Local Manga Localization Company Struggles to Settle Debts By December 31 Deadline - Anime News Network

Former company owner told ANN that he now plans to settle all late payments to freelancers by March 31

Localization company Local Manga is reportedly struggling to issue months' worth of late payments to freelancers after announcing that all debts would be “satisfied in full” by December 31.

Local Manga's representative Christopher Hepburn announced on Twitter on November 3 that he is relinquishing ownership of the company as he is moving to a career in academia. He further stated the company's debts would be paid in full by December 31 before the company undergoes the transfer of ownership and rebranding.

However, Hepburn told ANN on December 9 that he now plans to settle all outstanding payments by March 31 at the latest.

“Though the majority of the outstanding accounts payable are on track to be satisfied completely by December 31, I may find myself unable to settle all outstanding accounts payable by that date,” he said. “If this finding comes to fruition, my plan is to have the remaining outstanding accounts payable by March 31.”

He further stated that six contractors still await full payment out of the 26-person team. Those six accounts “represent 20% of the balance still owed. This means that 80% of the total balance owed has already been paid.”

One freelancer claimed that, of the 26 individuals specified by Hepburn, only half were taking projects within the last six months, and just 11 people are still actively working with the company today. They also commented that “not having paid six freelancers thousands of dollars and having them wait another 3-4 months, so he says, is unacceptable.”

Hepburn previously told ANN on November 26 that he is “committed to settling outstanding invoices up to August of this year by December 31st,” stating that he is using personal funds and loans to achieve this.

However, in a post on the company's Discord server on November 30, he stated that he had exhausted his personal funds for the month and that he will “not be able to honor any previous payment agreements until more funds are acquired.” He clarified to ANN that he asked the freelancers to sign individual agreements with him but did not specify a timeline for delivering those payments at the time. ANN has not seen the individual contracts.

Local Manga does not use a bookkeeper; even after formally stepping down from the company, Hepburn still claims personal responsibility for handling invoices and payments from 2022. Several freelancers told ANN they were individually responsible for keeping track of their invoices and following up on payments.

One freelancer speaking anonymously with ANN claimed that Hepburn took almost half a year to settle payments dating from January 2022. They began following up about the late payments in June, and were finally paid in full in October. They said that Hepburn would often issue partial installments over several months instead of paying the total invoiced amount.

Hepburn told ANN that he resorted to partial payments between June to October 2022 due to a shortfall in the treasury when “many titles” did not pass quality assurance. “At the time, and faced with a very short amount of time to make fixes, I felt it was better to dismiss the freelancers who submitted the low quality work with payment and have other freelancers step in with payment. With this, as well as paying freelancers for the work done on titles we ultimately couldn't publish, created a gap in the treasury that I simply couldn't mend in a short amount of time. I have made great strides towards shoring up a deficit that has unfortunately taken time.”

Several freelancers working with the company have disputed Hepburn's claim of widespread quality issues. One letterer claimed that among the “over one hundred” series Local Manga has localized, only “about four or five titles had to be redone or fixed.” Another translator claimed that clients were generally satisfied with the work that did get published.

“Blaming the whole situation (in which all freelancers were not paid for months) on the few titles that needed to be redone is misconstruing the gravity of the issue, I think,” they commented.

Hepburn did not provide a list or specify the number of titles that required revisions when requested. He also said he was unsure how many titles Local Manga has published in total throughout its four years of operation.

According to several freelancers, Hepburn was evasive about the subject of payment during the latter half of 2022 and was sometimes rude or dismissive when approached about late reimbursement.

“He would ghost you or claim that he was busy and did not see the message,” one freelancer told ANN, adding that when Hepburn did respond, he was “very quick to turn things on the person who is confronting him for any kind of reason.”

Another freelancer claimed that Hepburn made a “sexist” comment when they inquired about a late payment. When the freelancer claimed that Hepburn was dismissive about their concerns, he allegedly responded, “I think you're overacting, but no good ever comes from telling a woman that.”

Hepburn acknowledged the above incident, and told ANN that the matter was a misunderstanding. “I apologized to the person in question for my poor choice of words at the time of occurrence,” he said. “I am actually not very good with non-verbal communication, which is why I prefer to communicate over the phone or through video chat. This was truly an unfortunate exchange, and I regret very much that my poor choice of words and phrasing were interpreted in this way.”

Other freelancers speaking to ANN said that while Hepburn did have a history of being “condescending” about payment, they had never personally experienced or witnessed him being sexist or discriminatory toward minorities.

Hepburn told ANN that the period between June and October 2022 was challenging for his personal and professional life and that “I did not do a very good job at keeping up with communication. I am sorry to those who felt as if I was unresponsive. At the same time, I am very grateful to those who helped with communication in the interim.”

Local Manga was founded in Texas in summer 2018 "as a boutique localization company specializing in Boys Love manga." While the company continued to focus on boys-love, it had expanded to other genres. The company's website lists it as a Los Angeles-based company with two employees. Reiko Yamashita is listed as the company's administrator. The company will rebrand and operate under new management next year.

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