to a friend, I have the chance to download an almost infinte number of manga scanlations, including one long series by a mangaka that I love. Now, this series in particular is not licensed as far as I know. So it should be fair game for reading for free. I mean, scanlations aren't all that different from borrowing a book from a library..only you get to keep the book, in this case.

But I can't do it. Especially for something like Naruto. The licensed release is so far behind the anime and the Japanese release it's kind of laughable. But I love Naruto too much to just go out and read it for free online. It seems disrespectful. Not to mention that feels like I'm betraying and stealing from myself. I remember when a friend of a friend told me that he tried the Claymore manga after hearing that I worked on it. I was quite delighted when he said he liked it--until he told me that he read the scanlations. What?!?! I took it as a slap in the face! He might as well have told me, "I don't give a crap about your version. Not even to sit for an hour in a bookstore and read it for free." Grrrrrrrr. And for the record, I chewed him out about it, too. X(

( Fubenkyou da ne...atashi wa... X| )

I know that five of you on my flist have Japanese skills pretty much equal to my own. How do you guys balance reading the original vs someone else's English translation?? I know you all don't exactly face the whole I'm-stealing-manga aspect on scanlations like I do unless it's out of loyalty to me ha ha but still. What have you done to handle this??? If anything? Hanashite kudasai!

As for me...I should stop whining and start studying. *a very tired and resigned headdesk* Maybe I should start a kanji-a-day LJ com to keep myself motivated...