# Say goodbye to your major manga reading sites



## MasterSkadu (Jul 22, 2010)

I'm surprised nobody posted about this yet. Shit is has hit the fan for the manga community online.


> U.S., Japanese Publishers Unite Against Manga Scan Sites
> posted on 2010-06-08 12:11 EDT
> Coalition with Japan's Digital Comic Association plans legal action on 30 scanlation sites
> 
> ...


U.S.-Japanese Publishers Unite Against Manga Scan Sites

Site hit so far:
mangahelpers
onemanga
mangatoshokan

More to sites to come to this list, soo if you got a favorite series you might want to make a copy of it.


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## Willow (Jul 22, 2010)

Because the actual companies are losing money. It's kinda like pirating.


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## 8-bit (Jul 22, 2010)

Heard about this three weeks ago


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## Aden (Jul 22, 2010)

Are these manga available for US citizens to buy at reasonable prices?


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## MasterSkadu (Jul 22, 2010)

Aden said:


> Are these manga available for US citizens to buy at reasonable prices?


 
Problem is some mangas aren't here in the US, and some will never come to the US.


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## Fenrari (Jul 22, 2010)

Aden said:


> Are these manga available for US citizens to buy at reasonable prices?


 
A good portion of them will never get translated into English for fears of abismal sales... So they'll be about $20-30ish per book if you shipped them from Japan...


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## MasterSkadu (Jul 22, 2010)

Either way it goes...the fans take it in the ass.


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## Willow (Jul 22, 2010)

Fenrari said:


> A good portion of them will never get translated into English for fears of abismal sales... So they'll be about $20-30ish per book if you shipped them from Japan...


 True enough, but some people read the manga because they don't want to buy the actual books, even though they're out already in the US. So while it's saving them money, the companies that actually publish them are losing it. This is kinda like with regular Western comics.


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## CannonFodder (Jul 22, 2010)

It's not going to work in the end.


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## Aden (Jul 22, 2010)

Well, thankfully this is the internet
Kill one, two more pop up in its place


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## Arc (Jul 22, 2010)

I'm pretty sure there will be some sites out there, that will keep doing it anyway.
I really don't expect any kind of pirating to ever completely die.

...I liked OneManga, though. u_u


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## CannonFodder (Jul 22, 2010)

Arc said:


> I'm pretty sure there will be some sites out there, that will keep doing it anyway.
> I really don't expect any kind of pirating to ever completely die.
> 
> ...I liked OneManga, though. u_u


 I wish I could download a car though :V


Aden said:


> Well, thankfully this is the internet
> Kill one, two more pop up in its place


 Like a hydra?


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## ShadowEon (Jul 22, 2010)

So what about the mangas that are never officially translated? S.O.L. I guess...

And some mangas are never published all the way through in english even if enough people read it...

The manga of KH2 for example.


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## KirbyCowFox (Jul 22, 2010)

Piratebay is going to get a huge dump of new seeders and leechers.


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## Kellie Gator (Jul 22, 2010)

I say this is fair enough. American comics don't have major reading sites where thousands of comics have been put up illegally, why should Japanese ones get a free pass?

Besides, there's always torrents.


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## Hir (Jul 22, 2010)

Aden said:


> Well, thankfully this is the internet
> Kill one, two more pop up in its place


 Remember OINK? : D


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## Aden (Jul 22, 2010)

DarkNoctus said:


> Remember OINK? : D


 
teehee


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## Attaman (Jul 22, 2010)

Kellie Gator said:


> I say this is fair enough. American comics don't have major reading sites where thousands of comics have been put up illegally, why should Japanese ones get a free pass?
> 
> Besides, there's always torrents.


 
Good point here. Anyone ever heard of websites full of all the Golden Age Superman Comics?

Back to the OP, the change doesn't hit me hard, personally, as there's only one major series I follow and it's updated slowly enough that - should I wait ten years before remembering it and catching up - I'd probably only miss five or ten volumes tops.  It also comes out in English.  It's kinda sad thing in that, more likely, the author's going to die before it hits its ending (the series has been going for something like 22 years, and it's still cranking out slowly) or it's fully pulled from the web.


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## CannonFodder (Jul 22, 2010)

So lemme get this straight, 36 companies are trying to take on the internet?

The reason why anime and manga are losing money nowadays, is because anime's and manga's popularity is going down.
Luckily for us, even if they take down every last site that offers scanlations, this won't bring their profits back up.


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## Fenrari (Jul 22, 2010)

Well consider this fact though... If you buy manga in Japan you can get each volume in its original sleeve for the equivalent of $3-4... When that SAME manga gets translated into English the price jumps to $10-20 PER BOOK  Keep it at $3-4 and I'll go and buy your English copy any day.


