While it may have been one of the most visited websites on the planet, One Manga is shutting down due to pressure from publishers who don’t like it that the site was sharing scanlations for free. Like many of the other sites we’ve reported on, when a site gets too big and it is sharing material it hasn’t licenses or paid for, The Man is going to step in.
It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!). Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July ‘10).
For now it looks like the forums will remain open, but if you want to grab some free and possibly illegal comics, you better do it now.
So what is a manga fan to do if they want English translations of their favorite titles? It’s mighty telling that One Manga is shutting down just in time for Square Enix to announce it is setting up its own manga site. Don’t get too excited, Square Enix will be selling its copies.
Given the increasing popularity of electronic reading formats, Square Enix has decided to take advantage of the online distribution infrastructure originally developed for its games business, along with the company’s existing payment system and online fan communities in order to establish a paid digital distribution channel to better serve the varied needs of its global customers. Square Enix will continue to work with its existing regional publishing licensees to promote both electronic and print versions of titles, while aiming to deter piracy by establishing an official web-based distribution source.
If you are at the San Diego Comic Con, check out the Square Enix booth, and check out the demo.
8 Comments
As someone who visited the site. It’s sad to see it go. It was probably the biggest manga reader site available. It had a lot of content besides the copyrighted stuff, so I consider the whole thing kinda unfair. There were a lot of titles that had no chance in hell to get published overseas.
And there’s also probably 0 chance that this new service will offer you the newest titles on time.
Ouch, first Raw Paradise now this… The worst thing is that alot of mangas being scanlated are either baddly translated by English/French publishers or heavely censored making these “illegal” versions superior to the ones sold at the stores.
As MaximusRift pointed out there are also tons of manga no publishers wouldn touch with a ten feet poll.
Funny thing is, there are multiple reasons why sites like one manga are popular. Two most notable reasons being 1.the american releases are way behind japan story wise and 2. They go to these sites when american publishers drop a series. and like maximusrifts said there is no chance some series will get published. Add to the fact publishers don’t want to post their manga online let alone the latest chapters in japan so in the short run it may work for awhile but in the long run it will hurt the industry even more.
Now if only this fixed all the problems associated with acquiring manga legitimately.
Like I’ve said before; I view sites like this (and outright piracy) the same way I view any kind of theft or grey-area loopholes involving copyrights; it’s gonna happen, and I feel it functions as a Whetstone. I think that plenty of entertainment industries would be much further behind on the digital revolution were it not for piracy. Unfortunately, it does sometimes backfire, and it’s usually services like this who are at least arguably doing the industry and the art of comics/manga/music/whatever some kind of benefit that can’t be measured in an exact dollar figure who get the brunt of that backfire. R.I.P. One Manga.
what the haystack am i supposed to do now? now i have to wait like forever to see the new naruto and bleach that would normally come out next wk! and besides the fact that in america they are wayyy too far behind so itss a waste of time to try and watch it on tv … so online is the only source but unfortunaetly i caant invest money on mangas cus my parents seee it as a waste of money… i love the series and all but i cant purchase them so now i might as well just give up on mangas period.. thanx for shutting down one manga.. you just made alottttt of people have to try and either find another pirated version of the mangas or just give up on magas, kus im not buying this bull!
what the hell, how am i going to keep up with all the new naruto and bleach and fairy tail now i have to go buy it and read the books in a few seconds. fricken pissed off
I can’t say that I care one way or the other, but I can feel for those who it does affect. I just wish there was some way that they could split the difference maybe, if there is a legitimate legal outlet to obtain some manga’s even if it’s delayed then yeah it probably shouldn’t be offered free on there, but if there’s no distribution for some mangas, then who is it hurting really? I’m not saying it’s okay to steal or pirate or whatever, but I am saying that those manga creators who’d like to get their product known over here in the States or in other countries, maybe they should post it for people to read. If a story takes off over here, maybe then they’ll have Shonen Jump or some other company start distributing it here. Besides over here in America, there are so many Manga fans that will honestly read a lot of really crappy titles simply because they don’t have a lot of options if that’s the style of storytelling and art that they like.