The merits of browser-based manga reading and comparison among publishers' websites
A lot of Web mangas have been uploaded on personal websites and publishers' such as Ichijinsha Inc. Nowadays, the top-three major manga magazines: Weekly Shonen Jump, Weekly Shonen Sunday, and Weekly Shonen Magazine are featuring Web manga media.
Through comparison of Web manga media, this blog will show your best way to have fun with Web manga.
NOTICE:
Official Web manga supplied by publishers are totally different from illegally uploaded mangas. I never recommend reading or downloading manga illegally. The purpose of this blog is rather to stop invasion of copyrights.What is the Web manga?
Web mangas have been uploaded since the 2000's. At that time, "One-Punch Man" was the representative of Web mangas. Few professional manga creators were on the Internet, so there were a lot of works by amateurs. Professional manga creators started to upload their mangas online from the early 2010's because major manga publishers began running Web manga media. Especially, NicoNico Seiga, Urasunday, and Shonen Jump+ were the leaders. I will introduce the history of Web manga someday.Web manga is defined as mangas that can be readable on apps or browsers like Safari and/or Chrome. The notion is similar to that of e-publish, but Web manga does not acquire registration or fee. Web manga is uploaded weekly or monthly, so its publishing style is similar to magazines.
As mentioned, representative Web manga media are:
Introduction of each website is below the next section.
Features of Web manga:
- Browser-based reading
- Uploaded weekly or monthly
- Variety of websites
Merits to read Web manga
These days, I rather read manga on the Internet than buy manga magazines. This is because of these three reasons:
- Free!
- Web manga is accessible anytime and anywhere
- Abundant contents
1. Free
Web mangas do not acquire reading fee. This is because they themselves are promotion of comics and magazines. There are some advertisements on the websites as well. Web mangas seem to be between magazines and free paper.
2. Web manga is accessible anytime and anywhere
Most of Web mangas are accessible from Internet browsers. That means you do not have to download a new app for manga.
3. Abundant contents
Unlike the dawn of Web manga, today uncountable number of Web mangas are on the Internet because publishers are eager to running Web manga business. You can find not only Web-original manga but also mangas that used to be on weekly magazines. That means you have many choices to read.
You can jump to another publisher's manga from one by inputting a URL in the query box. This is much quicker than going to a stall to buy another manga magazine.
Which Web manga website is the best? How characteristic are they?
Here is the brief introduction of popular Web manga media.
NicoNico Seiga by DWANGO is a member of the NicoNico Douga family.
This website has many mangas by various creators. One reason is that amateurs can upload their original mangas freely to the website. Another reason is cooperation with various publishers enabling NicoNico Seiga to gather many mangas from them. So, this website is like permanent Comic-Con of Web manga.
In addition to that, you will find comments flowing from right to left on the manga when you read it. This is the major characteristic of NicoNico. If you understand Japanese, you will be able to learn more about the manga from those comments by other NicoNico users.
Good points of NicoNico Seiga:
- It has both original contents and other publishers' works
- Comments make your reading more exciting
Shogakukan, the publisher of Weekly Shonen Sunday, is the manager of the website.
Though "ura" means the other side in Japanese, I have not seen so much relation between mangas on this site and those on Weekly Shonen Sunday. One work was a supplement of a popular manga "Magi," but that is all.
Shogakukan has been working on Web manga longer than Shueisha and Kodansha, the other two major manga publisher in Japan. Therefore, there is enthusiasm about Web manga on the website.
All mangas on Urasunday have a kind of black humor. Some works have significant expression of violence. Their illustration is not always good, which evokes the memory of old Web mangas that have been on the Internet since the early 2000's. When this website started in 2012, Weekly Shonen Sunday had a lot of love comedies. I rather admire Urasunday's policy to keep it dark and black because that style is the originality of Web manga.
Recently, Urasunday has a number of mangas for ladies. So, people who are not familiar with violent expression can enjoy reading as well.