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## Willow (Jul 22, 2010)

Fenrari said:


> Well consider this fact though... If you buy manga in Japan you can get each volume in its original sleeve for the equivalent of $3-4... When that SAME manga gets translated into English the price jumps to $10-20 PER BOOK  Keep it at $3-4 and I'll go and buy your English copy any day.


I believe it has something to do with actually paying the price to ship it over from Japan. If you notice, Western comics are the same price as manga bought originally from Japan. 

I wonder if that price goes up if we ship there.


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## CannonFodder (Jul 22, 2010)

WillowWulf said:


> I believe it has something to do with actually paying the price to ship it over from Japan. If you notice, Western comics are the same price as manga bought originally from Japan.
> 
> I wonder if that price goes up if we ship there.


 Not by that much, they're scamming us.
Why do you think every manga is $10.81?


Also somewhat related, in twenty years instead of having personal computers chances are we'll have ipad rip-offs and stream television through it instead of television.  Why?  Because the data is stored in the main database and that, so you wouldn't need to upgrade the person's computer, rather you'd upgrade the database's hardware.  Gaming will probably be the same being streamed.


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## MasterSkadu (Jul 22, 2010)

anyone check out how much OneManga is valued at?
359.6 Million
traffic count: Ranking by Alexa is321
Google places it in 6 with their own rankings
The source:
http://www.getwebsitevalue.com/www.onemanga.com
I think the data is old but now I'm curious how fast its value is dropping....


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## CannonFodder (Jul 22, 2010)

MasterSkadu said:


> anyone check out how much OneManga is valued at?
> 359.6 Million
> traffic count: Ranking by Alexa is321
> Google places it in 6 with their own rankings
> ...


Why didn't they counter-sue?


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## Fenrari (Jul 22, 2010)

WillowWulf said:


> I believe it has something to do with actually paying the price to ship it over from Japan. If you notice, Western comics are the same price as manga bought originally from Japan.
> 
> I wonder if that price goes up if we ship there.


 
That would make sense if it were shipped here... BUT English copies of most of the mangas are only sold in America as such they must be printed in America as well... *sigh* $10+ per manga is a huge chunk of my budget if I planned to buy someone a series...


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## Willow (Jul 22, 2010)

Fenrari said:


> That would make sense if it were shipped here... BUT English copies of most of the mangas are only sold in America as such they must be printed in America as well... *sigh* $10+ per manga is a huge chunk of my budget if I planned to buy someone a series...


 That's why I rarely read or at least keep up on manga.


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## Fenrari (Jul 22, 2010)

WillowWulf said:


> That's why I rarely read or at least keep up on manga.


 
 I like reading them though... But I can't afford to buy them... If they existed in periodical form like they do in Japan, that'd make more sense.


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## CannonFodder (Jul 22, 2010)

It's not going to work in the end, the only other option is to lower the prices of mangas.
Hell even dropping the cost by a buck would mean more sales.


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## Digitalpotato (Jul 22, 2010)

Kellie Gator said:


> I say this is fair enough. American comics don't have major reading sites where thousands of comics have been put up illegally, why should Japanese ones get a free pass?
> 
> Besides, there's always torrents.


 

You mean there aren't people in regions where English isn't the prime language fan-translating it? I know plenty of people who would have wanted to translate Bone into Brazilian Portuguese because that wasn't available in most of Brazil outside of import stores where it was in English. 


Also, if you're so afraid of losing profits, how about you actually try translating them or distributing them out here? Or for those that already were printed and distributed, try reprinting 'em. I've *NEVER* seen a copy of NausicaÃ¤ on the shelves, except for the first book. :| And as for Akira, forget it. I've found one and two, but never any of the other volumes, they might as well be made with paper from the crucifix itself given how rare they are out here.


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## CannonFodder (Jul 22, 2010)

I actually got to talk to one of them, saying the cost of the books is why sales are down.

And that's how you do it folks.


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## mystery_penguin (Jul 22, 2010)

http://www.mangafox.com/

While you're there, read The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (Wakuse no Samidare), epic manga is epic.

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wakusei_no_samidare/v01/c001/3.html

(this site will most likely get nailed too, but whatever)


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## Tabasco (Jul 23, 2010)

I'm actually thinking that if they succeed, it may hurt them. A lot of people aren't paying for the manga right now, but only a tiny, tiny percentage can and will buy a whole series. They're more likely to go find something else to love than they are to buy at the prices manga is currently being sold at here, if they didn't have a choice. People pirating will, however, still buy related merch of the stuff they get to play with for free and overall just pay attention to it.


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