In a sign of the times, a scanlation controversy has engulfed the impending debut of an eagerly awaited classic manga.
Right now is a great time for new editions of older manga. This year alone has seen the release of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack. and Kazuo Umezz’s take on Ultraman. One of the more exciting reprints set for release is the science fiction epic Five Star Stories by Mamoru Nagano. It’s a baroque science fiction epic taking place in a distant galaxy following the conflicts between empires and also about giant robots.
The series hasn’t seen print since the late 90s and early 00s in the United States where about half of the long running series was published here. Titan Manga acquired the rights to reprint the series in English back in 2025 with the first volume set for release this December. While a cult manga, there is excitement for it due to Nagano’s work in anime and his gorgeous, Moebius inspired work for this series.
However, now a veil of controversy has descended over this new edition. Yesterday on BlueSky, MangaAlert brought attention to several Reddit threads regarding the translator Greco D. Espinoza. Per users on Reddit, Espinoza was reported as a notorious scanlator who posted under the name WildFang/IchidoReichan. Under that username, he was known in the scanlation community for reportedly attempting to sell bootleg translated copies of Five Star Stories, plagiarizing other translators, and repeatedly harassing other translators/scanlators and members of various scanlation communities.
Maybe the most damning accusation for Espinoza was his actual work on the Five Star Stories scanlations. It was reported that he used machine assisted translations to rush out scans rather taking the time to actually translate. This lead to translations with noticeable alterations to story and dialogue, often with many in the community accusing him of entirely making up both.
The Beat received an advance copy of the new edition for review. A comparisons to the earlier editions from Toyspress (which was overseen by Nagano himself) reveals dialogue and descriptions that read more like a literal translation than a localization. Additionally, caption and information not in the earlier editions now covers up Nagano’s delicate art. Without looking at the original Japanese art and given the accusations, it’s hard to say if these were in the original series or if Espinoza and an editor decided these were necessary and redesigned the book potentially without Nagano’s input. It’s not a great a look either way.
Per MangaAlert, Titan Manga revealed in emails they will withhold distribution of the upcoming volume one of Five Star Stories which was set to release on December 1st of this year. No new release date has been mentioned nor further comment has been made from the publisher. The Beat will continue to follow this story as it develops.
