Anime & Manga News

MyAnimeList Launches Digital Manga Store

by arsonal
Mar 7, 2018 11:30 PM | 27 Comments

MyAnimeList, LLC, the company which operates the anime and manga catalog website of the same name, has announced that it is launching an English-language digital manga store in partnership with North American manga publishers VIZ Media and Kodansha Comics.

The MyAnimeList Manga Store launches in Canada on Thursday, March 8, and will be available in other English-speaking territories including the United States later this month. VIZ Media and Kodansha Comics will make more than 200 manga titles in their catalog available for purchase on the store upon launch. Officials indicate that they are working to add more manga titles to the current line-up beyond the store's launch.

MyAnimeList is the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese mobile and web portal developer DeNA. Since the website came under new ownership in 2015, it has established partnerships with streaming distributors such as Crunchyroll and Hulu to directly provide users with licensed anime content. Streaming content by DAISUKI was also available on the website from 2015 until the service's termination last year.

To supplement the availability of anime content, MyAnimeList executives began considering the idea of a digital manga store for the website in late 2016. Formal discussions with stakeholders began the following March and resulted in the partnerships with VIZ Media and Kodansha Comics. By offering anime and manga content directly, MyAnimeList strives to become a hub for both mediums outside of Japan.

In a column published last year by the trade magazine Publishers Weekly, manga industry professional Deb Aoki points to the growing availability of streaming anime as a key driver of manga sales, especially in North America. Japanese manga publishers have taken note of this pattern and are increasingly arranging simultaneous publications (simulpubs) of their popular titles.

Major manga publishers Shueisha and Shogakukan already have ownership stakes in VIZ Media, while Japan's Kodansha directly owns New York-based Kodansha Comics. Another publishing giant, Kadokawa, acquired a majority stake in North American manga and light novel publisher Yen Press last year. These investments indicate that Japanese publishers are eager to tap into the English-language manga market, both print and digital.

Official site: https://myanimelist.net/store

Source: Official press release

20 of 27 Comments Recent Comments

JodanJodan said:
Crunchyroll and Bookwalker have:
+ exclusives

Kobo has:
+ DRM-free downloads for offline reading
+ cheaper prices
+ *pretty much every Western publisher*, including Kodansha Comics and VIZ Media

comiXology has:
+ great mobile reader apps
+ HD versions
+ offline reading
+ cheaper prices
+ Kindle store integration
+ *pretty much every Western publisher*, including Kodansha Comics and VIZ Media

MAL store has:
- web reader
- presumably only SD versions
- online-only reading
- higher prices
- 2 publishers

Good job making something worse than every other legal alternative.

The idea of a MAL Store might sound good in the future, but the immediacy of it is to be desired.

Mar 14, 2018 11:34 PM by Kadmos1

Viz Manga is available officially in India as is its jump magazine so why this store is not available in India

Mar 11, 2018 1:49 AM by justotakuthings2

Crunchyroll and Bookwalker have:
+ exclusives

Kobo has:
+ DRM-free downloads for offline reading
+ cheaper prices
+ *pretty much every Western publisher*, including Kodansha Comics and VIZ Media

comiXology has:
+ great mobile reader apps
+ HD versions
+ offline reading
+ cheaper prices
+ Kindle store integration
+ *pretty much every Western publisher*, including Kodansha Comics and VIZ Media

MAL store has:
- web reader
- presumably only SD versions
- online-only reading
- higher prices
- 2 publishers

Good job making something worse than every other legal alternative.

Mar 9, 2018 11:14 PM by JodanJodan

Some of the rules here seem really fudging dumb. Now I am not opposed to the idea necessarily but the number of negative things answered in the Q and A is just concerning.

So this straight up tells me what is the point of buying them here? Part of the charm is to read manga offline away from the internet. What happens if my internet dies for several hours and maybe I want to read? Oh, I guess I am screwed then? What if MAL eventually dies and goes away? Do I just lose the Manga I have bought? I would assume yes because we can't download them for offline use.



The first one here seems pretty okay to me. If you get banned that is on you, but the second one here is the fault of not being able to download and keep your manga offline. Why would I buy from somewhere if I lose my boughten purchase if I ended up deleting my account? This just seems to be mean to the customer.


These things are super negative overall. Especially the not being able to download them and have them offline. Might as well buy a physical copy at that point.

Mar 8, 2018 10:44 PM by Calal-Chan

SalemWitch said:
Just which timezone is the store using to launch? It's already the 8th for almost all the countries listed in the FAQ as of now.
The store is only open to Canada from March 8. It will be open to other countries later this month.

