Site Update - 14th of May 2025

[SpecialProjectY]

Nvm...

 

[twinklecake]

That would help, my Japanese is kind of in a slump.

Just keep smashing them Anki decks bro. I belieb in you

 

[Pollimill]

Still floored at how f'ing clueless many IP holders continue to be.

They assume that every pirated version of their IP is a loss, when in fact it's not. When it comes to dealing with piracy, one first has to know why people resort to piracy to begin with and they foll into a couple groups and most of those will not convert into paying customers by fighting the piracy.

The first group is the people that just refuse to pay for anything. There are no customers to be had, won't matter what is done, they will not pay a dime and just find new ways to get the material or find something else. There is also a huge drawback in overly focus on preventing them from bypassing the whole purchase aspect because any anti-piracy efforts are going to cost money and either the publisher eats that, or they find a way to fub it off on to their paying customers. This in turn feeds into the numbers that make up two other groups.

There are people that resort to piracy because they feel that the asking price is not reasonable, hence why anti-piracy efforts can feed into this group. If someone understands the why behind piracy they are going to be pretty resentful if they see prices go up as a result of a hamfisted attempt to stop piracy. No one likes to pay the price for someone else's incompetence.

The next group is people that simply cannot afford the spend much on entertainment. At the end of the day, that is what this is, and while the human mind needs entertainment, it doesn't need anything that is copyrighted. If anyone has seen PirateSoftware, which actually has nothing to do with piracy, but there are idiots that try to make that connection. Thor, who is the streamer behind the channel, actually runs a game company and he has talked extensively about why he does regional pricing is a distribution problem, as the publisher/distributer/IP holder is messing up. He found that when prices better reflect the cost of living for a region, the piracy actually goes down because people do want to support the creators of content they enjoy, but only when the asking price is reasonable in regard to their financial situation. Hell, Shonen Jump has least learned the why behind piracy and has setup MangaPlus to actually compete well against it and it also shows they understand the final group.

Even if people have money and want to support content they enjoy. They also want to know what they are paying for, and this is the dirty little secret that many publishers, distributors and IP holders don't want to admit to. That they get sales as a result of someone reading, watching or playing content for free, could be pirated, could have been borrowed from a friend or the library. After seeing the content for free, someone decides they like it and would like to make sure the creators do get compensated for the work, within reason. It's also how you get discussion and word of mouth advertising. Shonen Jump gets that they actually don't lose much by letting people have like three weeks, sometimes more depending on how often something updates, to read a recent chapter.

Hell, I'd argue Shonen Jump even gets having things digital does mean they can offer something cheaper and still make more money. It may still cost some amount of money to host something digital, but less likely to end up with a bunch of unwanted manga volumes that they either have to sell at a loss or send to a recycling plant at a complete loss. That said, I'm no fanboy of them because many of their other decisions haven't been particularly great, even if they've been on the money with MangaPlus.

 

[Malkraz]

 

[jetabyss13]

tbh, we did survive before Mangadex and if worst comes to pass, we will still survive even after. Empires rise and fall.

Such is life.

Still, im gonna miss MD if the worst really does come to pass. ;_;

 

[RonBWL]

Still floored at how f'ing clueless many IP holders continue to be.

They assume that every pirated version of their IP is a loss, when in fact it's not. When it comes to dealing with piracy, one first has to know why people resort to piracy to begin with and they foll into a couple groups and most of those will not convert into paying customers by fighting the piracy.

The first group is the people that just refuse to pay for anything. There are no customers to be had, won't matter what is done, they will not pay a dime and just find new ways to get the material or find something else. There is also a huge drawback in overly focus on preventing them from bypassing the whole purchase aspect because any anti-piracy efforts are going to cost money and either the publisher eats that, or they find a way to fub it off on to their paying customers. This in turn feeds into the numbers that make up two other groups.

Unfortunately this argument is what I've seen sooooooo many people, simps or not, made when it comes to piracy. Like, if you're just going to count how many commenting "manga/anime should be free", you are NEVER going to be able to sell anything... because those are, indeed, the loud minority.

