The 3 Best Sites To Read Manga Online
Manga is an increasingly popular Japanese art-style. They’re the comic equivalent of Japanese anime.
In Japan, manga is an everyday thing. People of young and old alike enjoy these comics about romance, action, humor and, sometimes, tentacles — but that’s a genre we’ll be trying to avoid discussing today.
Lately, manga fever has been spreading beyond the country’s boundaries. Since it’s legal to read or download (yet) unlicensed titles in Europe and the States, spending some time to read Manga online is a great way to spend an afternoon. And once you’re in, you’ll never want out!
ATTENTION! Many of these manga’s are uploaded by users. It’s still illegal to read manga online that’s been licensed in English. Check here for a full list of licensed titles.
There are a lot of sites where you can download manga for free, but today we’ll be focussing on websites where you can read these comics online, without having to clutter your computer and from the comfort of your laptop, netbook, or iPhone.
Manga Fox
The first thing you’ll notice about Manga Fox is how great the site looks. Not only that, you can flip through different color themes to make it easier on the eyes or fit in with your room’s wallpaper. The second thing you’ll notice is their amazing collection of manga.
You can view the latest manga on the frontpage, but I recommend you browse the Manga Directory. Here you’ll be able to sort the different titles alphabetically or perform a search. If you really don’t know what to read, or just want some to get your hands on some new reads, sort the titles by rating and start with a blast.
The collection of manga they offer is very decent, and the site definitely stands out with its interface. I really doubt you’d find another manga site with a swifter navigation.
One Manga
One Manga comes second in the list. It’s got a comparable list of manga, but a slightly less pleasurable design and interface. Nevertheless, if you can’t find your manga on Manga Fox, this would be the second place to go.
Again, you can have your pick between the recent updates, or sort the titles by alphabet. Alternatively, and this is a feature you won’t encounter often, you can also browse by category. Say you’re still a little new to this, and want to find some titles that fit your style, this is a great place to start.
Manga Volume
Third comes Manga Volume. At first sight it highly resembles a file sharing site, and there are more similarities than that. Users can upload new manga from the frontpage, contributing to the already huge database of english manga.
Manga Volume misses the great interface of Manga Fox and the categoric view of One Manga, but its active user community make it a vast resource of online manga. Rest assured, if your manga isn’t on any of the three sites mentioned above, it’s probably licensed.
I hope you’ve had some use of this article. If you know any other great resources to read Manga online - be sure to mention them in the comments section below!
(By) Simon is a student and tech enthusiast from Belgium. On MakeUseOf, he's the primary gaming writer and eBook editor. Check Simon out @ http://meme.yahoo.com/slangen/
“Since it’s legal to read or download (yet) unlicensed titles in Europe and the States”
No, it’s not…
Strictly speaking, yes, this does not comply with the copyright laws. Nevertheless, the non-japanese governments just don’t care about unlicensed manga/anime. It’s only when a manga/anime gets licensed that they act.
That aside, more and more manga/anime are getting licensed, and often a lot quicker than before – a lot of new anime/manga now get licensed between two years and three months after release.
So, unlicensed manga/anime is in the decline, especially the more popular series. Nevertheless, most manga/anime fans won’t mind spending a dime or two when that time comes.
yes of course..one manga still the best for me to reading….
especially for reading franken fran lOL
you do know that most of the manga in manga fox is being forwared from onemanga right?
Just like any self-respected person would not watch streaming anime, no one should read manga online, especially when you could download the HQ version of any chapter/volume (not from these sites) in less than the time it takes for you to wait for each page to update when reading online (you’ll basically be downloading the LQ version by doing that anyway). Reading something offline means you can enjoy it at your own pace, and archive it, and that simply owns.
Why should there be ’sides’? I do both.
Omggg manga! I totally feel like I should have thought of this post. But mad props, Simon, for covering this topic!
Also, if you’re interested, there’s a greasemonkey script (Onemanga helper, I believe) that loads an entire chapter of manga at a time. It’s really helpful, cuz I hate clicking and waiting for each page to load, especially if theres a way to make them all load at once. yay fast internets!
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/26336
Thanks for the tip! (and the props, of course)
If any of you are interested, you should also check out The Best Anime Sites on the Web.
I guess America is just odd, we Brits (most Europeans in fact)were already well aware of manga by the mid 80’s and for us, Anime came as the animated version of manga rather than the other way around (as this article puts it).
I think you misunderstood, anime often is the animated version of manga (or simply standalone), and I didn’t claim otherwise. In fact, there wasn’t claimed anything.
Don’t forget TriManga.
http://www.trimanga.com
You can watch anime too