Manga Publishers Launch JManga.com

by Snow
Aug 17, 2011 2:28 PM | 50 Comments

On Wednesday, the platform for legally reading manga online in English, JManga* launched, including licensed and never before published titles in the U.S.

JManga enables users to:

Browse information on manga works
Access bookselling sites
Access publishing companies' sites
Preview manga
Purchase and view digital comics

Though the site is currently only available in North America, JManga has plans to make their site available in other countries and eventually available on mobile devices, including the iPad, iPhone, Android, and others.

Titles available for purchase:
A Kiss on Tearful Cheeks Vol.1
Adekan Vol.1
Anesthesiologist Hana Vol.1
Black Sun Silver Moon Vol.1
Cigarette Kisses Vol.1
Confession Vol.1
Crayon Shin-chan Vol 1-11
Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance Vol.1
Devil King Vol.1
Dingo Vol.1
Drifting Net Café Vol.1
Ekiben Hitoritabi Vol.1
Girlfriends Vol.1
Gokudou Meshi Vol.1
Hitohira Vol.1
Joshi Kousei Vol.1
Kamakura Monogatari Vol.1
Kitty Hawker Vol.1
LOL Theater Vol.1
Madame Joker Vol.1
Manga Science Vol.1
Mori no Asagao Vol.1
My Sadistic Boyfriend Vol.1
Nagai Michi Vol.1
Nao Go Straight-Guide Dog Trainer- Vol.1
Ninja Papa Vol.1
No Color Vol.1
Non-chan no Tenohira Vol.1
Odds GP! Vol.1
Oh my god! Vol.1-2
Otaku-Type Delusion Girl Vol.1
Pet on Duty Vol.1
Pieces of Spiral Vol.1
Romeo x Romeo Vol.1
Sherlock Holmes Vol.1
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru Vol.1
Star Protector Dog Vol.1
Survival: Another Story Vol.1
The Larceny Log of Zampei the Cloud Snatcher Vol.1
The Perfect Girlfriend Vol.1
The Town of Evening Calm, The Country of Cherry Blossoms Vol.1
The Young Magician Vol.1
To All The Corners Of The World Vol.1
Tsugumomo Vol.1
Urameshiya Vol.1
When I'm With You Vol.1
Wonder! Vol.1
Young-kun Vol.1

More titles are planned to be released. It has been said that, within a year, a few thousand titles will be released through JManga.

*The site is currently only available in the North American region (U.S & Canada).

Sources: ANN, About.com, JManga FAQ

Companies

20 of 50 Comments Recent Comments

IamOyashiro-sama said:
Edit: Wait, they'll be translating Higurashi Kokoroiyashi-hen? It hasn't been scanlated, to my knowledge... gah, now I'm a little interested.. >.>

That on piqued my interest out of all the titles I saw on the site. :D

Aug 19, 2011 3:41 PM by Numi

>2011
>Reading manga online

ISHYGDDT

Anyway, it's only available in North America blah blah for now so I clearly won't be using it.

Aug 19, 2011 12:07 PM by Chef_Gohda

Maybe worth taking a look.

Aug 19, 2011 9:04 AM by Aiyele_Ahiru

Too bad it's region-locked at the moment, but I guess they are at this stage testing the waters and need to see some results before going world-wide.

Most of the line-up I've never heard of, but a few piqued my interest. What I like about this launch line-up is that it's varied and encompasses all genres, so kudos to them for being mindful of all types of readers out there. As for the prices...yeah, it's too pricey for a digital product, so they'd be wise to cut the prices in half or lower. I hope by the time the site goes international that they added some of my favorite titles, like Historie, Vinland Saga and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou; I'd love to support the manga-ka who worked so hard to provide me with such a great reading experience with their much deserved cash.

Aug 18, 2011 6:13 PM by removed-user

Only thing I think I would be interested in buying here would be Confessions - which I've already read anyway.

Aug 18, 2011 11:53 AM by holypoop

I personally haven't heared of any of those manga's, yet still, good idea.

BradPitt said:
U.S. only...crap.

Agree - the internet should be a world wide platform of sharing.

Aug 18, 2011 11:15 AM by Gleam_Queen

PseudoJord said:
North America has Canada too and...oh, forget it.

It's okay, apparently we don't exist to the rest of the world. XD
North America = US. Wtf is Canada anyway? Where am I?

Anyway, seems some Canadians can't access the site? It works fine for me.. o.o

Purchasing digital manga doesn't really appeal to me. If I were to buy manga I'd rather have an actual copy. If I were to read it on my computer, why would I buy? :P Interesting site anyway.

Edit: Wait, they'll be translating Higurashi Kokoroiyashi-hen? It hasn't been scanlated, to my knowledge... gah, now I'm a little interested.. >.>

Aug 18, 2011 10:21 AM by notnishiura

Good step in the right direction, prices are a little meh but bearable, but I'll come back later when some harem titles are available.

Aug 18, 2011 9:45 AM by Hoppy

I still wish this site worked like their Crunchyroll site since its model is works very well at least I think so with multiple options to pay besides credit card only and have more sub plans than just a monthly one and free members are not left out of the loop.

