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House of 1000 Manga - Manga Box




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thenix



Joined: 18 Apr 2012
Posts: 265
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:28 pm Reply with quote
While I agree that love suicide pact has bad art, I think the worst art in any of the manga in the mangabox is Chronicle of Akoya. It's all opinion but I was surprised it wasn't mentioned.
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster


Joined: 07 May 2005
Posts: 357
Location: San Francisco
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:59 pm Reply with quote
thenix wrote:
While I agree that love suicide pact has bad art, I think the worst art in any of the manga in the mangabox is Chronicle of Akoya. It's all opinion but I was surprised it wasn't mentioned.


The art in Akoya is pretty gnarly and there's lots of ugly characters but I think that's just the style the mangaka is going for. At least the lines meet up, people's faces are in the right place on their heads, their elbows aren't next to their shoulders, etc.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 6:55 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
OBLIGATORY COMPARISON: The fanservicey-est fanservice manga you've ever read. Except this is on iTunes, so without full-frontal.

That's something I was wondering about. After checking out the first chapters and current chapters previews of the mangabox titles, my inner perv Razz notices a conspicuous lack of nudity on some titles you'd expect to have it if it were print or web based. For example there are very strategic coverings of breasts in Peephole and Schoolgirl Landlord Honoka.

But since I haven't actually checked out the full manga in-app, maybe that's just due to digest/current chapter previews, so I was curious if any of the manga actually show anything. I also wonder if there are tankobons planned for any of the mangabox specific titles and if there will be some changes
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Mr Adventure



Joined: 14 Jul 2008
Posts: 1598
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 5:12 am Reply with quote
Holy crap. This service is amazing. To bad it looks like content expires after... 12 weeks? And of course you can't load it for offline reading.

But it is free!
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14746
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 6:05 am Reply with quote


Now that's some pick-up line! Laughing
(Try it at the next con.)
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:47 am Reply with quote
Note that the manga is now also accessible on the web, partly because some series/chapters had to be pulled due to troubles with Google's ToS.
https://www.mangabox.me/

Edit: It looks like only the first and last chapters are available there, now. There were more before.

I'm surprised that there wasn't even a passing mention of Spoof On Titan. It's alright -- usually not hilarious.

Ariadoki has some great ideas, reasonably amateurish art and a lot of amateurish inconsistency. Still, pretty enjoyable overall. It's looking as if the author may already be running out of ideas, but it's worth reading the first few chapters at least.

High School Ninja Girl is a pretty standard 4-koma manga with mild humour, but it's fairly consistent and tends to improve as it goes along. Worthwhile if you have the time and just want something pleasant to read.

My Grandpa's Stories... has an occasional great joke but is very hit-and-miss.

NadeNadeShikoShiko seems fairly useless, but it might be worth reading the first chapter or two for a few good lines from the mother. (Also the mammoth looks pretty great).

One of their new series, Old Man Frog, has definite potential. They've also got some sort of post-apocalyptic pokemon thing starting - Joxer.
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katscradle



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 3:52 pm Reply with quote
I rather like Manga Box since it displays and works on phones and tablets pretty well. Tawara Cat is maybe my favorite. I also like Logick about a shy art student who wants to drop out. First Love Suicide Pact wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be so I'll keep reading it when I have the time. Strangest yet intriguing title for me has to be a new one Old Man Frog. But, I'm sort of concerned over the censorship issues Manga Box has faced.

Unfortunately I have an Android device so the problems with the Google Play content regulations have affected me. I suppose that's the drawback to free. Manga Box might be able to convince Google Play if they could age restrict and charge as little as $1.00 USD for the chapters/titles that were removed. But, then again I seem to vaguely remember another manga publisher in the last two years maybe having to remove some books from Google Play as well. I only got an Android device roughly three months ago so I'm still trying to get up to speed on their polices and history. But, it's not good if Manga Box is having to go back and make alterations to certain titles to try and get them available again because of a variety of content. So I'm very interested in where they go from here.

The 4-panel Milk on the Farm made me laugh or smirk. Though I guess it had problems with Google Play too?

Truthfully I would pay for Peephole. It's one of the more interesting titles to me frankly and a couple of the chapters I found incredibly funny.
As for the others I know that have been at issue for Android:
Green Worldz isn't bad either.
Schoolgirl Landlord Honoka is amusing at least.
But, I can't say I cared much for High-rise Invasion or Bushido Academy. Or Too Much Booty.
I'm not sure about District Hakkenshi [code:T-8] either since I haven't read it from the beginning yet.

Sven Viking wrote:
Note that the manga is now also accessible on the web, partly because some series/chapters had to be pulled due to troubles with Google's ToS.
https://www.mangabox.me/

Edit: It looks like only the first and last chapters are available there, now. There were more before.


Strange, if I use my tablet I can read everything but, if I'm on a laptop it's only the digest and the latest chapter.
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Chipp12



Joined: 30 Mar 2012
Posts: 300
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 4:11 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
And The Tawara Cat, a one-shot about a girl and a cat that I really wish would be continued, because it's cute and the full-color art is so atypical for manga.

It's not a one-shot. The serialization has just started.
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster


Joined: 07 May 2005
Posts: 357
Location: San Francisco
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 5:15 pm Reply with quote
configspace wrote:
Quote:
OBLIGATORY COMPARISON: The fanservicey-est fanservice manga you've ever read. Except this is on iTunes, so without full-frontal.

