Site Update - 14th of May 2025

[T-sama]

The scanlators and readers of The Buggle Call (awesome fantasy manga that is doing VERY BADLY in japan because the japanese don't like anything that isn't generic hero's party garbage) were trying to do something similar to what happened with Love Bullet but the manga got taken down right after.

Damn, talk about poor timing (more that self insert escapism slop sells too easy lol), it'll be hard to do anything about it I guess.

Although on the other hand, would it have mattered? Love Bullet is yuri, so you know, niche as fuck, low expectations by default, while The Bugle Call is already at 10 volumes, which means it had enough popularity to get this far, depending on how poorly it's doing by now nothing might save it unfortunately.

Whelp, it's probably getting axed now. It's a shame because imo it would have done at least decently well on the west. It is getting licensed, but it's probably going to be too late by then to keep it alive because its japanese sales are just catastrophically bad. I'm honestly surprised it has survived this long. Some higher up at the publisher must be a fan.

I had a look, mangaupdates say Viz version comes out in summer 2025, now I wonder if japanese publisher will wait to see how well it does in the west or something, honestly have no fucking clue if they care about that.

Either way I hope it lasts a little longer for at least a proper ending.

 

[se4ring]

while The Bugle Call is already at 10 volumes, which means it had enough popularity to get this far, depending on how poorly it's doing by now nothing might save it unfortunately.

Yeah as I said, I have no clue how it survived this long since japanese sales have been very bad for a long time as far as I know lol. Even if it gets axed, it will still have recieved a much better treatment by its publisher than most mangas that get axed way faster while performing better.

The thing is, Love Bullet and Buggle's Call are just the two recent examples I know of mangas that don't sell in japan but are well regarded by western readers. The industry is probably COMPLETELY filled with similar cases because the japanese really REALLY like their formulaic stuff and innovative stuff never sells well (just look at Nihei who is very well known here but his stuff never does well in the JP market). Mangadex was the best platform we ever had to discover such cases and start spreading their name around and, without it, plenty more cool alternative manga will go to waste.

 

[DogTheOtter]

I just spend an hour or two reading all this shit that mostly went over my dumb ass
So basically, this site is cooked?

 

[Koraeli]

That they have direct ties to Japanese publishers and requested this, and there's proof of this you can link to?

If by "this" you mean the current batch of DMCA takedowns, no, I haven't seen any proof that Kakao is involved at all.

But they have previously talked about working with Japanese publishers and particularly CODA to take action against Mangadex (though they don't name it explicitly). In their 5th white paper for example, the links to which are mostly dead but you can find archived here (it's mostly Korean though). MTL of the relevant part:

2.3.2 Legal Response Cases
M Site
• The 'M' site, which ranks first among illegal comic sites worldwide based on traffic and the number of works, illegally distributes Korean manhwa, Japanese manga, and Chinese manhua.
...
• However, since the site was distributing not only Korean manhwa but also Japanese manga, it was concluded that a joint response by domestic rights holders and the Japanese manga industry would be more effective. As a result, in November 2023, at the COA (Korea Copyright Overseas Promotion Association) - CODA (Japan Content Overseas Distribution Promotion Organization) exchange meeting, Kakao Entertainment proposed a joint response plan between Korea and Japan.

A few anime news sites and piracy sites were reporting on it back in August.

 

[T-sama]

Yeah as I said, I have no clue how it survived this long since japanese sales have been very bad for a long time as far as I know lol. Even if it gets axed, it will still have recieved a much better treatment by its publisher than most mangas that get axed way faster while performing better.

I can only imagine that for a while it had consistent sales and someone at the top likes it, is it digital release too? That seems to help sometimes since they don't have to worry as much about publishing costs, when it's actual magazine they're merciless.

The thing is, Love Bullet and Buggle's Call are just the two recent examples I know of mangas that don't sell in japan but are well regarded by western readers. The industry is probably COMPLETELY filled with similar cases because the japanese really REALLY like their formulaic stuff and innovative stuff never sells well (just look at Nihei who is very well known here but his stuff never does well in the JP market). Mangadex was the best platform we ever had to discover such cases and start spreading their name around and, without it, plenty more cool alternative manga will go to waste.

I think it's less that Japanese don't like those mangas and more that due to their various fucked up social issues many just want easy to digest self insert escapist slop to feel better about life.

It also doesn't help that the big money comes from pathetic otakus and such, espcially male ones, who want harem shit full of waifus and overpowered protagonists that have as much personality as a cardboard cutout.

I do think with digital publishing a lot of series that would get cancelled before were able to last longer and are even still ongoing, so there's that at least, but many publishers and executives didn't adapt to that and easily cancel things with potential.

