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Ken Akamatsu Updates Digital Manga Library Service With GyaO

Manga creator and J-Comi site creator Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima!) and Yahoo! Japan subsidiary GyaO announced during a press conference on Monday that they have jointly founded a new subsidiary company called J Comic Terrace. J Comic Terrace will take over the management and control of J-Comi's digital manga service "Zeppan Manga Toshokan." The service itself has been renamed as "Manga Toshokan Z" (Manga Library Z).

Akamtsu stated, "I started J-Comi with the goal of eliminating piracy, but because I'm serializing a weekly series, there are parts of it I've been unable to manage. GYAO came to me proposing an injection of capital and to help me manage the project."

The site has renewed its content, and its viewer now offers automated translation to over 51 languages. The automated translation is compatible with all offered content in Manga Toshokan Z.

The site will also offer digitally watermarked PDF versions of its manga for download. Akamatsu states, "There have been too many cases of online vendors going under, and users being unable to read the e-books they've purchased. When you buy a digitally watermarked PDF from Manga Toshokan Z, you can upload it into your cloud or put it in your smartphone. Other online stores only offer viewing rights, but Manga Toshokan Z offers ownership rights."

It will also improve its premium membership service. At 300 yen per month, premium members will be able to view content without ads, download one PDF version of content for free per month, and will be able to view adult content.

In addition, J Comic Terrace plans to offer a print-on-demand service for the site's content starting this fall.

Akamatsu launched his J-Comi digital manga library service in 2008, and launched a beta test of the site in 2010. Akamatsu initially posted all 14 volumes of his Love Hina manga for free with six pages of advertising and no digital rights management (DRM) for one month to test the viability of the business model. Japanese publishers Shueisha and Kodansha began collaborating with the site in 2010. The site gained notoriety in 2011 when it posted Seiji Matsuyama's Oku-sama wa Shōgakusei (My Wife Is an Elementary Student) manga, which Naoki Inose, Tokyo Vice Governor at the time, cited as an example of which manga should be restricted under Tokyo's then-recently revised Youth Healthy Development Ordinance. Though the site was only available in Japanese, it launched an English and foreign-language version beta test for select titles in 2011.

Akamatsu is currently serializing his UQ Holder! manga in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Kodansha published the manga's seventh compiled book volume on June 17. Kodansha Comics publishes the manga in North America, and published the manga's fifth English volume on July 7. Crunchyroll is also digitally publishing the manga in English.

Source: Comic Natalie