There are people that resort to piracy because they feel that the asking price is not reasonable, hence why anti-piracy efforts can feed into this group. If someone understands the why behind piracy they are going to be pretty resentful if they see prices go up as a result of a hamfisted attempt to stop piracy. No one likes to pay the price for someone else's incompetence.

This is indeed a very glaring issue when it comes to manga, I've seen localized version priced 2x 3x the price of the original book. Of course Translators and Editors should be paid... IF they do the job, that is. Time and time again publishers are caught altering, censoring contents, so nowadays customers simply do not trust localizers with a track record on their hands.

The next group is people that simply cannot afford the spend much on entertainment. At the end of the day, that is what this is, and while the human mind needs entertainment, it doesn't need anything that is copyrighted. If anyone has seen PirateSoftware, which actually has nothing to do with piracy, but there are idiots that try to make that connection. Thor, who is the streamer behind the channel, actually runs a game company and he has talked extensively about why he does regional pricing is a distribution problem, as the publisher/distributer/IP holder is messing up. He found that when prices better reflect the cost of living for a region, the piracy actually goes down because people do want to support the creators of content they enjoy, but only when the asking price is reasonable in regard to their financial situation. Hell, Shonen Jump has least learned the why behind piracy and has setup MangaPlus to actually compete well against it and it also shows they understand the final group.

Entertainment is subjective and at the end of the day if I have to choose between a series that cost a total of $200 for all of the volumes between Balatro that costs $15 on Steam, fuck manga. Like it or not, the publishers have to compete for my wallet, not the other way around.

TL;DR: It's easy for me to not buy manga if I can distract myself with cheaper stuff, which may not have to be manga at all. Publishers don't learn.

 

[jetabyss13]

Unfortunately this argument is what I've seen sooooooo many people, simps or not, made when it comes to piracy. Like, if you're just going to count how many commenting "manga/anime should be free", you are NEVER going to be able to sell anything... because those are, indeed, the loud minority.



This is indeed a very glaring issue when it comes to manga, I've seen localized version priced 2x 3x the price of the original book. Of course Translators and Editors should be paid... IF they do the job, that is. Time and time again publishers are caught altering, censoring contents, so nowadays customers simply do not trust localizers with a track record on their hands.



Entertainment is subjective and at the end of the day if I have to choose between a series that cost a total of $200 for all of the volumes between Balatro that costs $15 on Steam, fuck manga. Like it or not, the publishers have to compete for my wallet, not the other way around.

TL;DR: It's easy for me to not buy manga if I can distract myself with cheaper stuff, which may not have to be manga at all. Publishers don't learn.

IMO, in an ideal world, I would have zero issues (lol pun) with officially licensed manga. Trust me, I'd 100% buy all of them if I could. Physical or digital (though I prefer digital since books are physical objects can be damaged permanently). I pay for YouTube Music and HBO MAX alongside watching Prime Video. If manga had an official system in place that was easily accessible, I would go legit. But the issues is how I've seen official licensed manga companies handle some series in a really shitty way.

For example, Immortal Hounds is what basically radicalized me on this issue ever since 2019. That manga had a complete ending from Volume 1 to 7 in the Japanese version for years. Yet the official English version of Vol 7, the final volume, when did that come out? April of 2024. When did Vol 6 come out...? JANUARY 2018!

Thank God, the manga was finally finished in English (though there's no word on the status of Immortal Ridge, which is supposed to be the 'true' conclusion of the story) but Jesus. Its absolutely schizophrenic how licensed companies will just choose to... Not finish a series or have such a big delay.

Another one is Alice to Zouroku, where the Japanese version is already on Volume 13 while the English version is still stuck in Volume 9 (back in 2021). There is likely going to never be an English Vol 10 and beyond because despite being licensed, I guess there's no demand for that series. But because it is licensed, people are afraid to scanlate the rest because sorry, "its our licence to sit on a manga and do nothing with it".

