Japanese company Shueisha publishes some of the most well-know manga in the world (think Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, One Piece and Tokyo Ghoul), and they’ve just launched a new app, called Manga Plus, to make English manga more accessible worldwide. It’s built round the idea that readers will be on-par with Japanese manga releases.
And if that doesn’t work for you, you also have access to a similar digital service called Shonen Jump, which works on a subscription basis (think Netflix for manga) and is operated by American company Viz Media.
Manga Plus
Manga Plus launched this weekend in the shape of a website, and Android and iOS apps. It offers readers access to 50 of the publisher’s titles, including 13 completed series (highlights are Naruto, Bleach, and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure), while more titles will be added later. New chapters of current ongoing manga from Shueisha’s Shonen Jump and Jump Square magazines will also become available (in English) as the Japanese versions launch
While Manga Plus is free to download and use, users can also purchase volumes for specific manga. And for those sitting on the fence about getting into a new series, the first and latest chapter of ongoing manga are available on the service for free.
Shonen Jump
In December last year, Viz Media launched a digital platform called Shonen Jump, which is only available in select countries. Luckily for us, South Africa is one of those countries and here you can get access to more than 10,000 manga chapters on subscription. The subscription fee is only $2 (a mere R28 at today’s exchange rate) a month, which seems reasonable to get access to all of the available titles. Like Manga Plus, everyone can read the latest chapters as well as the first chapter of each title for free.
If you find yourself outside of the select countries (it’s only available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the Philippines, Singapore, and India), you won’t have access to the service. But that’s where Shueisha’s Manga Plus comes in.
Shueisha is likely pushing towards making its officially-licensed manga more accessible worldwide, while also countering the rise of pirated manga releases. Now, if you’ll excuse us… we’ll just be here reading all the Dragon Ball titles for the rest of the month.
Source: Anime News Network