Overall this is a step in the right direction just a bad start. I hope they make JManga's model similar to CR's or at least lower their prices a bit and make to where free members can get something more than shitty 4~5 page previews before buying the chapter. I don't like blind buying.

Aug 18, 2011 9:19 AM by Roloko

The worse part of the site hasn't even been mentioned: The site has no DRM-free downloads, you can only read stuff you've payed for via their website. I want to own content, not pay for the right to access at some corporate entity's whim. It's a horrible, dystopian distribution scheme. I hope this business model fails.

Also,I can buy manga volumes at Rightstuf with a membership discount for like $7, but here volumes cost $10-$11. JManga is selling a product that's both inferior to, and more expensive than, physical copies of manga.

(I'm not saying this because I hate the industry or anything...I actually don't use fansubs/scanlations, and only consume anime/manga legally 100%. But I only support the industry when it's doing things right, not pushing a terrible retraction of consumer rights).

Aug 18, 2011 8:08 AM by einhorn303

Not too interested. I barely have time to read manga nowadays, so I'm going to pass. Maybe when the prices are lowered (to a monthly subscription like Netflix, etc) and I have more free time, I'd consider JManga.

Great idea, but as of now, they're just getting started. I'm going to also wait and if see if this idea will make it or die out.

Aug 18, 2011 7:34 AM by EarthStar

Snowical said:
*The site is currently only available in the North American region (U.S & Canada).

Lame.

It sounds like a nice idea but I must be honest here, I doubt I'd use it even if I could when I can get it for free elsewhere. From what people are saying it sounds pretty pricey too. For that amount I'd rather buy an actual book.

I can see the benefits to a site like this though. Not all manga gets scanlated and manga with official releases do tend to go out of print eventually so if you want to read an older title you could still read it online. I guess this is just a start though. I'd like to see where it goes from here.

Can anyone else see a 'horriblescans' in the making...?

Aug 18, 2011 3:28 AM by kokocho

mitamaking said:
The price layout is quite bad, I am hoping to wait out till it becomes like Crunchy, subscription and ad based.

Same man same this is what I was hoping for not this shit.

I don't mind paying, but its for credit card holders only. So basically I'm out of luck and in with the group that is region locked or dosen't have credit cards either.

Also the previews are only 4 or 5 pages before you have to pay 0.98~$2.98 the rest of it. Then their weekly FREE JManga is the same they don't give you the whole chapter just 4 or 5 pages from each before you have to buy them.

Overall this site is a waste of time if you are not a credit card holder I don't think I will be logging back in anytime soon unless they make it like Crunchyroll if they did that that place would be flooding with money by now. >_>

I'm better off just sticking with scanslations and buying my favorite series physically to support it like I've been doing recently.

Aug 18, 2011 2:47 AM by Roloko

North America only. D:

Aug 18, 2011 2:30 AM by faiii

Crap selection and bad layout.

If I'll ever buy manga it'll be real life, not digitally.

Aug 18, 2011 12:20 AM by Project_MkUltra

Sozora said:
Thanks for coming to JManga!

Unfortunately JManga is currently only open for users in North America, but don’t give up just yet,

we are looking forward to spreading manga worldwide!!

I live in Canada, the fuck?

I say its your ISP. Worked fine for me. :/

Aug 17, 2011 11:35 PM by shanimebib

Don't like it

Aug 17, 2011 11:19 PM by Muv-Luv-er

First VIZ, now this; America/Canada is not the only place in the world where people understand English, you know... (okay, I know, there may be legal stuff in the background, but I would love to buy e-manga if I could - though, at reasonable price, and currently VIZ is the only one offering that, why don't they aim for going international??)

Aug 17, 2011 8:57 PM by Fyndra

Looks interesting. I really like their reader.

I'm a little concerned about their pricing though. I didn't read too much into it, but it appeared to be a little expensive (It doesn't look like you can read much with just the monthly rate).

I was hoping they would have a system like Crunchyroll (access to everything for a flat monthly rate).

EDIT: I was looking at manga prices online. I suppose the price on JManga is ok since it is cheaper than other places. I would still like access to everything for a monthly fee (Though I assume they would have to incorporate advertisements somehow if they did that).

I have one major question. Do you get to keep the manga you buy (or have continued access) or does it disappear when you stop paying?

Aug 17, 2011 8:40 PM by saxophone15

BlueCyanide said:
imho scanlated manga are better quality

That is a pretty broad statement. Sure, I can see how some scanlated manga are better quality but there is also a lot of it out there that is pretty terrible. A lot of time either the scans are crap, the photoshopping is sub-par, or the translations are Engrishy. When all three combine it's craptacular to the max! (I have fact seen this. I'm still scared.)

I don't think scanlated manga is going any where, but for those of us who want to see some money go back to the creators I like stuff like this. Plus there are quite a few titles I've been interested in on the site that I thought I would never seen in English (even in scans) so color me interested.

Aug 17, 2011 8:12 PM by Brand

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