Sure, scanlators sometimes don't finish series but there's a difference... You don't pay for scanlated manga. 100% that alleviates things by a TON. Also there's always an opportunity for anyone else to pick up a manga after someone abandoned it. There's no "well the manga didn't sell well so we won't release more volumes anymore" BS.

Don't even get me started on licensed companies who also only do physical copies and don't do any digital versions. Which means physical copies are subject to limited copies and could eventually be all sold out or stored by scalpers. There is legit some licensed manga out there that are out of print forever and you'll never see them again. Granted, I do think this is mostly an older issue with licensed mangas pre-2020s. I think lately there's always going to be a digital + physical version. But still that doesnt fix the issue of older series becoming lost media.

How are we supposed to trust licensed companies as a better alternative to scans? Man, theyre really shitty at winning the hearts and minds of people. It's no wonder why this 'war' will wage on forever. If they were smart they'd actually just properly finish series and not subject things to FOMO. They would try to make themselves on par if not better than their 'counterparts'. Why would I pay for manga that'll have a 50/50 chance of never being completed because of "muh market demand".

That's why everyone uses Spotify and other music services these days instead of skimming .MP3 files on Limewire. Because they made those legit services actually feel 'better' to use or just as good as the old.

 

[Tscheddov]

IMO, in an ideal world, I would have zero issues (lol pun) with officially licensed manga. Trust me, I'd 100% buy all of them if I could. Physical or digital (though I prefer digital since books are physical objects can be damaged permanently). I pay for YouTube Music and HBO MAX alongside watching Prime Video. If manga had an official system in place that was easily accessible, I would go legit. But the issues is how I've seen official licensed manga companies handle some series in a really shitty way.

For example, Immortal Hounds is what basically radicalized me on this issue ever since 2019. That manga had a complete ending from Volume 1 to 7 in the Japanese version for years. Yet the official English version of Vol 7, the final volume, when did that come out? April of 2024. When did Vol 6 come out...? JANUARY 2018!

Thank God, the manga was finally finished in English (though there's no word on the status of Immortal Ridge, which is supposed to be the 'true' conclusion of the story) but Jesus. Its absolutely schizophrenic how licensed companies will just choose to... Not finish a series or have such a big delay.

Another one is Alice to Zouroku, where the Japanese version is already on Volume 13 while the English version is still stuck in Volume 9 (back in 2021). There is likely going to never be an English Vol 10 and beyond because despite being licensed, I guess there's no demand for that series. But because it is licensed, people are afraid to scanlate the rest because sorry, "its our licence to sit on a manga and do nothing with it".

Sure, scanlators sometimes don't finish series but there's a difference... You don't pay for scanlated manga. 100% that alleviates things by a TON. Also there's always an opportunity for anyone else to pick up a manga after someone abandoned it. There's no "well the manga didn't sell well so we won't release more volumes anymore" BS.

Don't even get me started on licensed companies who also only do physical copies and don't do any digital versions. Which means physical copies are subject to limited copies and could eventually be all sold out or stored by scalpers. There is legit some licensed manga out there that are out of print forever and you'll never see them again. Granted, I do think this is mostly an older issue with licensed mangas pre-2020s. I think lately there's always going to be a digital + physical version. But still that doesnt fix the issue of older series becoming lost media.

How are we supposed to trust licensed companies as a better alternative to scans? Man, theyre really shitty at winning the hearts and minds of people. It's no wonder why this 'war' will wage on forever. If they were smart they'd actually just properly finish series and not subject things to FOMO. They would try to make themselves on par if not better than their 'counterparts'. Why would I pay for manga that'll have a 50/50 chance of never being completed because of "muh market demand".

That's why everyone uses Spotify and other music services these days instead of skimming .MP3 files on Limewire. Because they made those legit services actually feel 'better' to use or just as good as the old.

Have you ever lost all Data along with the backups ?
well i did.
i have 20 year old books in good condition so print is the only option i still support. unfortunately the vast majority of titles rather dont have print releases instead of a digital release.

