Well, I learned something new today: DoCoMo has a Netherlands subsidary. The Japanese cellphone company has also launched a new platform called Manga Mode that will provide translations of Shueisha properties Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Death Note to the people of Europe.

Well, specifically, the manga will be distributed on Bouygues Telecom S.A., so that means all of these titles are intially available in French, according to AnimeAnime. They're looking for other distributors to work with, too, so the rest of you European readers aren't getting the shaft. In moving towards the future with this, they say that DoCoMo is really looking at three things: that the people they're working with have a stable control over data management, security, and pricing structure. From the article, it sounds like they've been burned in the past with all this.

So, I guess that's how it's done. We really haven't seen things take off here in the US, but that's because of failed attempts at just throwing the media out there, without really taking into consideration the technology available and the strength of our networks. That's why ADV on ovi is bound to fail, in my humble opinion, and Tokyopop's mobile attempts did as well -- there wasn't as much thought behind it.

But, for the meantime, let's see how this takes off. I have a good feeling about it personally, but that's probably because DoCoMo has much more experience in the area and they can have a much more watchful eye over the whole process in Europe. Any Euro readers going to pick this up once it comes to your area?