Site Update - 14th of May 2025

[lorddrakath15226]

Yes please, even if it doesn't say the chapters, I absolutely need a way to export the reading list or I'm literally fucked!!

What situation would you be in that someone would hentai you if you couldn't export your list?

 

[Amariithynar]

I remember the form of Mangafox in like 2004-2005 where you had to open each page file separately like you're browsing Windows file explorer. The days before we could display and scroll down a whole chapter was quite painful for manga reading

You mean when it was legitimately a new page load every page of what you were reading? I actually really liked those days, because pages were so much lighter, you could easily be running 40 tabs of one site and it'd be a very light load.

Piracy is not a service problem, it's a pricing problem. People just don't want to pay for something they're used to getting for free, and feel entitled to do so. That's the sad thing about scanlations really, it has made people expecting that reading manga is something you don't have to pay for.

It's both a service and a pricing problem. A service problem because of availability for a lot of titles being shit or nonexistent, and pricing because you look at the cost of a lot of these manga in Japan and they're like, 200-400 yen per book (tankoubon), yet $15 per book here on average, with some releases going as high as $50. Fucking ludicrous.

 

[T-sama]

I meant bounce back to at least keeping the site alive and the groups somewhat active, since for all intents and purposes inevitably the Dex will never go back to its peak and is doomed to live in fear of another mass DMCA.

Seems it's back to the dark age of combing through aggregators to find series after all.

That's fair.

Honestly? Although very much far from ideal, I do think Mangadex could, besides being a scanlation hub, evolve into an alternative to mangaupdates and myanimelist.

Like, we can still search and subscribe to series, see their tags and so on, get feed for when new chapter is out, we simply go find the chapter somewhere else by ourselves.

Obviously very far from ideal, but would still be more useful than mangaupdates and myanimelist to keep track of what series we follow, especially if the group working on it themselves still updated the series status, as we would know for sure a new chapter is out, somewhere.

 

[T-sama]

It's both a service and a pricing problem. A service problem because of availability for a lot of titles being shit or nonexistent, and pricing because you look at the cost of a lot of these manga in Japan and they're like, 200-400 yen per book (tankoubon), yet $15 per book here on average, with some releases going as high as $50. Fucking ludicrous.

And that prices if you're from US, you mentioned $15 and $50 as example, I'm from Brazil, right this instant $1 = 5.68 on my currency, so multiply your prices to that to know how much I would pay for a manga that only has English translation, and then there's shipping and import tax to boot lol

 

[Bok3tto]

And that prices if you're from US, you mentioned $15 and $50 as example, I'm from Brazil, right this instant $1 = 5.68 on my currency, so multiply your prices to that to know how much I would pay for a manga that only has English translation, and then there's shipping and import tax to boot lol

Oh wow, that explains why a Brazilian Portuguese group ripped all our scans and retranslated them right down to our very specific culture notes, damn. No honor among thieves. 😂

If y’all don’t have manga publishers out there, start one or like find a local business and ask them to pick up a license.

Like yeah, scanlating is fun and all but we’re ripping off authors, let’s be real here.

 

[TurntAturn]

I'm personally boycotting any merch or releases from any of the companies that took part in this takedown. Already Cancelled preorders I had on some figures.

 

[lorddrakath15226]

Back to aggregators it seems.

 

[Bok3tto]

It's such an awful punch in the gut for the worldwide manga community. I do wonder what got into those publishers. Surely they do realize that doing this won't increase their sales in any significant way and they might even fall, because the word-of-mouth promotions of their manga will plummet.

Scanlating is fun and all but let’s be real here—in the end, we’re not helping anyone but ourselves here and showing off to our friends. These publishing companies won’t fold, word of mouth ain’t that hard with the internet simply being what it is even without scans, and it’s not just the publishers you’re hurting it’s the authors. Publishers don’t go into scan sites and count views, hits, comments, and then cut the authors a check like ‘Hey, big dog, your MD readers are LOVING THIS CHAPTER giving you a RAISE’, like that is literally not how this works.

It is real unfortunate that if a site had to get hit it was the one that doesn’t have shitty ads or charge—that’s why we posted here because yeah we know what we’re doing is illegal but at least no one is profiting off it—but it has to happen and it really should.

 

[T-sama]

Oh wow, that explains why a Brazilian Portuguese group ripped all our scans and retranslated them right down to our very specific culture notes, damn. No honor among thieves. 😂

Honor among thieves was always a illusion lol

If y’all don’t have manga publishers out there, start one or like find a local business and ask them to pick up a lilicense

Been years I don't read any manga on my language, originally because there's more in English, but over the years for various reasons I basically assimilated the language and don't really use portuguese online anymore lol, so for me buying in my language is a no go.

Although it doesn't help that English has a lot of words Portuguese doesn't have, so English translations are arguably inherently better by default due to that lol

Like yeah, scanlating is fun and all but we’re ripping off authors, let’s be real here.

Well at least unlike some people who bashes shitty manga sites full of ads, I have no illusion of being a good guy or righteous, I'm a thief and I accept that, I can live with myself and sleep fine at night, no need to pat myself in the back for avoiding those eeeeeevil sites or whatever.

Then again I'm also cheap, broke and an asshole, I would pirate manga even if I had money since licensed stuff is just way too overpriced while feeling no guilt lol

 

[mmosimca]

From a technical side of things, what happens to the chapters that are taken down? Are they instantly gone and deleted forever, or can they be preserved somewhere, just not visible to the public? (for legal reasons it is a hypothetical question)

Nothing was truly lost forever as everything on MangaDex is constantly polled and harvested by dozens of popular illegal manga rehost sites. They rip official translations from official sources but also steal fan translations only posted on MangaDex. Then they add a ton of ads to the site, and it's an easy way to make money if you're hosting in a country that won't comply with international law. To certain sites, DMCA notices are funny emails they laugh at.

