MaiLab.COMMUNICATION, NOT JUST TRANSLATION.
MaiTALK is the official interpreting tool for IMART 2026!Official interpreting tool for IMART 2026!

MaiTALK

A multilingual communication solution,
born from the world of manga creation.

I want to hear your story.I want to tell you mine.

あなたの声を聴きたい。私の言葉で伝えたい。

MaiTALKを囲んで会話する人たち
01 / THE BEGINNING

The words get through.But understandingdoesn’t always follow.

Why did a manga publisher create MaiTALK?

Coamix has been working with manga artists overseas for years.
But collaborating across languages and cultures hasn’t always been straightforward.
Interpreters and translation tools help us communicate.
Yet when you’re creating manga together, that isn’t always enough.
The vision behind a storyboard, the rhythm of a scene, the subtleties of a character’s expression.
So much of what goes into making manga is difficult to put into words.We might understand every word, yet picture something completely different.
Making sure we were all imagining the same thing was harder than it sounds.

LOST IN TRANSLATION SCENE 01
1 | When jargon gets in the way

A manga artist and an editor meet for the first time.

JAPANESE EDITOR
“Let’s start with the nēmu!”
MANGA ARTIST
“The name? Whose name?”

WHERE DID IT GET LOST?

In Japanese manga production, nēmu refers to a rough storyboard — a blueprint showing the panel layouts, dialogue and character placement. But without that shared knowledge, nēmu can easily be mistaken for the English word name.

LOST IN TRANSLATION SCENE 02
2 | When the feeling gets lost

A manga artist and an editor are discussing a romantic scene.

JAPANESE EDITOR
“I want this scene to feel more kyun-kyun.”
MANGA ARTIST
“More romantic, you mean?”
JAPANESE EDITOR
“Not exactly. It’s that little flutter you get when something touches your heart.”

WHERE DID IT GET LOST?

In Japanese, kyun-kyun describes that fluttery, heart-skipping feeling — often sparked by a romantic or emotionally touching moment. But ‘romantic’ doesn’t quite capture it. It’s not simply about love; it’s about the particular feeling a scene creates.

LOST IN TRANSLATION SCENE 03
3 | When words carry more than meaning

An editor and a manga artist are looking at a scene between a father and his young child.

JAPANESE EDITOR
“Oh, that’s so ijirashii! How do I even say that in English?”
“It’s that feeling when someone’s trying so hard, and you just want to hug them. And this father and child… they’re toutoi!”
MANGA ARTIST
“Toutoi? I thought that meant something sacred?”
JAPANESE EDITOR
“It does! But now we say it when something’s so lovely we can barely stand it!”

WHERE DID IT GET LOST?

Some feelings are hard to put into words, even in your own language. Ijirashii expresses a particular tenderness towards someone doing their best, often despite their vulnerability. And toutoi, traditionally used to mean ‘precious’ or ‘sacred’, has taken on a new meaning in Japanese popular culture: an almost overwhelming sense of affection or admiration. Sometimes, understanding a word isn’t enough. You need to understand the feeling — and the culture — behind it.

Those experiences left us with a question.

Is translating words
really enough?

02 / THE ORIGIN

Where MaiTALK began.

A member of the Mai Research Lab, who had been observing these challenges in manga production, had also spent many years living abroad and working in multicultural environments. Through those experiences, they had encountered the same difficulties in communicating across languages. Understanding the words, but missing the intention. Getting the translation right, yet somehow failing to connect. Having experienced that frustration first-hand, a simple wish began to take shape. To listen more closely to what others truly mean. To create a space where conversations can go deeper.

And with it came an intuition: perhaps there was a way to make this possible.

03 / PHILOSOPHY

First, we listen.

MaiTALK was never simply about translating words. Our aim was to help people who speak different languages understand one another and create a space for deeper conversation. At the heart of this was a simple idea: to truly listen. Not just to what someone says, but to the experiences and intentions behind their words. To pay attention to the context of a conversation, the language of a particular profession, and the conventions of each setting. And to learn the terminology and knowledge unique to that setting as conversations unfold, helping dialogue feel more natural.

