Viz Media has released a new app and subscription service that will vastly expand access to manga for English speaking fans, and you can download it right now.
At launch, the Viz Manga service includes digital releases for over 10,000 chapters of manga from a diverse list of genres, including titles from renowned Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha. Fifteen of those series will be published simultaneously – accessible to English readers on the same day of release in Japan. Together, the Shonen Jump subscription and the new Viz Manga subscription contains over 25,000 chapters of manga, with “further expansion in the works”.
Viz Media executives hope that all that expanded access will put a dent in manga piracy in the English-speaking world.
“We hope people will gravitate toward a platform where the latest content is free and an affordable subscription gives access to a huge library of chapters,” said Andy Nakatani, senior director of online and subscription manga, and Carl Hayes, senior director of consumer acquisition. and preservation, in a joint statement to Polygon. “Especially because users can rely on an official platform where they know that the mangaka will receive proper recognition for their work. This is really just a first step and we plan to expand in the future to make even more manga available to more people.”
Manga and anime have long played a central role in shaping the tastes of American popular culture. However, interest in manga has skyrocketed during the pandemic, such as series like My Hero Academia And Chainsaw man charted bestseller lists and took over social media platforms like TikTok. In 2021, a Viz Media representative told Polygon that the company saw “explosive growth” in interest in manga in 2020, reporting that manga grew 43% in the same year. Viz Media’s latest press release claims that global demand for manga remains at an “all-time high” and praised that the Shonen Jump app currently has more than “35 million average monthly reads.” Content around manga and its anime links continues to play a central role in the major social media trends on TikTok.
Despite that interest, there have historically been barriers that have made it more difficult for fans to access certain series outside of Japan – or in a language other than Japanese. For starters, fans may have to wait years for official translations. Even if a translation arrives somewhat on time in the US, American readers may have to wait and read stories volume by volume, not chapter by chapter as they do in Japan. In addition, series that only received official releases in physical volumes may now be collectibles – too expensive for the average reader to purchase.
For these reasons, “scanlation” – a portmanteau of “translation” and “scanning” – has played a central role in American manga fandoms as readers take it upon themselves to bring beloved series to English readers. To this day, websites like MangaDex, which host several high-quality fan translations of manga series, are an invaluable resource for those who want to stay up to date with certain series.
With Viz’s new app, fans can access thousands of chapters of manga immediately after subscribing, and the hope is that publishing digital manga in English simultaneously with the magazines in Japan will reduce the number of readers seeking pirated material . But such an effort does not happen overnight.
“The VIZ Manga service was only made possible because we had incredible cooperation and support from the mangaka and their publishers in Japan. And of course, the driving force of this project comes from the passion and dedication that so many people at VIZ and those who work with VIZ have for manga,” said Nakatani and Hayes.
Fans of Shonen, a genre of manga marketed to young boys that tend to emphasize stories with action elements, the Shonen Jump app has been delivering popular simultaneous manga series since 2018. Now Viz Media aims to meet the needs of a wider readership — the new app’s library will include titles from genres like shojo, fantasy, action, horror, slice-of-life, LGBTQ stories, and more. There are too many additions to count, but read on for a selection of titles that come with the Viz Manga subscription.
The Viz Manga subscription is now available for $1.99 per month and the app can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices.
Here is the full list of series that will be published simultaneously:
- Rumiko Takahashi: Mao
- Haro Aso: ZOOM 100: Bucket List of the Dead
- Takashi Shiina: Yashahime: Princess Half Demon
- Tomohito Oda: Komi cannot communicate
- Kotoyama: Call of the night
- Story by Kanehito Yamada, Art by Tsukasa Abe: Frieren: Beyond the end of the journey
- Makoto Ojiro: Insomnia AXer School
- Kenjiro Hata: Fly me to the moon
- Rei Toma: The Beast of the King
- Hisato Murasaki (based on the video game by Atlus): Person 5
- Kagiji Kumanomata: Sleepy princess in the demon castle
- Goshō Aoyama: Case closed
- Tamifull: How do we relate?
- Kyūsuke Motomi: Queen quality
- Rei Hiroe: Black Lagoon
Other backup library titles confirmed to be available in the new app include:
- Rumiko Takahashi: Inuyasha, Rama 1/2, Mermaid Sagaand others
- Junji Itō: GYO, Uzumakiand others
- Yuu Watase: Fushigi Yugi, Definitely boyfriendand others
- Inio Asano: Goodnight Punpun, What a wonderful worldand others
- Taiyo Matsumoto: Sunny, Tekkonkcreet, Ping pongand others
- Goshō Aoyama: Case closed
- Ay Yazawa: Grandma
- Arina Tanemura: Full moon, The Gentlemen’s Allianceand others