Good points of Urasunday:
- Policy to keep the original spirit of Web manga
- Pride of original contents
Of course this is by Shueisha, the publisher of Weekly Shonen Jump.
This website provides you with mangas related to works on Weekly Shonen Jump. Revival of popular mangas that used to be on Weekly Shonen Jump is also frequent. That is, you can read popular mangas such as "Gintama" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" without paying. In fact, "ONE PIECE" and "NARUTO" are free now for 61 volumes and 27 volumes, respectively.
There are a lot of original mangas as well. Works on Shonen Jump+ are for a little elder readers than Weekly Shonen Jump. Scripts are a little adult and expressions of violence and eroticism sometimes seem to be R15+.
Good points of Shonen Jump+:
- There have been many promotions that enables readers to read popular manga like "ONE PIECE" for free
- No dark atmosphere, no need of wonder
Magapoke is by Kodansha, the publisher of Weekly Shonen Magazine.
To be honest, I do not know much about it. Sorry.
This website is by Shueisha, the same as Shonen Jump+.
Weekly Young Jump is the mother of this website. Promotion of Weekly Young Jump seems to be the major purpose of this website. Therefore, there are many mangas that were on Weekly Young Jump are on this website.
This website does not contain much number of works, but each manga is awesome. Though Weekly Young Jump is for adult manga funs, there is not much violent or erotic expression. I guess such expression is less than Urasunday.
This website is useful when being tired because it is not necessary to dig good manga. This website is suitable for chill mood.
Good points of Neighboring Young Jump:
- Selected good mangas
- Good for chill mood
This is a derivative website of Weekly Spirits. Its manager is Shogakukan as well as Urasunday. Shogakukan also publishes Weekly Spirits in addition to Weekly Shonen Sunday.
That is, the position of this website is similar to that of Neighboring Young Jump. This website started after Urasunday.
When it started, there were full of "soft" mangas though Weekly Spirits is for adult manga funs who tend to prefer violent and erotic expression. "Conversation is After Breakfast" by Ryoko Hide and "A Stretch" by Akiri were the two most popular mangas. The former is essays of breakfasts all around the world, and the latter is a story of two young women living together.
There used to be mangas whose protagonists are animals. Soft Spirits no more has mangas with animal protagonists. Still, creators of Soft Spirits have certain capability.
Good points of Soft Spirits:
- Mangas are soft
- There are many cute characters
The name of this website is "Sunday+WEB+Every." This website is also managed by Shogakukan as well as Urasunday and Soft Spirits.
This website succeeded Club Sunday, the first Web manga media of Shogakukan. It followed both good aspects and bad aspects of Club Sunday. The bad means bad UIs. You have to download an app for full-access.
The good is an abundance of contents. It contains not only a lot of mangas only for Sunday Webry but also many mangas that were on Weekly Shonen Sunday. It is hard to count the number of mangas.
Sunday Webry provide you with a ticket for each manga every 23 hours. The ticket enables you to read one chapter for 72 hours. This system is a little complicated, so I will describe the detail someday.
Tickets are free and available for almost every manga on Sunday Webry including popular mangas that used to be on Weekly Shonen Sunday. This is like buying Weekly Shonen Sunday everyday for free. Even "Ranma1/2" by Rumiko Takahashi and "Magi" by Shinobu Otaka are on Sunday Webry, so users can read them for free (not all).
Good points of Sunday Webry:
- Numerous mangas without rubbish
- Masterpieces and recent works
Conclusion
Now you have read through the features of Web manga and its media. However, there are more deep Web manga media on the Internet. Many of them have original contents and digging them is also fun.
Here is a rough classification of Web manga media introduced above:
- An abundant contents
- NicoNico Seiga
- Sunday Webry
- Selected good mangas with calm mood
- Neighboring Young Jump
- Soft Spirits
- Pride of Web manga originality
- Urasunday
- Major titles for free
- Shonen Jump+
- Sunday Webry
My favorite is Urasunday which has an eagerness to promote Web manga. I hope this guide help you find your own favorite.