Beyond translation accuracy, we care about making conversations easier and creating ways for people to share context. MaiTALK continues to evolve to open up new possibilities for dialogue.

漫画を描く人たちのモノクロイラスト
04 / TECHNOLOGY

Inventing technology
for dialogue.

Translating words alone cannot deepen a conversation. So how can people who speak different languages communicate more naturally? In searching for an answer, we developed our own technologies. How conversations are displayed. How AI behaves. These two innovations are currently the subject of patent applications.

PATENT PENDING 01

Not a translation screen. A conversation screen.

Whether someone speaks Japanese, English or French, everyone is part of the same conversation. We wanted each person to be able to follow that conversation in their own language. Our solution was to create a dedicated display column for every participant.

Patent application No. 2024-124568 — Display Control Device and Program

PATENT PENDING 02

Designing how AI behaves.

The right way to express something depends on who you're speaking to and the situation. It's not just what you say, but how you say it. To address this, MaiTALK has been developed with configurable AI personalities, designed to support translation and dialogue that take account of context, nuance and how words come across.

Preparing to file a patent application

KEY FEATURES

Speak to the world in 73 languages.

MaiTALK supports 73 registered languages, translating and displaying conversations between people who speak different languages in real time.

Everyone speaks. Listen with your eyes.

Each participant has a dedicated column on screen, displaying everyone’s contributions in their own language and in chronological order. Even when several languages are spoken, the conversation is easy to follow. This is made possible by our patent-pending technology.

Have a question? Ask Mai.

Ask our AI assistant, Mai, a question during a conversation and receive an answer on the spot, helping you explore the discussion further.

Your expertise. Your language.

Register specialist terminology and relevant context in advance. MaiTALK can draw on this information when translating conversations and answering questions.

Save conversations. Deepen understanding.

By saving conversation histories, you can catch up on earlier exchanges even when joining a conversation partway through. Beyond simply looking back, analysing these conversations helps reveal patterns in how people communicate and uncover fresh insights and knowledge, turning past conversations into opportunities for better communication and new value.

The devices you already use.

Available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Linux. No dedicated hardware required.

Just talk. Let the conversation flow.

Translation accuracy is only part of what matters to MaiTALK. Intuitive controls and a flexible design that adapts to different settings. Every detail is considered to make MaiTALK easy to use, so conversations can flow naturally.

Pinch to adjust text sizeDouble-tap for text-to-speechRotate with two fingers to reverse the columnsUse the entire screen as a PTT buttonConnect an external controller for PTTSwitch between VAD and PTTExternal audio interface support (up to eight individual microphone channels)

Some supported languages are available as translation targets only. An internet connection and a MaiTALK-Pass are required.

05 / ABOUT THE LAB
Meet the people behind MaiTALK!

We explore manga
through science.

Mai研究室のメンバーが大型ディスプレイを囲んで研究データを検討している様子

MaiLab. is the R&D division of Coamix Inc. Bringing together generations of people with experience in publishing and editing, we explore the questions that arise from the very heart of manga creation. Why do stories move us? How can we convey what makes a work compelling? How does understanding grow across languages and cultures? At the heart of our work is an editorial philosophy passed down from Coamix’s creative lead, Nobuhiko Horie: listening closely to readers and valuing both creative instinct and objective data. Building on that spirit, we bring together AI, neuroscience, biometric analysis and other technologies to pursue new lines of research. To understand manga is also to understand people. That is why our research reaches far beyond manga itself. Technologies and insights born from creative practice are opening up new possibilities in education, tourism, communication and many other fields.

MaiTALK is one of the answers to emerge from this research.

06 / LET'S TALK

We’d love to hear
your story.

MaiTALK is still evolving.

There must be people in places we have yet to imagine who want to overcome language barriers. And with them, challenges we have yet to discover and possibilities we have yet to explore. Where would you like to have a conversation? With whom? And about what? What hopes or challenges lie behind that wish? We want to explore not only how words can be translated, but what becomes possible through dialogue. Sometimes, an unexpected future begins with a simple conversation.

So, first, we’d love to hear your story.

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