 

[Nick86]

For admins, if things are leaved as they are now, scanlators will not post here anymore, understandable for them to do so, so create a MIRROR of whole MD database before this last purge, with a different name, not advertised, not indexed by search engines (like comick is doing). This is the only possible solution for scanlators to come back, stay hidden, so no data is given to cr holders.

 

[Rapeman]

＞It's actually dead this time, not just the 42% dead that hombre left it

Allow me to log in one last time to pay my respects.

 

[bondejeger]

Allow me to log in one last time to pay my respects.

View attachment 22308

Nice to see you’re still alive, I miss your release threads on /a/.

 

[bondejeger]

For admins, if things are leaved as they are now, scanlators will not post here anymore, understandable for them to do so, so create a MIRROR of whole MD database before this last purge, with a different name, not advertised, not indexed by search engines (like comick is doing). This is the only possible solution for scanlators to come back, stay hidden, so no data is given to cr holders.

I don’t really think it’s much they can do at this point, they have the full undivided attention of the industry right now. The industry knows the real identity of the owners, so it’s not really a legible solution. Just complying to the dmcas and see what happens.

 

[JVick]

IMO, in an ideal world, I would have zero issues (lol pun) with officially licensed manga. Trust me, I'd 100% buy all of them if I could. Physical or digital (though I prefer digital since books are physical objects can be damaged permanently). I pay for YouTube Music and HBO MAX alongside watching Prime Video. If manga had an official system in place that was easily accessible, I would go legit. But the issues is how I've seen official licensed manga companies handle some series in a really shitty way.

For example, Immortal Hounds is what basically radicalized me on this issue ever since 2019. That manga had a complete ending from Volume 1 to 7 in the Japanese version for years. Yet the official English version of Vol 7, the final volume, when did that come out? April of 2024. When did Vol 6 come out...? JANUARY 2018!

Thank God, the manga was finally finished in English (though there's no word on the status of Immortal Ridge, which is supposed to be the 'true' conclusion of the story) but Jesus. Its absolutely schizophrenic how licensed companies will just choose to... Not finish a series or have such a big delay.

Another one is Alice to Zouroku, where the Japanese version is already on Volume 13 while the English version is still stuck in Volume 9 (back in 2021). There is likely going to never be an English Vol 10 and beyond because despite being licensed, I guess there's no demand for that series. But because it is licensed, people are afraid to scanlate the rest because sorry, "its our licence to sit on a manga and do nothing with it".

Sure, scanlators sometimes don't finish series but there's a difference... You don't pay for scanlated manga. 100% that alleviates things by a TON. Also there's always an opportunity for anyone else to pick up a manga after someone abandoned it. There's no "well the manga didn't sell well so we won't release more volumes anymore" BS.

Don't even get me started on licensed companies who also only do physical copies and don't do any digital versions. Which means physical copies are subject to limited copies and could eventually be all sold out or stored by scalpers. There is legit some licensed manga out there that are out of print forever and you'll never see them again. Granted, I do think this is mostly an older issue with licensed mangas pre-2020s. I think lately there's always going to be a digital + physical version. But still that doesnt fix the issue of older series becoming lost media.

How are we supposed to trust licensed companies as a better alternative to scans? Man, theyre really shitty at winning the hearts and minds of people. It's no wonder why this 'war' will wage on forever. If they were smart they'd actually just properly finish series and not subject things to FOMO. They would try to make themselves on par if not better than their 'counterparts'. Why would I pay for manga that'll have a 50/50 chance of never being completed because of "muh market demand".

That's why everyone uses Spotify and other music services these days instead of skimming .MP3 files on Limewire. Because they made those legit services actually feel 'better' to use or just as good as the old.

The Japanese has to deal with editors and their axes, but each country oversea has to deal with editors too lazy to put the Japanese text into their MTL.

 

[Rapeman]

Nice to see you’re still alive, I miss your release threads on /a/.

Yeah, the scene is largely dead and its grave is behind a Patreon paywall and/or schwarbage websites with terrible mobile-focused UIs, run by r*ddit-tier jannies, such as this one. The final 404 when the copyright owners permanently drag this place into the DMCA buck-breaking barn will be an act of mercy more than anything.