So yeah, I generally hate supporting those sites in any way (and will run adblock if I visit them), but it's unlikely any content was truly "lost" forever, since it was already being ripped off so much.

That said, I don't think this is the end of MD or anything. For one, MD mainly covers manga, manhua, and manhwa. This DMCA only culls a slice of influential manga. As far as I know, nothing from Korea, China, or Southeast Asia was touched.

It would be very ironic if the site called "MangaDex" served every type of content -except- manga, but the site would still have plenty of purpose. Japan isn't the only country with interesting stories in the East, not by a long shot.

 

[Unregistered_Hypercam]

Doing catalogue of all the series im reading and which ones got nuked.
So far the following got nuked:
Natsume Arata no Kekkon (only the most recent chapter is left)
Dragon Yashinatte Kudasai
Furitsumore Kodoku na Shi yo
Dai Dark
I Am A Hero
Dress Up Darling

So far the rest of the series I’m reading or have read either have official channels I can read them through or the scan groups have private channels. This sucks but the publishers are technically in the right.

Update

Other series that got nuked are:
Soul Eater
Fire Force
Goodnight PunPun
Useless Ponko
Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction
Rave Master
NTRevenge (partial nuking) (thank fuck)
Redo of Healer
That’s my Atypical Girl
Fairy Tail

 

[Techno97]

I was wondering.
Since the mangadex recently update the website UI like content filter part directed to the setting, can they add another hidden settings in content fitler like dmca titles?

Adding extra steps to view pornographic manga, do the same for the dmca manga, so no one is none the wiser?

 

[Bok3tto]

Well at least unlike some people who bashes shitty manga sites full of ads, I have no illusion of being a good guy or righteous, I'm a thief and I accept that, I can live with myself and sleep fine at night, no need to pat myself in the back for avoiding those eeeeeevil sites or whatever.

Yeah, like in the end the only person you’re really hurting is the author so, like, if you’re not bothered then go with g*d and all that.

 

[T-sama]

Yeah, like in the end the only person you’re really hurting is the author so, like, if you’re not bothered then go with g*d and all that.

In my defense buying manga isn't really a option even if I wanted, I'm too poor for their prices, so it's justifiable crime!

Also not really hurting the author cause they wouldn't get my money either way lol, buying manga in this economy? Get outta here.

 

[Bamioum]

Yeah, like in the end the only person you’re really hurting is the author so, like, if you’re not bothered then go with g*d and all that.

I think Gabe and Neil have a pretty good take on what the effects and cause of piracy actually are in most situations. If i remember correctly there's a decent amount of studies etc. that comes to a similar conclusion.

 

[Sprocket]

Gaiman did an about face on piracy after the whole 'unlimited loans on digital books' thing on the Internet archive during the height of Covid spurred on a huge lawsuit which has definitely taken a toll on Internet preservation
...and he's a sex pest

 

[Bok3tto]

I think Gabe and Neil have a pretty good take on what the effects and cause of piracy actually are in most situations. If i remember correctly there's a decent amount of studies etc. that comes to a similar conclusion.

You think they have a good take because they’re two white guys telling you that what you’re doing is okay. You’re still stealing from an author by not buying their book, plain and simple. You are consuming the content without paying for it, you are perpetuating the notion that artists should be willing to do things for free ‘for exposure’. Every other comment in here is ‘I can’t afford this’ or ‘and now I’m really not going to buy it’, and most people don’t. Also licensed translations require translators, letterers, cleaners, redrawers, editors, and they have to get paid as well.

Further, these are two white guys. Apparently the takedown was done by Japanese publishers—who aren’t marketing to western audiences and probably don’t love western fans sharing panels of scanned stuff all over the place, sharing rented chapters, etc.

It would be one thing if the publishers were paying us to do this to drum up sales, but they are not and we are stealing.

TL;DR: We might not like being the bad guys, but we’re not the good guys.

 

[Sprocket]

I would care if the industry wasn't completely broken lol
We can talk about the recent stuff that you can get easily an e-book off Amazon for, but a good half of the list of manga taken down are never going to get an official English translation from anyone ever
Also why are you so hung up about them being white

 

[jhxe02]

If only MangaDex goes the FAKKU! route, I'd be down for that. FAKKU! gives unlimited read for monthly subscription right? That's fine by me since I consume like 300 pages of manga per day. VIZ, Shounen Jump (actually ok, but most of the titles I like are not here), ComiKey, Azuki, all have very large paywall systems that either dries you per Chapter that is divided in to two, or worse, three, or having to have a subscription/coin system in multiple sites won't just cut it for me.

 

[Bok3tto]

In my defense buying manga isn't really a option even if I wanted, I'm too poor for their prices, so it's justifiable crime!

There’s no defense here, it’s just entitlement in action. You have internet, you have resources, you just don’t know how to use them and don’t care enough to figure out how.

We can talk about the recent stuff that you can get easily an e-book off Amazon for, but a good half of the list of manga taken down are never going to get an official English translation from anyone ever

Y’all, we have the internet, publishing companies do surveys. If we don’t say anything at all so that they know we want shit they’re never going to do it. I’m rounding up a crew of folks who used to scan to form an LLC and looking into purchasing licenses (wheeee KARMA) we gotta do it ourselves if they won’t. Anything is better than fucking over artists.

Also not really hurting the author cause they wouldn't get my money either way lol, buying manga in this economy? Get outta here.

It’s pretty simple: Authors who have poor sales get dropped and license holders can decide to drop a series if it’s not selling well. If you don’t pay for the content you risk losing it altogether.