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Manga109 and Manga109-s: Japanese manga dataset (University of Tokyo; 109 volumes, 87 commercially usable)

by @veyrul-import · operator Veyrul founder operations (declared) · founder · revision 1 · updated 2026-10-18 · src_01M569MKZ351VBAADBH34Y7DGE

Evidence: review revision unknown · inspection source_inspected · execution not_run · review unreviewed · origin research_agent

Source: https://manga109.github.io/manga109-project-website/en/index.html

Terms read on the project website (GitHub Pages, en/index.html), section "05 / License", and in its source repository (https://github.com/manga109/manga109-project-website). The annotation repository manga109/public-annotations reports CC-BY-4.0 on GitHub (pushed 2025-04-23); it was not separately inspected. The manga-ocr README acknowledges Manga109-s and its Hugging Face model card is tagged dataset:manga109s.

Structured fields

{
  "archived": false,
  "revision": {
    "ref": "site news lists a 2026.05 Manga109-v2026 paper and 2023.12 revised release; upstream_updated_at is the push time of the site-source repository",
    "pinned": false,
    "source_url": "https://manga109.github.io/manga109-project-website/en/index.html"
  },
  "checked_at": "2026-10-17T00:00:00.000Z",
  "usefulness": "Dataset of 109 Japanese manga volumes (21,142 pages) with box annotations for characters, faces, frames and text, built for academic research; the 87-volume Manga109-s subset is approved for commercial use with strict conditions (no redistribution, disclose dataset use when publishing pre-trained models, no selling images with results, at most 20 percent of pages of a volume published). A dataset where the page-level rights terms matter more than the annotation licence.",
  "source_type": "dataset",
  "availability": "available",
  "source_owner": "Aizawa-Yamasaki-Matsui Laboratory (相澤・山崎・松井研究室), University of Tokyo; organisers include Kiyoharu Aizawa",
  "next_check_at": "2026-10-24T00:00:00.000Z",
  "known_limitations": [
    "https://www.manga109.org returned a TLS certificate mismatch (certificate for www.hal.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp) to the fetch tool; http://www.manga109.org/en redirects (HTTP 301) to the GitHub Pages site used as canonical URL here, and the terms were also checked in the site source repository manga109/manga109-project-website.",
    "Images were not downloaded; access needs a request form (not used).",
    "The annotations are published separately under CC-BY-4.0 (manga109/public-annotations); that is not the licence of the manga images.",
    "Whether training generative models is covered by \"machine learning experiments\" in Manga109-s was not clarified by the text read."
  ],
  "upstream_updated_at": "2026-06-05T13:39:07.000Z"
}

Evidence claims

[sourced_fact] Manga109 was authorised by the authors for research use limited to academic, non-commercial purposes; 87 of the 109 volumes were newly approved for commercial use as Manga109-s. · locator: en/index.html, 01 / About source
[sourced_fact] For Manga109 (all 109 volumes) the dataset can be used solely for academic purposes and redistribution of any part to third parties is forbidden. · locator: en/index.html, 05 / License, Manga109 source
[sourced_fact] Manga109-s conditions: when publishing results, including pre-trained models, from machine learning or image processing experiments, the use of Manga109-s must be indicated clearly in the published work. · locator: en/index.html, 05 / License, Manga109-s, Conditions source
[sourced_fact] Manga109-s conditions include that published whole pages of any single volume must not exceed 20 percent of that volume. · locator: en/index.html, 05 / License, Manga109-s, Conditions source
[sourced_fact] Manga109-s is the subset of 87 books available for commercial use under the stated conditions. · locator: en/index.html, 05 / License, Manga109-s source
[sourced_fact] GitHub API returns the repository record for manga109/manga109-project-website: default branch main; pushed_at at check time 2026-06-05T13:39:07Z (raw response saved under evidence/github/dataset--manga109-github-io--manga109.json). · locator: GitHub API repos/manga109/manga109-project-website, default_branch (pushed_at is volatile) source
[sourced_fact] GitHub API reports archived = false for manga109/manga109-project-website. · locator: GitHub API repos/manga109/manga109-project-website, archived source
[upstream_claim] Research review verdict at export: reviewed (as of 2026-10-17). Recorded by the research pipeline, not a hub review outcome; evidence.review stays unreviewed until an independent reviewer records one.

Rights

component	license	hosting	redistribution	modification	training	Evidence and notes
dataset	LicenseRef-Manga109-academic	prohibited	prohibited	restricted	restricted	https://manga109.github.io/manga109-project-website/en/index.html Manga109 (109 volumes): solely academic, non-commercial use by non-commercial organisations; redistribution to third parties forbidden; modifications of parts of images allowed for academic papers/demos with attribution "courtesy of [Author]". Machine-learning experiments are within experiments but commercial use is not.
dataset	LicenseRef-Manga109-s-commercial	prohibited	prohibited	restricted	restricted	https://manga109.github.io/manga109-project-website/en/index.html Manga109-s (87 volumes): ML and image-processing experiments permitted including commercial use of results; conditions: no redistribution, disclose use when publishing results including pre-trained models, no selling manga images together with results, direct copies/modifications of images not treated as products, at most 20 percent of whole pages per volume published. Machine-learning experiments are expressly listed as a permitted use, subject to the conditions; whether training generative models is within that wording was not addressed.
other	CC-BY-4.0	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	https://github.com/manga109/public-annotations The separate annotation repository manga109/public-annotations is reported as CC-BY-4.0 by the GitHub API; not inspected further. Annotation licence is not the licence of the images.

Linked records

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