Title: The Morose Mononokean Genre: Supernatural, slice of life Publisher: Square-Enix (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Artist/Writer: Kiri Wazawa Serialized in: Gangan Online Original Release Date: July 5, 2015 Crunchyroll is picking up more and more manga these days and they have a very nicely varied catalog by this point. There’s action, romance, and stories that cross the low-key feeling of a slice of ... Read more
Title: Princess Jellyfish Genre: Romance, Comedy Publisher: Kodansha, Crunchyroll Artist/Writer: Akiko Higashimura Serialized in: Kiss Original Release Date: Nov 10, 2008 Fans of the Princess Jellyfish anime can now rejoice! If there was one thing the outstanding adaptation from 2010 was lacked was a proper ending, but Crunchyroll will now deliver that with their newest simulpub of the manga. ... Read more
Looking for ways to spend money for manga, but concerned about the price? Krystallina from Daiyamanga will guide you on getting manga for not so much money! – Ed. Note We all want to support the companies and creators of our favorite series. But supporting them doesn’t have to mean paying full price for everything. ... Read more
1) Last week, we reviewed Father and Son. This week, we’re reviewing the other title that Crunchyroll announced in their 4 manga license day, Donyatsu. 2) Donyatsu is a manga you might have heard about. 3) We hope you enjoyed the picture of a marshmallow eating the back of a donut’s behind. …Sorry, we meant ... Read more
Over the past couple months I’ve looked at both of Satoshi Mizukami’s works that are available in English, Spirit Circle and Hoshi no Samidare: The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, and my feelings on Biscuit Hammer were rather lukewarm. I felt like Spirit Circle improved on all of the problems I had with the story but that was expected, ... Read more
Title: Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches Genre: Comedy, High School Publisher: Kodansha (JP), Crunchyroll Manga (US) Kodansha USA (US) Story/Artist: Miki Yoshikawa Serialized in: Weekly Shonen Magazine Translation: David Rhie Ryu Yamada is a delinquent at Suzuka High School and wholly unpopular so while he’s heard about honor student Urara Shirashi he’s never talked to ... Read more
Title: Spirit Circle Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Publisher: Shonen Gahosha (JP), Viz Media (US) Story/Artist: Satoshi Mizukami Serialized in: Young King Comics (33 out of 33 chapters reviewed) Fuuta Okeya lives a normal life and has gotten to his second year of middle school without incident, although he can see some spirits including the one following his new classmate, ... Read more
Title: Orange Genre: Slice of Life, Romance Publisher: Futabasha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Ichigo Takano Serialized in: Manga Action A review copy was provided by Crunchyroll I tend to find straight up romances boring these days. Kuniko Ikuhara (lately of Yuri Kuma Arashi) says it very well here, that [straight] romances have been done so ... Read more
Title: Hoshi no Samidare: The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer Genre: Action, Drama, Romance, Slice of Life Publisher: Shonen Gahosha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Satoshi Mizukami Serialized in: Young King Ours Reviewed: Volume 1 & 2 of 12 Review copy provided by Crunchyroll. The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer holds a dubious honor in the US manga publishing world for being licensed ... Read more
Title: Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou Genre: Slice of Life Publisher: Shonen Gahosha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Ruri Miyahara Serialized in: Young King Ours Reviewed: Volume 1 of 6 Review copy provided by Crunchyroll. As I mentioned last time, there are many different kinds of slice of life manga out there. Some rely on character growth to move the story along and ... Read more
Title: Joushi Kausei Genre: Slice of Life Publisher: Futabasha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Ken Wakai Serialized in: Manga Action Reviewed: 15 out of 26 chapters Review copy provided by Crunchyroll. These days savvy anime and manga fans will be fairly familiar with the slice of life genre and the various subgenres in it. Everyday school stories, cute girls doing cute things, ... Read more
Title: Cronos Haze Genre: Action Publisher: Futabasha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Takano Masayuki Serialized in: Manga Action Reviewed: 7 out of 11 chapters Review copy provided by Crunchyroll. Readers could be forgiven for looking at this series, which involves fights using sentient “jackets” and the original publication date, and thinking “is this a Kill la Kill rip-off?” Since this series is ... Read more
I easily admit it would be kind of weird if I was able to interview Tiffany at NYCC, but somehow not Danika when the reason Crunchyroll was there in the first place was because they have their manga service up and running. But no worries, as I did manage to talk to the Manga Brand ... Read more
ah
Believe it or not, I had actually planned on doing a post like this someday. I had seen searches for legal manga apps in the site stats search engine (because I did this post most likely), but I struggled on how to explain them. That and general laziness. Well, lazy no more. I recently learned that the New York Times did a video promoting comics on the usual mobile platforms (iPhone, iPad, etc), and…they linked to a not so legal site. Since the barest of research was done to find out if the site they linked to was legal or not, I decided I might as well also do the barest of research and list all the legal manga apps I happen to know about. I bet that there are also publishers in other countries who also have legal apps. You can always let me know what they are either by replying in the comments or sending me detailed info by email (organizationasg at gmail dot com).
