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Almost two years ago I picked up an iPad with the explicit goal of transitioning from print media to digital when it comes to comics as a whole. Overall this has been a smashing success across the board I haven't picked up a new print comic in a year and a half, and I generally feel the richer for it.

Back then I took a hard look at manga options when it came to digital and at the time found some aspects lacking.

Since then, I've gotten on board the Weekly Shonen Jump train from VIZ, and I'll tell you what. Weekly comics are the best comics. The quality has been across the board solid, never a dull moment. On the other hand Viz still has no mechanism of selling me Mature Readers digital manga that I can read on my iPad. Meanwhile other digital comic distributors still have no problems doing so. This is still a major sticking point with me. It borders on the ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Kodansha has gotten better at distribution, using Amazon Kindle to release the bulk of their English output to great effect. I've personally read Vinland, and very much liked its quality. I plan to get Attack on Titan volumes at some point in the future.

Kodansha also, I believe sponsors the Mangabox App, which provides free online-only manga which is generally pretty good. If a bit on the rough side. But you can't beat free. Even if you can't offload it for offline play, and the content expires over time.

Can't say I know much about the rest. Dark Horse continues to support new releases, and is starting to get other series up. Like Old Boy and the like.

ComiXology has been pretty quiet overall for Manga overall, which is kind of sad.

Overall, things are generally pretty good. Quality and availability is up overall I think. Still that pesky Mature Readers thing really gumming up the works.

I like your thread, much more so than that other crappy one. In fact, you've even piqued my interest.

One of the main reasons I've been so hesitant in collecting manga at all is because of the media buildup. I can fit hundreds of Blu-rays on a couple of racks for my movie collection, but in comparison books take up a considerably higher amount of space on my shelves.

I basically see digital text/eReading as the "book equivalent" of MP3s (a high quality, easy storage alternative to the physical ownership of a product). But I've never actually seen a manga on a tablet/eReader. How does the quality look? And are there a lot of titles available? What's the average cost per volume? And what's this "Mature Readers" problem you mentioned?

I'd love to be able to own, if not at least, be able to look at quite a few series at some point (mostly the really long shounen titles or any other property that doesn't seem to have an end in sight *cough* Berserk), so I won't be stocking up oodles of paper when I could use the space for something else.

Tony K. wrote:

I like your thread, much more so than that other crappy one. In fact, you've even piqued my interest.

I do my best.

Keep in mind all I'm about to say comes from the Point of View of an iPad owner. Your mileage may vary if you use different devices.

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One of the main reasons I've been so hesitant in collecting manga at all is because of the media buildup. I can fit hundreds of Blu-rays on a couple of racks for my movie collection, but in comparison books take up a considerably higher amount of space on my shelves.

'Eliminating clutter' is definitely one of the bigger reasons I switched over to digital. That and being able to read (most) of my entire library at any time, anywhere.

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But I've never actually seen a manga on a tablet/eReader. How does the quality look?

It can vary based on a number of factors. Namely, how good is your viewing device? If you're on a smart phone with a small screen, the experiance isn't going to quite as good as a full sized book. But if you have a tablet like in iPad, Kindle Fire, or Google Nexus you're going to have a picture size larger then your typical manga volume. The other big factor is the resolution the distributor decides upon. Low resolution as your black lines will looks grey, color eras might look chunky with pixilation, and generally the picture will look worse then the print editions. But overall distributors go with higher resolutions and the line art is crisp. Manga is mostly black and white so the picture quality is generally pretty good. Viz tends to skew lower res over all. But its not the worst it could be.

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And are there a lot of titles available?

Definitely more then there were a year and a half ago. Viz and Kodansha pretty much rule the roost, with a few smaller ones sprinkled around for good messure. Viz has their own app they sell through, Kodansha sells via Amazon Kindle store. Both have most of their print line-up avalbile. Viz also publishes Weekly Shonen Jump as a digital-only series. At $1 an issue (half that if you subscribe for a year) which is the best deal in comics. Period.

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What's the average cost per volume?

Between $5 and $10 most of the time. It varies between title and publishers. Also Amazon titles often have sales (much like print volumes) and sometimes Viz does too. Generally where manga is concerned digital manga is cheaper then print. Which is a better situation then American comics generally have.

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And what's this "Mature Readers" problem you mentioned?

Wellll... a while back VIZ didn't sell their 'Mature Readers' titles (like Black Lagoon or Biomega) via their iOS (Apple) app. The reason for this being Apple has very draconian polices when it comes to graphic content on material distributed via their apps. You could buy these Mature Reader titles digitally on VIZ's web site, but you could only read them in your web browser. This was quite annoying, as other digital comic distributors got around this restriction by selling their comics off their web site, and then you could download it to your device no problem (Apple just didn't want them sold via app). This was really annoying to me at the time. However... it turns out I might have been a bit hasty. As checking Amazon it turns out that Viz is selling their Mature Readers catalog via Amazon Kindle eBook, which I know for a fact I can download to my iOS device regardless of mature reader rating. Soooo apparently this material is available now! Its not great that I have to jungle some content between two different apps, but that's not that big a deal I suppose.

