Site Update - 14th of May 2025

[T-sama]

That (partially) explains why when I went to read the new chap of a manga earlier there were only the three latest chaps available. The big issue is going through my Library and seeing what's been hit and what hasn't (yet). I don't know how massive an undertaking that is for everyone else, but my current Reading tab has 320 titles, Plan To Read has 49, and On Hold has 87 (Completed and Dropped can kind of be ignored). Not to mention another 45 in random MDLists. That's a whole lot of investigating.

I've already been shifting some stuff over to another site I use (which I shall not name, because now I'm kind of paranoid) through Tachiyomi on an android emulator. Of course, they've started screaming at you if your list to update is too big, so I'll have to figure out how to use categories and update differently if I go that way with too many series.

Suffice to say, it looks like I might be spending a lot more time on MangaDex in the near future NOT reading manga at all, but slowly working through all those titles.

I have almost 3.5k mangas on my library, never got around organizing them, guess when I do I'll find a bunch got nuked lol

Worst part will get to the series I can't find anywhere else, example, Suito-to!, which I'm not sure is anywhere else

No. Mangadex operates as legitimately and respectfully as they can for the kind of site that they are.

That's just not how it works though if you know anything about how manga scanlation websites have been operating for like 20 years. When you make one that isn't horrible, it's because you're operating ethically. When you're operating ethically, you're probably located somewhere that is susceptible to law and DMCA takedowns if pressure hits.

If you have a horrible website, you're probably something like Batoto, which operates under genuine theft while also spamming you with predatory ads for p0rn and constant scam and virus site popups.

"Just don't make it horrible" doesn't work that way.

Sorry but that's bullshit, one can always try find balance, also, operating "ethically" got us here lol

We're by definition already acting unethical by pirating manga, might as well go all the way so we don't get kicked down like we got today

 

[T-sama]

Weebcentral mod just said he doesn't give a shit about DMCAs
So there's that

Maybe some of the scanlators should start uploading there lol

 

[VongS]

The Endgame is coming!

 

[zymosan99]

"The Day the Manga Died"

 

[wotta57]

The Endgame is coming!

The endgame of what?
Silly

 

[TimeForPizza]

Guess we can say this is an end of an era.

It's not. Massive shakeups like this happen a lot in the online manga reading community. People will adapt somehow.

Sorry but that's bullshit, one can always try find balance, also, operating "ethically" got us here lol

Well, I'm only speaking from how things have been for decades. By all means if you think this new model of operation will surface, pray and hope for it. I personally don't think there will be an "all-in-one" sunshine and rainbows website like that. I think MangaDex will continue to operate for series not affected by DMCA, and another less savory solution will surface for the dubious stuff. Eventually, all publishers will take advantage of the opened door, and potentially affect the entirety of MangaDex, so the entire thing will probably have to move on to something shady.

Ask yourself why MangaDex doesn't have ads and why sites like Batoto are unable to take donations for operation, and about what this means each for their source and location, and how DMCA works in specific countries.

 

[ReaperCreeper]

It is unrelated. We have received a dmca request for those chapters.

Note that this is the first time a takedown happened on this scale. Before it was just singular manga on the direct request of the author, or Naver because they're scary.

Fuck, honestly the more the series I see were hit, the more it feels like this site will be going the way of Batoto soon. Gotta hope stuff is at least on Nyaa...

 

[kngpjn]

I was confused from this morning why the image chapter always stuck loading and some manga got zero chapters (even tough last time I check the final chapter already uploaded). And now I read this thread and like, "ok this is worse than I thought).

I will not blame this DMCA thing because they aren't in the wrong side. But there's some manga that not have official translation. From this, we know that scanlations team is really helping the manga community. And this is a prove that there's a market outside Japan that will read the manga. Idk about budget calculation for translator from official publisher, but that's not changed the fact that there's market outside Japan (this is for manga that don't have official translation).

I don't know when this strike is gonna over, but I hope we can find the final solutions for this.

And about library export like MAL export list, it will be a good help for us. Especially for people that have a lot of manga on their list.

 

[T-sama]

Ask yourself why MangaDex doesn't have ads and why sites like Batoto are unable to take donations for operation, and about what this means each for their source and location, and how DMCA works in specific countries.

Because they're smart enough to put their sites in countries where they can ignore dmca and not directly connect anything to their real life to avoid legal repercussions

I honestly find funny this demonization of certain manga sites because they have ads and whatever, at the end of the day all of us are thieves, we don't really have a moral high ground just because some sites are more scummy than us

 

[T-sama]

But there's some manga that not have official translation. From this, we know that scanlations team is really helping the manga community. And this is a prove that there's a market outside Japan that will read the manga.

Funny you say this, cause the Japanese actually don't care at all about that, I remember once a yuri mangaka got pissy cause someone was translating her doujins, even threatened not making next issues if they didn't stop.