 

[Madokami]

One question. Can groups keep uploading just a simple image to notify about new chapters?
I'm not sure if mangaupdates let me create something similar to a MDList with a Feed to help me keep up with new releases.

 

[T-sama]

One question. Can groups keep uploading just a simple image to notify about new chapters?
I'm not sure if mangaupdates let me create something similar to a MDList with a Feed to help me keep up with new releases.

I think it would go against rules of promoting other sites, even if you technically didn't name or link any site, so I think at best we might get a single upload from a few groups saying they're bailing on Mangadex.

But that's just my assumption so don't quote me on that lol

 

[ReaperCreeper]

Just FYI, Comick resamples and compresses the images.

It's a bigger surprise when a site doesn't.

 

[iolas]

I just spend an hour or two reading all this shit that mostly went over my dumb ass
So basically, this site is cooked?

If you don't read self published stuff then yes. Everything that is not self published could be considered illegal and it's against the site ToS since to upload a chapter you have to mark that you have permission to do so.

 

[T-sama]

I just spend an hour or two reading all this shit that mostly went over my dumb ass
So basically, this site is cooked?

To be fair we don't really know how things will go down, but the upload page change + faq is making basically everyone assume the worst

 

[Malkraz]

I think it would go against rules of promoting other sites, even if you technically didn't name or link any site, so I think at best we might get a single upload from a few groups saying they're bailing on Mangadex.

But that's just my assumption so don't quote me on that lol

who gives a shit what this site's rules are now bro

 

[T-sama]

who gives a shit what this site's rules are now bro

Whoever who does it will give a shit if they get banned and lose whatever they had in their account.

It's easy to say "who gives a shit" when it's not your ass on the line.

 

[Malkraz]

Whoever who does it will give a shit if they get banned and lose whatever they had in their account.

It's easy to say "who gives a shit" when it's not your ass on the line.

AIIIIIIIEEE NOT MY MANGADEX ACCOUNT NOW HOW WILL I READ UHHHHHH
ummmm......

 

[shinya78]

I just spend an hour or two reading all this shit that mostly went over my dumb ass
So basically, this site is cooked?

Assuming the new management decides to keep titles that are not hit with takedown requests, a "feature that makes MangaDex great", then...

As a website for scanlations? Hemorrhaging, as some groups are packing up their bags and are heading off towards other pastures.

For self-published works? Not really going to be affected, might see fewer numbers. Let's be real, most users don't really come here for the self-published works.

For h-doujins? Unless certain folks from a certain somewhere follows through with the same idea, shouldn't be affected.

Should another wave of DMCA hits the site sometime in the future on top of the 7000 titles that recently got hit, expect mass exodus. Not much of a great library when there's barely any left to read.

 

[Malkraz]

All the amazing series I'm missing out on when I lose my mangadex account for breaking the dead websites rules:

 

[T-sama]

You sound pretty trigged by what I said @Malkraz , guess you're still at stage 2 of grief hugs

 

[Malkraz]

im reading Bugle Call on Mihon rn while shitposting @ u

 

[jeezits]

If by "this" you mean the current batch of DMCA takedowns, no, I haven't seen any proof that Kakao is involved at all.

But

So no, yet people are endlessly repeating it like it's true even though the proof is literally just vibes.

 

[xEternalSoul]

Does anybody have any actual provable connection between Kakao and any Japanese manga publisher, or is this just something somebody said offhand and everyone is going along with it because they want to to be true that the perfidious Koreans have tainted the honorable and famously piracy friendly Japanese?

Outside of the drip-fed info by MD's owners and a miracle where the parties involved make a statement, you will never get a proper confirmation of the events. However, based on contextual information, is it really that ridiculous to believe that Kakao has convinced JP publishers to do a collaborative DMCA? In the past 2 months alone, Kakao has struck multiple KR novel translating sites/groups as well as raw hosters to take down the novels published on their platform. This was followed by manhwa scanlating groups being DMCA-ed as well for Kakao content. Both events were confirmed by their respective site/group owners that the DMCA came from Kakao. Shortly after, a mass DMCA came for Mangadex and within the list of series affected are KR manhwa published by Kakao. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

Even if you could argue that there weren't any proof showing that Kakao convinced JP publishers to pull their works, it is undeniable fact that they are working together with the JP publishers in the mass DMCA. You do realise that Kakao also has stakes in some JP companies as well as their own JP regional business? Nobody is excusing JP publishers for their involvement, but it would be more logical to think that they would be more prudent about this based on their own experience. They have already tried DMCAs multiple times and failed. They should also understand the beneficial effects of piracy better because they have actually been actively expanding towards the international market (in contrast with KR works having just recently entered). TLDR: Kakao is involved, the only part we don't know is whether as the mastermind or just a partner.

 

[Fireboy]

I hope and pray that the publishers see an across the board drop in engagement, views, revenue, etc.