Anyway, inb4 permaban, back to /a/~

 

[DesertStorm]

Yeah, the scene is largely dead and its grave is behind a Patreon paywall and/or schwarbage websites with terrible mobile-focused UIs, run by r*ddit-tier jannies, such as this one. The final 404 when the copyright owners permanently drag this place into the DMCA buck-breaking barn will be an act of mercy more than anything.

Anyway, inb4 permaban, back to /a/~

Legend outlived Mangadex like DSP outlived your generic Youtuber.

 

[JVick]

Yeah, the scene is largely dead and its grave is behind a Patreon paywall and/or schwarbage websites with terrible mobile-focused UIs, run by r*ddit-tier jannies, such as this one. The final 404 when the copyright owners permanently drag this place into the DMCA buck-breaking barn will be an act of mercy more than anything.

Anyway, inb4 permaban, back to /a/~

What do you mean, our favorite legal comics will all wait for us on Namicomi. There is nothing to fear!

 

[MavericMC]

I was re-reading "Isekai doctor" today and when I came back after 2 hours, its gone. They still removing mangas til now? WTF! And here I thought it survived.

 

[T-sama]

I was re-reading "Isekai doctor" today and when I came back after 2 hours, its gone. They still removing mangas til now? WTF! And here I thought it survived.

7k titles don't remove themselves overnight

Also don't forget that some groups and people are not just quitting Mangadex, but also removing everything they uploaded

The damage is way bigger due to the waves created by the dmca, upload page change and faq

 

[Nekoya-Sensei]

So are we witnessing the death of MD due to this DMCA?

 

[Bok3tto]

I am fine with this but what about the people living in 3rd world countries that have absolutely no option to buy original work at all? Like Helldivers II players outside Japan, US and most of Europe today?

Not sure we can call any country that has internet ‘3rd world’ anymore, but also if those people have access to bookstores or game shops they can get those works through special orders and word of mouth. It might be expensive but then DMCAs are less of an issue (getting sued, getting a site taken down, etc.) because you’d own the work outright—and the company and creatives get paid.

The author is not responsible for DMCA takedowns, my guy.

Right because publishers are. They are protecting their investment— publishers give authors an advance, authors work it off by royalties per volumes sold. If something is licensed and people are reading scans instead of paying for volumes or renting chapters, the author doesn’t get paid. Licensors don’t make their money back from translations if one person rips the pages and disseminates them. The whole business model becomes untenable.

If the work is unlicensed and people go right to scans instead of lobbying for a license, publishers won’t assume a translation is necessary and nothing gets done.

Again, we aren't even paying them (because we can't) so we can't steal what we didn't give lol..

Totally get how frustrating this all is—starting with insults is a clear sign you feel helpless and confused about how all this works. But saying ‘we can’t‘ when there are workarounds for making payments, VPNs for access, phone a friend to get volumes, etc. is disingenous. It’s not that we can’t get this stuff it’s that we can’t get it NOW that’s the issue. These agreements take time, publishing has a pace that is well behind the popularity of the works, just how it is. Scanlating is fun and all but it’s not going to fix that problem the way you think.

Look at numbers: Publishers pay authors an advance, authors work off the advance through royalties per chapters and volumes sold. Licensors pay publishers up front and work it off through royalties/subscriptions. If you’re not paying for the work, the author isn’t paying off their advance and posting scans of the licensed work means the licensor isn’t getting a return. If something is popular here but officials are dropped because of low sales, there is a direct correlation.

Forget the current exchange rate, if 1 person reads 50 chapters on here for free instead of paying $1 a chapter on K-Mango that seems like nothing. But looking at the top thread in Similar threads, 2K people looked at the April Fool’s 2025 Advertisement Submission Context—if each person reads 50 chapters each on here that’s $100K ($1 per initial read) that’s not going back to the publisher to pay off the author’s debt or even trickling down to the author. We all know how crazy hard author’s work and when they have to pause for illness or whatever this just adds to the stress.

So yeah, not stealing but definitely depriving an author of income here.