That's something I was wondering about. After checking out the first chapters and current chapters previews of the mangabox titles, my inner perv Razz notices a conspicuous lack of nudity on some titles you'd expect to have it if it were print or web based. For example there are very strategic coverings of breasts in Peephole and Schoolgirl Landlord Honoka.

But since I haven't actually checked out the full manga in-app, maybe that's just due to digest/current chapter previews, so I was curious if any of the manga actually show anything.


Well, I haven't read printed versions of any of these manga (i'm not even sure they exist), but I don't think any of the manga were censored: I think they were all just drawn for a PG-13 rating. Usually when a manga has been censored there's telltale signs, like giant closeups of a full-coverage bra, or whatnot. I could be wrong, but I don't detect any obvious censorship.
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster


Joined: 07 May 2005
Posts: 357
Location: San Francisco
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 5:17 pm Reply with quote
Sven Viking wrote:
Note that the manga is now also accessible on the web, partly because some series/chapters had to be pulled due to troubles with Google's ToS.
https://www.mangabox.me/


Where did you read that they were having Google Play ToS content problems? Did they say something on Twitter?
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Hupiom



Joined: 16 Feb 2014
Posts: 3
Location: CA, USA
PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 5:29 am Reply with quote
ptolemy18 wrote:
Sven Viking wrote:
Note that the manga is now also accessible on the web, partly because some series/chapters had to be pulled due to troubles with Google's ToS.
https://www.mangabox.me/


Where did you read that they were having Google Play ToS content problems? Did they say something on Twitter?


There was a notice in the "News" section of the Android app about the removal:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?pid=5988356646372735106&oid=103613012103152452991

A couple of mentions about it:

http://mangabookshelf.com/44691/mangabox-what-is-it-whats-good-to-read/

http://mangahelpers.com/forum/showthread.php/2995650-Manga-Box-News-and-Discussion

Schoolgirl Landlord Honoka and High-rise Invasion have not been restored, but it looks like Peephole, GREEN WORLDZ, and District Hakkenshi [code:T-8] have. Too Much Booty and Bushido Academy were recently added to the website and iOS app, but they never appeared on Android. I'm not sure, but that manga bookshelf article seems to suggest that Milk on The Farm was censored.
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Chipp12



Joined: 30 Mar 2012
Posts: 300
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 1:43 am Reply with quote
Hupiom wrote:
Schoolgirl Landlord Honoka and High-rise Invasion have not been restored, but it looks like Peephole, GREEN WORLDZ, and District Hakkenshi [code:T-8] have. Too Much Booty and Bushido Academy were recently added to the website and iOS app, but they never appeared on Android. I'm not sure, but that manga bookshelf article seems to suggest that Milk on The Farm was censored.

1) Ana Satsujin, GREEN WORLDZ & Tokku Hakkenshi [code;T-8] were never deleted in the first place. Only several of their first chapters were made unavailable.
2) Onimote was available for some time (in both English and Japanese) but I guess it was pretty predictable that it will become the next prey of damned Play Store.
Take Dake Dake! wasn't available in the app since it was brought to the Japanese version, of course it won't be accessible in English too.
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katscradle



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:18 am Reply with quote
ptolemy18 wrote:
Sven Viking wrote:
Note that the manga is now also accessible on the web, partly because some series/chapters had to be pulled due to troubles with Google's ToS.
https://www.mangabox.me/


Where did you read that they were having Google Play ToS content problems? Did they say something on Twitter?


Yes, in addition to the info others offered there were also a couple of tweets in February:

https://twitter.com/Manga_Box/status/431588962809810944

https://twitter.com/Manga_Box/status/433623409029693440

Edit: And there's a whole lot more in Japanese going back at least till January now that I look. (I wasn't paying attention to Manga Box before February.)
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jennif3rjunip3r



Joined: 20 Jul 2014
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 3:02 pm Reply with quote
As the translator who came up with that "Too Much Booty" title, I am both flattered and amused. I was supposed to come up with three title suggestions, and since "onimote" is rather untranslatable ("attractive to the opposite sex like an ogre/extremely attractive) I just threw out some odd ideas. I didn't think they would actually take that one! My first suggestion was "Chick Magnet" or "The Unwanted Harem"

Anyway, about censorship, yes, the Google store does have very strict TOS. I also do Hakkenshi and Peephole, and they've both been censored - Peephole heavily so. If you get the print version of Peephole in Japanese, you can see all the uncensored art. Originally we just censored everything for the Google store while Android got the full version, but now the artist is pre-censoring all their work just to make things less complicated.

I don't know what the plans are for future English release... I don't know what I'm allowed to say, either, so I'll just say I hope they do a digital release/ebooks eventually.
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster


Joined: 07 May 2005
Posts: 357
Location: San Francisco
PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 10:39 pm Reply with quote
jennif3rjunip3r wrote:
As the translator who came up with that "Too Much Booty" title, I am both flattered and amused.

...

Anyway, about censorship, yes, the Google store does have very strict TOS. I also do Hakkenshi and Peephole, and they've both been censored - Peephole heavily so. If you get the print version of Peephole in Japanese, you can see all the uncensored art. Originally we just censored everything for the Google store while Android got the full version, but now the artist is pre-censoring all their work just to make things less complicated.


Thanks for commenting, this is really interesting! Love the title. -_- It's a shame that "Hakkenshi" and "Peephole" are censored, and it's especially a shame that the artist is self-censoring now -- do you mean in the original print version as well?
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