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I'd love to be able to own, if not at least, be able to look at quite a few series at some point (mostly the really long shounen titles or any other property that doesn't seem to have an end in sight *cough* Berserk), so I won't be stocking up oodles of paper when I could use the space for something else.

The ownership thing is a bit of a sticking point when it comes to digital-anything these days. Both Viz and Kodansha material is DRM-Locked via their specific app (their own app, Amazon's, or otherwise). Which means you can't keep a local back-up on your home PC. While its unlikely that any of these companies are going to go out of business and your content will be lost, it is a bit of a sticking point for people. Not so much for me personally. But its important to keep that in mind when going into digital. Currently things are pretty stable, but who knows what the next 10 years will bring. Some publishers (specifically Image Comics) sells their content DRM-Free. Which come as a file you can download and save forever. I would hope to see this catch on over time. But I wouldn't hold your breath.

As for Berserk. Unfortunately its not available digitally yet. Dark Horse and DMP jointly control the domestic rights I think, and its not available through Dark Horse's app (Dark Horse also has their own app, and sells their digital comics themselves. DRM-locked.)

I hope some of that clears things up. If not... I'll try to answer any further questions you have.

Thank you for that very methodical and informative answer-post.

The concept of being able to horde all that manga in digital format seems very enticing. I'm a little disappointed about the mature titles not being as readily available across all the apps, but maybe they'll make more progress as the years go by.

The DRM thing should be fine, so long as I actually figure out how to effectively and efficiently use whatever device I end up getting.

I'm a little hesitant on getting any kind of Apple product because I can't stand their software updates and the compatibility issues they cause. Although, most of my experience is with iPods, so I have no idea how much worse or better the iPad is in comparison.

The Amazon Kindle Fire sounds like it'd probably be better for me. My girlfriend has an original Kindle and uses it a lot, so if I were to possibly get her a Kindle Fire someday, it could sort of double over as both, an upgrade for her and a possible test-run for me.

Crunchyroll offers manga. 38 titles so far. You have to read it on the site, but if you already have a subscription for anime, its free. I'm not sure what you can access without a subscription as I already had one when they started offering it.

I read it on my computer monitor and it is clear and easy to navigate. I'm not sure how it would work with other devices as I don't have any.

Completely forgot about Crunchyroll. I tried it for the trial period (pretty sure you don't just get access with an anime sub. It's a separate sub. Or you have the 'all inclusive' subscription) didn't care for most of its content.

I also use Comic Walker, but only to read Gundam the Origin.

I forgot there is more than one level of subscription. I buy mine at the year end sale for the anime so the manga is free for me. I haven't tried other sites. I prefer to have hard copy if at all possible.

Storage is a problem though. I have in excess of 3000 volumes of manga.

Alan45 wrote:

I forgot there is more than one level of subscription. I buy mine at the year end sale for the anime so the manga is free for me. I haven't tried other sites. I prefer to have hard copy if at all possible.

Storage is a problem though. I have in excess of 3000 volumes of manga.

That's the problem I run into myself. I'm an avid book reader and collector. Much like with favorite anime series or movies I often re-read my manga. As I do many of my books. So I like having that physical copy to grab a hold of. The amount of bookshelves we have though is becoming troublesome. I think I need to bite the bullet and invest in digital manga just so I don't have to dedicate an entire room to physical literature lol.

I used to have a collectors mentality when it comes to print media. But the transition to digital has helped me get over it.

The only digital manga I will buy at the moment is from SuBLime, since they do DRM free PDFs. I got burned by Jmanga closing, and when I spend money on something I like to have a tangible object in my hands that is mine until I decide to get rid of it, not Amazon or whatever decides I can't have it any more.

I find that the digital manga distribution is still fragmented.

Only Viz, Kodansha and Yen Press seem to be only ones pushing for major digital distribution.

DRM is still an issue because of the lack of back-up you can make.

I get my manga through Google Play Books because they offer epub and pdf format to download. (Though only Yen Press seem to offer this).

Digital Manga also offers DRM-free manga via their eManga site in a variety of formats.

RZetlin wrote:

I find that the digital manga distribution is still fragmented.

Only Viz, Kodansha and Yen Press seem to be only ones pushing for major digital distribution.

Lots of fragmentation...because each publisher has different distributors and licensers.

Seven Seas has a lot on Comixology. Dark Horse's app is possibly my favorite of the bunch. And Vertical has been releasing eBooks on the Kindle, Nook, iBookstore (actually same program as Kodansha...same distributor). Cool

In a surprising turn of events, VIZ Media is starting to release their content via ComiXology. I wonder what prompted this?

Though.. now that I really think about it... ComiXology is owned by Amazon now, and VIZ was already available via Amazon digital. So maybe this isn't as surprising as I thought.

I was interested in buying digital manga from Kodanasha (Attack on Titan mainly) but it is not available for my version of the kindle it seems. Oh well. Don't really feel like upgrading my kindle just for Attack on Titan.

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