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So this week I made the dive and bought an iPad. Part of the decision to buy an iPad specifically is my intention to migrate away from Print comics and start buying pure digitally. As far as US comics go this has worked out brilliantly. ComiXology (+Dark Horse app) is covering nearly ever base, and its so convenient.

Going in I felt that my manga needs would be taken care of the same way. What with the Viz Media app (and apparently a Kodansha app that I didn't expect). But... I've hit a few... snags that have disappointed me quite a bit.

First of all, while VIZ seems to have the majority of their library available, there are some rather curious gaps. Naoki Urasawa's catalog (20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Monster) being the most obvious omission. But the bigger problem is a complete lack of Mature rated material on their app. The most obnoxious problem is that over on the Viz Media website you can buy digital versions of many Mature rated titles. But you're only allowed to read them on your PC. This is frankly intolerable. I don't know if Viz is trying to avoid exposing young people (who read the T+ and below material they do make avalible) from the M rated stuff. But either they need to A) Let us buy the Mature stuff from their website and have it appear on our app library; B) Release a Mature Readers version of the App for us grow-ups; or C) Just put the freaking material on their current app (seriously, Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse don't have this problem).

Kodansha app also suffers from significant library omissions. The biggest being their big-dog properties Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Sailor Moon. Which is really annoying, as they are all titles I want to buy. (edit: Oh oh, and GON!)

Outside these two apps things are pretty dire. Dark Horse has Lone Wolf and Cub available. But not Berserk or Hellsing or Gunsmith Cats or Old Boy or anything really. ComiXology has a handful of material including Cyborg 009 and Skull Man from Ishimori Productions, which is nice. But pretty much nothing else from anybody else

Amazon is choked out with practically nothing but Yaoi material.

In short things could really be better on the digital manga front right now. And I know licensing could play a part in some omissions (some material was published in print before Digital was a thing, so they may not actually have the digital rights). But its also pretty apparent to me that piracy of fan translated material is still pretty rampant, and certain free apps even make it readily accessible to iPad users. Not having the material out there, and conveniently available to buy is only going to continue to hurt publisher sales.

I think US comic publishers have finally figured that out. Buying digital US comics is so convent its scary, day and date digital is a god-send. Its really too bad Manga publishers seem to be dropping to ball at a critical time.

As you mentioned, rights to release things digitally plays a part. I don't know the details, but from what I can understand everybody gets a cut and everybody has a say as to what exactly happens with releases. Digital and what not.

I too believe that if a title is readable through a web portal you should also be able to read it through an app. That only makes sense in my mind. I wonder, though... Are there different copyrights for mobile device release, web release, ebooks (nook, kindle, etc.) just as thre are confirmed differences between digital and print?

I'd also love to see certain titles that have print editions in digital formats. I mean, not everybody goes around carrying manga books in a bag. I think I read somewhere that a comic book publisher was doing a thing where you bought a print copy and you'd get a code to access a digital version. Meaning one purchase and you'd get both digital and physical. If I'm wrong and that never happened then I think it would be a great thing to incorporate into manga.

About Viz Media's manga app; my opinion is that by trying to merge ALL their manga titles that they choose to release digitally into one app without a way to sort/separate them Viz is making a glorious mess for themselves. My opinion is that within the app a user should be able to access "shelves" for Viz's Sig Ikki, Shonen Jump, Shojo Beat, etc. titles. Break it down and make it easier to navigate. Add a search option for titles if need be. If there's a maturity concern make it so that an account needs to provide a birthday. Although, even this won't deter underages from fibbing.

I'm bothered by the actual functioning of these reader apps a bit more than the limit of titles. On larger devices, like the iPad, reading manga or comics is smooth and easy. Turn you iPad to the side and Viz give you a two-page view. However, on things like the iPhone I find myself continuously zooming, un-zooming, zooming, un- zooming, and zooming, and the seemingly endless cycle continues like the Suzumiya summer arc. On an iPhone there is no such thing as a horizontal view and since there is not such thing as a horizontal view there is not such things as a horizontal "fit-to-width" view. Only vertical zooming and un-zooming. A very basic reader. Bookmarks? Limit to one.

Kodansha? What the heck? I can only use your app with a wifi connection? Why? At least they have horizontal "fit-to-width" views on the iPhone.

Those are the only ones I've played around with and remeber what I didn't like from them. Of course there are other apps and readers, but I'm not about to do a detailed review of all of them.

Yeah. I tried reading comics on my iPhone for awhile there, but it is just not a good way to read comics meant for print.

As for Kodansha app needing connectivity, I just checked and while that message does come up if you don't have Internet, any of your previously downloaded material is accessible offline under that My Comics tab. Viz app works the same way.

Mr Adventure wrote:

Outside these two apps things are pretty dire. Dark Horse has Lone Wolf and Cub available. But not Berserk or Hellsing or Gunsmith Cats or Old Boy or anything.

Actually hellsing is available, along with Kurosagi Corpse, MPD Pshyco and Blood+.

Mr Adventure wrote:

First of all, while VIZ seems to have the majority of their library available, there are some rather curious gaps. Naoki Urasawa's catalog (20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Monster) being the most obvious omission.

That seems to be the mangaka's choice, going by this recent interview from ANN.

Regarding the M-rated titles not viewable on the Viz app, do you know if that's limited to the iPad app or does it also extend to the Android version? If I recall correctly, Apple wants things to be "family friendly" and has spurned apps that allow access to adult materials (at least sometimes) in the past. Perhaps Viz is trying to protect the app by not taking the risk?
I'd test it myself, but honestly, if something's available in print, I'd rather buy the print than the digital version (it'd be great if they'd do like some movies which include a digital copy when you buy the physical media). It's only if it's only available digitally that I'll like be willing to buy an exclusively-digital copy.