So, let’s get started!
Name: MangaBox
How can I read it: Can read the first chapters on the website; download it for your iPhone, iPad, Android
Price: Free!
What you need to know: MangaBox titles do have a limit as to how long they’re up, but aside from that, I covered just about everything MangaBox related on Manga Bookshelf — from things I liked and disliked, to my favorite titles. You can also get opinions from Sean and Jason on the app.
Name: Viz Manga
How can I read it: Can read it on your PC; can download it to your iPhone, iPad, Android
Price: Has free previews; varies from $6.99-10, may be even more.
What you need to know: With me getting an iPhone, I have seen the light…I like reading manga on my phone. I used it to read Deadman Wonderland. It was pretty interesting to say the least. Single page reading is glorious on it. Anyways, I still question the prices of some of these manga, even though I start to wonder if there are reasons for that price tag.
…Nah, I’ll go with it’s still too expensive.
Name: Kodansha Comics
How can I read it: Download to your iPhone, iPad
Price: Has free previews; varies from $4.99 to more.
What you need to know: To be honest, it felt like it hasn’t been updated in a while, but then I see Fairy Tail volumes and I go, “Ok, never mind.” It seems to read well enough, but whether or not you’ll be paying for a title on the app is up to you.
“But Justin some of these titles listed aren’t man–”
“Shutup!”
Name: Comixology
How can I read it: Download to your iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire
Price: For manga, expect it to be in the $4.99-$6.99 range. Or more. Or less.
What you need to know: I actually have not used Comixology. Yes, maybe I should finally get to that. After all, publishers like Seven Seas and Digital Manga Publishing are on it, so…
Name: Weekly Shonen Jump
How can I read it: Download it to your iPhone, iPad, Android
Price: You have to get a subscription to WSJ. You can pay .99c a week or subscribe for a whole year for $25.99.
What you need to know: At first, considering I could access my WSJ manga on the Viz Manga app, I wasn’t sure how useful it would be to have a WSJ app. Then I realized it’s slightly easier to get to just my WSJ issues and nothing else, whereas Viz Manga has all of your manga.
At least that’s how I’m selling it until further notice.
Name: Crunchyroll Manga
How can I read it: download it to your iPhone, iPad, Android
Price: Free!…for the latest chapter. You have to get a manga membership ($4.99) to access the entire catalog, with no ads.
What you need to know: Finally, the hottest manga reading site on the block, Crunchyroll. They’ve certainly made their presence felt, both in good ways and bad ways. So far the jury is still out on how they are affecting the various manga publishing markets, but there’s no denying they have the structure and titles to keep people reading.
Now I don’t know if this is a comprehensive list, but if nothing else, this is a good way to get started. If you have any issues with any of these apps, feel free to reply below.
Update:
So right, you can also purchase manga on your Kindle, Nook, and Kobo from Vertical, Kodansha, and Seven Seas from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. You can also acquire titles on eManga’s platform for various devices as well. You will have to do your due diligence and find out what titles you can read on your platform.
Also, you can find manga titles on Amimaru, which is an iPad service.
As someone that missed out on watching the anime, I’m very pleased to read the manga, and blew through the volumes in two days. I’m definitely curious to see if the women will accept that Kuranosuke is a guy. I’m also very curious if we’ll see the manga author also in the apartment! Literally is in hiding and all this entire time…surely that will change the closer the eviction of the building comes up?
Definitely looking forward to reading more.
I’m looking forward to the physical releases since I’ve heard so much good stuff about this series. Hoping Kodansha USA looks into more josei.
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