Manga creator Ken Akamatsu announced on Friday that his manga distribution site J-Comi is starting an English and foreign-language beta version for select titles. Akamatsu also revealed on Saturday that J-Comi's Japanese and English iOS application "J Reader" is now available.

J-Comi's foreign-language beta release offers machine-generated translations of 18 manga titles in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Korean and over 30 other languages. Available manga include: Belmondo Le VisiteuR (Volumes 1 - 3), Eb Star (Vol. 1), Haruka Refrain (Vol. 1), Home (Vol. 1, 2), Houkago Wedding (Vol. 1), Huwahura (Vol. 1), Itsudatte My Santa (Vol. 1), Jinsei ha Iroiro Da (Vol. 1), Love Hina (Vol. 1 - 14), MAD STONE (Vol. 1, 2), Madou Taiga (Vol. 1 - 4), OL Lunch (Vol. 1), PLANET7 (Vol. 1, 2), Player ha Nemurenai (Vol. 1), Saisoku!! (Vol. 1 - 3), Salad Days (Vol. 1 - 18), Sora Miyo (Vol. 1), and Wild Run (Vol. 1, 2). Akamatsu had indicated in April that translated versions of J-Comi were in development.

The J Reader application is available free to download in the iTunes Store. Registered users of the J-Comi website can use J Reader to download exclusive PDF versions of J-Comi's 149 manga series. J Reader offers standard and "light" versions of the PDF files so that readers can choose to conserve memory space in their portable iOS devices.

One of J-Comi's goals is to helm innovative distribution projects that promote and preserve legal manga, including little-known titles. For the first time in October, J-Comi began distributing out-of-print adult manga and legal dōjinshi. Akamatsu also proposed a plan in April to "purify" or legalize unauthorized manga scans on file-sharing networks by adding advertising to the existing files. The website began distributing manga with this method shortly after the announcement.

J-Comi launched in 2010 with beta testing, offering legal, free manga downloads. The site has received nearly 7 million page views so far, and users have downloaded manga over 4 million times. J-Comi has been expanding its list of titles and gaining users since its launch.

Source: Ken Akamatsu (link 2)

Image © 2011 J-Comi Inc.

Update: According to Internet Watch, an Android version is in the works.