Have you done much with the JManga and JManga7 services?

Mylene wrote:

Mr Adventure wrote:

First of all, while VIZ seems to have the majority of their library available, there are some rather curious gaps. Naoki Urasawa's catalog (20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Monster) being the most obvious omission.

That seems to be the mangaka's choice, going by this recent interview from ANN.

Ugg. I really dislike it when a creator does that. So you like paper eh? Well some of us have grown beyond such an arbitrary thing.

Mylene wrote:

Regarding the M-rated titles not viewable on the Viz app, do you know if that's limited to the iPad app or does it also extend to the Android version? If I recall correctly, Apple wants things to be "family friendly" and has spurned apps that allow access to adult materials (at least sometimes) in the past. Perhaps Viz is trying to protect the app by not taking the risk?

As I said, other comic publisher apps seem to have no problem with releasing graphic material*. So my assumption its a VIZ policy, not an Apple one.

*apps that offer such material have a pop-up disclaimer when you are installing them telling you that mature material is available. My suspicion is the requirement of that pop-up might be what Viz is trying to avoid, since a large part of their sales are to young teens.

Quote:

Have you done much with the JManga and JManga7 services?

I briefly looked into it. But apparently A) You can't read JManga's browser based material on the iPad (no Flash support) and B) the JManga7 app is Android only. Which... is unusual.

Mr Adventure wrote:

I briefly looked into it. But apparently A) You can't read JManga's browser based material on the iPad (no Flash support) and B) the JManga7 app is Android only. Which... is unusual.

They've been working on apps for both platforms for a long time, it's just that the Android one was ready for release earlier. I sure am looking forward to that iOS app...

Just got this back as a response to some feedback I left through the VIZ app

Quote:

Hello,

Thank you very much for your suggestion! We love to hear what would make our app experience more enjoyable and efficient. In regards to the titles you listed, our mature digital titles are currently not available on the iOS at apple's request. We unfortunately do not have a date that this agreement will be altered to allow digital titles to be available on that platform. We hope you will continue to enjoy the variety of products we do have available on iOS.

Thank you,
Laura @ VIZ

So it is Apple and their internal polices making things difficult. This is rather troubling as it suggests a serious double standard going on. I don't see Apple preventing ComiXology from putting up the latest issue of The Walking Dead or Saga; or back issues of Transmetropolitan or Preacher.

Who do I write at Apple to kick them in the ass?

well in my state (country) is it allowed to have an copy of a (comic, music,movie, ect) for yourself only

so if it stays like this it is legal for me

-----------------------------------------------------

it is also known that you can buy digital comics/books
if you search it you can buy it online

it will be an digital file that you can use on windowns, ios, android

The lack of seinen titles on Viz's application is a big drawback for me. There are some shounen titles that I like, but the majority of titles that I want from them are titles that are not carried on their store.

I also have limited space, and adding to the boxes in the storage unit isn't terribly appealing for me.

Given how space-conscious people need to be in Japan, I'm surprised that digital isn't bigger there, and by extension, allowing more titles over here.

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I decided to bump my own thread as its sort of relevant...

Ishimori, the publisher currently releasing the works of Shotaro Ishinomori digitally on ComiXology is having a .99 cent sale on the first volumes of most of their series. Specifically; Kamen Rider, Kikaider, Inazuman, and Skullman. Unfortunately Cyborg 009 is left out of this sale. But good grief this is an amazing value nonetheless. The sale ends Sunday, December 9th.

This is the sort of thing Digital brings the table, not just cheap manga, but old obscure stuff of perhaps historical value that would never sell in print. I ended up buying everything that was on sale, I'm very eager to read Skullman. I loved the Bones anime from a few years ago, I've been itching to read the original source.

Thanks for the heads up. You might want to post it in ZepysGirl's Manga Sale thread in the retail section to give a few more people the chance to see it:

animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1145667&start=30

This seems like a relevant thread for my questions, though I'd be surprised if this hasn't come up already elsewhere.

Today I received a message from JManga saying that they are shutting down their digital manga services, among others. At present, the question regarding what happens to digital content already purchased links to a "Page Not Found" screen. (I'm sure they'll get to it eventually.)

The big question for me is this: What happens to our purchased digital content when the publisher goes out of business or the licenses end or move? Without an answer to this, I'm not sure it's wise to commit to buying a large amount of digital content. At least if I had the physical book, I'd be able to hang onto it if the company goes under.

Clearly, some publishers are more stable than others (e.g., Viz and Dark Horse). Also, some content is more accessible digitally than in print (e.g., Please Save My Earth). But I've seen a lot of instability in the licenses. Things go out of print faster for comics/manga than for "real" books, publishers struggle more, and companies that should have been staples of the industry are gone (ADV, Geneon, even Bandai). So I'd feel a lot better if I knew that they had a plan for their digital content if things go wrong. Because, let's face it, things do.

As far as I understand, Jmanga are not allowing you to keep any purchased content. I imagine the terms of the licenses will vary from company to company, even from series to series. I seem to remember Inuyasha is only available digitally either on iPhone or iPad, not both. There's a thread in the talkback about this as well that might help you.

That situation with JManga makes me even more certain that I will never purchase Digital Manga. They go out of business, You loose what you paid for.

It shouldn't be a situation with them that you are "Renting" it.

Will just keep using free Scanlations for whatever Digital Manga that I cannot obtain in English Physically.

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