I also remember seeing some artists surprised that their art gets uploaded in places like danbooru and such, even though they're publicly posted on pixiv, Twitter and so on.

The reality is that there's a cultural difference between us and them, we from the west understand that with the internet anything can be taken from one place and uploaded into a other, no official translation so fair game make our own translation, piracy and so on.

The Japanese though? Many really seem to not like or not even understand that mentality lol, doesn't matter if there's no translation in our language, for many of them fan translation is wrong out of principle.

Publishers just put money behind that, which makes dmca happen from time to time, but in practice if it depended on the mangakas we wouldn’t be here reading the fan translation of their works.

 

[TimeForPizza]

Because they're smart enough to put their sites in countries where they can ignore dmca and not directly connect anything to their real life to avoid legal repercussions

I honestly find funny this demonization of certain manga sites because they have ads and whatever, at the end of the day all of us are thieves, we don't really have a moral high ground just because some sites are more scummy than us

You're kind of missing the point because you're talking about the front-end ethics of piracy. How the back-end involving scanlators and web administrators works, is different. It's not a matter of whether you actually want ethics or not. Ethics simply fall into line because of the methodology of operating, including where and by what means the website operates. Websites take up digital space online and they cost money to operate. How MangaDex vs. Batoto operate is very, very different. You aren't asking yourself why that is while circling back to the topic: "why can't a new manga website surface that does all these great things, isn't predatory, and pays no attention to DMCA?"

Seriously, think about this.

 

[T-sama]

Seriously, think about this.

Or maybe stop playing games and simply say what you want to say.

 

[YukinoIsBestGirl]

This is probably Mangadex's most tragic moment

Worst part is that it had it coming. You could see this happening from miles away

Doesn't make this any less tragic

R.I.P Mangadex
2018-2025

 

[ReaperCreeper]

This is an excellent time to bring up the case of Chinpui.

A series that was fully translated, was all up on Batoto, but when that fell we lost the last of it of the last volume. The link on the team's website is dead, other manga sites were missing the same chapters, no torrents that I could find.

So take that as an important lesson.

 

[youdontknowwho]

My uploads went down about 500, which is surprising because I only ever uploaded obscure series that are largely forgotten. They really cast a wide net this time.

 

[InfelPhira]

This happened with baka-tsuki, and publishers will do more

 

[spinder]

Man this made me feel sick to my stomach. The greed is unbelievable. Manga has become way to populair

 

[Black_Percher]

It's time for Mangadex to fully embrace being a links aggregator and not a hosting site. Follow on Novelupdates thread, no content on the site only links to scanlators or official sites or mirrors. This way, scanlators that wants to see their beloved series reach a wider audience can still use mangadex's popularity without the site getting more DMCA.

"But Mangadex has a superior reading experience!" Yes we all know that but with how aggressive DMCA lawyers for ACG works has been recently, it's not worth the risk. Last month a bunch of KR WN translators site gets DMCA out of nowhere despite not having a single officially translated series under their belt.

I think the dark ages is here for everything anime related and the scene have to adapt to it if it ever wish to continue thriving.

 

[tempJKI]

Well, the reason why mangadex still stands is because they follow the DMCA requests - which is fair since the IP owners are the publishers.

Biggest issue always on the IP owners who are not willing to distribute their works "legally". Piracy only happens when there's a service issue.

Which, the Japanese publishers haven't put one proper iota of thought on how to reach to their international audience without compromising their rights as the IP owner.

It's surprisingly simple. Just make sure the mangas are:

1. More accessible
   (e.g.
   a) Available on browsers (Website) and mobile apps - for both UI and UX for better experiences
   b) physical copies (paperbacks))
2. With actual decent translations for the translated languages (e.g. English, Spanish, etc.)
3. With preferably no censorship whenever possible (?)
4. And design a system that seems fair for consumers while not actively sabotaging both potential and active paying customers.

It's just baffling how a good portion of the DMCA takedowns didn't even have official translations for people to even READ or PURCHASE WITH THEIR WALLETS.

Hell, some of the "official English chapters" are app only, and not distributed with paperbacks. Ridiculous.

 

[jasohn07]

This take down business sucks...

It is unrelated. We have received a dmca request for those chapters.

Note that this is the first time a takedown happened on this scale. Before it was just singular manga on the direct request of the author, or Naver because they're scary.

The chapter listings (a v3 feature where you can see the chapter but can't access the images) will return asap with the unavailable v3 feature. So for the users that use chapter read markers for tracking (please don't), don't worry your markers will return.
The users that want a list of what has been taken down will have to wait for said feature too.

Um, is it possible when those chapters are "re-upload" with the v3 feature thing on the chapter listings that the original uploader/scanlation group will still be attached (and the link to those pages accessable) as well as the upload data? What about the chapter comments for those chapters that are being "re-upload", is it possible to still have those accessable?