Mar 8, 2018 1:49 PM by Kineta

Just which timezone is the store using to launch? It's already the 8th for almost all the countries listed in the FAQ as of now.

Mar 8, 2018 12:38 PM by SalemWitch

Ari_the_Lioness said:
Hmmm......





Yeah, okay then. I'm in the United States.

IT'S NOT AVAILABLE IN AMERICA HOW AMERICA IS LIKE BASICALLY THE WHOLE WORLD

Mar 8, 2018 12:35 PM by sekai-

Hey while I'm rather poor currently this is actually good news for the site. Good job ^^

Mar 8, 2018 12:20 PM by removed-user

Hmmm......





Yeah, okay then. I'm in the United States.

Mar 8, 2018 12:07 PM by Arillion

phoenixalia said:
Yasaal said:
If you saw their supported sites only countries in North America, Australia and Europe are supported. So Asia and Africa are left out, which unfortunately includes both our countries Philippines and UAE...


Same here. Not available in India. What did I expect? I'll just continue to get stuff from amazon for my US kindle account.
Yes quite unfortunate. What's worse is they haven't even said or considered releasing anything in the other places... Sigh

I'll just continue reading illegally then...

Mar 8, 2018 8:13 AM by Yas-

Each official volume of manga (physical) costs around $2-3 here in my country. I hope whenever MAL store available in my country the price wont go more than that

Mar 8, 2018 7:59 AM by Suntears

Yasaal said:
LunyRed said:
Wow! This is great and all, but I checked the link and the Manga Store isn't available in my country. (The Philippines isn't supported?) This sucks.. :(
If you saw their supported sites only countries in North America, Australia and Europe are supported. So Asia and Africa are left out, which unfortunately includes both our countries Philippines and UAE...


Same here. Not available in India. What did I expect? I'll just continue to get stuff from amazon for my US kindle account.

Mar 8, 2018 6:48 AM by phoenixalia

This will certainly decrease the amount of manga piracy right?

Mar 8, 2018 4:04 AM by Vyzass

Why a MAL manga store on MAL should be is a useful when there are a million of other good manga sites out there with better prices?

Mar 8, 2018 3:57 AM by Killbay_Kun

It's more expensive buying digital manga here than buying it physical in my country...

Mar 8, 2018 3:53 AM by removed-user

Very amazing news, MAL is growing rapidly fast. Keep it up.

Mar 8, 2018 3:49 AM by Ramkec

Quite disappointed by the lack of Middle Eastern countries specifically the UAE (where I live) not being supported. Not only that but the whole of Asia and Africa are ignored by the service. There are tons of Otakus in Asia (the birthplace itself for otakudom), the Middle East as well has a sizeable set of manga lovers myself included and Africa in particular South Africa has been growing it's amount of manga lovers as well.

It feels like we got alienated. I'd love to buy manga officially (although I prefer digital buying so it's a win-win) but looks like I'll have to make do with reading manga either illegally, or I can read the outdated Crunchyroll manga (ahem, someone needs to tell Crunchyroll to update their manga as well) or try to find some other method of reading manga digitally.

Why digital you may ask? Convenience. Although I definitely can't demand MAL to bring it to the aforementioned regions I can only suggest and hope for the best. Hopefully when the system becomes successful in it's current regions then maybe perhaps the MAL team might bring it to other regions as well. Hoping for the best...

LunyRed said:
Wow! This is great and all, but I checked the link and the Manga Store isn't available in my country. (The Philippines isn't supported?) This sucks.. :(
If you saw their supported sites only countries in North America, Australia and Europe are supported. So Asia and Africa are left out, which unfortunately includes both our countries Philippines and UAE...

Mod Edit: Merged double post.

Mar 8, 2018 2:43 AM by Yas-

Interesting set up. I'm all for manga being supported, granted I'm one to buy the physical copies if I can help it.

Sonal1988 said:

Now all that's left is to find active mods for this website :p


Some how thinking the same thing.

Mar 8, 2018 1:56 AM by Stripes

@karlcool12 it should be supported. the store just hasn't opened yet in other countries than Canada.

same goes for
@Pierdo it isn't yet opened in 'muricas. As the post says, it opens on 8th in Canada and later on in march in other countries

Mar 8, 2018 12:59 AM by Salokannel2

So what is the percentage that MAL gets per purchase?

Mar 8, 2018 12:43 AM by removed-user

It’s time to ditch the text file.
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