Brand new Mangamo digital manga subscription service is live

Mangamo is a brand new manga subscription service with unlimited access to 100's of titles from a variety of Japanese publishers. The service has launched globally on iOS, and comes with a 60 day free trial, after which the service bills monthly at £4.49 (about half the copy of a single physical volume). 

The venture has been put together by experienced leaders from Hulu, Netflix, Viz and Crunchyroll, The list of available titles is being curated by Dallas Middlaugh, formerly Head of Events and Manga at Crunchyroll, and also worked for Penguin Random House, giving him a solid base in publishing. CEO and founder Buddy Marini is bilingual and for the last 25 years has worked for companies such as Hulu Japan, as well as working with online gaming developer Supercell (Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars).

Some of the tentpole releases include Fire Force, Battle Angel Alita, Attack on Titan and Dropckick on my Devil!, which is exclusive to the platform. 

We'll do an in-depth look at the platform at a future date, but for now (assuming you have an iOS device)  why not try it out for yourself?

From the Press Release:

[April 15, 2020 -- Tokyo, Japan] -- Mangamo, the first mobile manga subscription service that gives readers unlimited access to hundreds of titles from a growing list of publishers while supporting creators, launched globally today on iOS for iPhone and iPad and is available for download on the App Store. Starting today, manga fans can sign up for a limited time 2-month free trial of Mangamo.

The high cost of manga ($10-15 USD per book) makes it inaccessible to many readers outside of Japan, and it’s estimated that billions of dollars in revenue is lost to manga piracy sites every year. Mangamo makes manga affordable and accessible and fulfills unmet consumer demand that fuels rampant piracy.

For £4.49  a month, Mangamo subscribers gain ad-free, unlimited access to hundreds of titles professionally translated into English, such as popular titles Attack on Titan, Somali & the Forest Spirit, Fire Force, and Arte, and titles never before released in English such as Dropkick my Devil, Akatsuki Babies, Reset Game, and Daily Meteor Strike. Over the next three months, Mangamo will roll out over 300 titles and over 1,000 volumes of manga, and new chapters will be added daily.

Mangamo uses a simple, customer-preferred monthly subscription model with unlimited access, zero ads and no additional purchases, while other services offer advertising-based or costly F2P (free to premium) or pay-per-book purchase models.

“I grew up reading manga and watching anime as a child in Japan, and I’m inspired by the global rise of this treasured Japanese form of entertainment,” said Buddy Marini, founder and CEO of Mangamo. “Mangamo offers something I’ve always wanted as a fan: an easy and affordable way to read a ton of new manga while giving back to the publishers and creators so they can continue to make the manga I love.”

Every manga available on Mangamo is curated by an experienced editorial team, professionally localized, and legally licensed directly from publishers. The service features the highest quality graphic images and a customized reader with tools that allow users to effortlessly track their personal reading library. 

“Mangamo provides an accessible, flowing user experience. Plus, I’m genuinely impressed with the manga selection it offers,” said Ghia Vitale, Mangamo user.

"I really enjoy the clean interface. There’s nothing that distracts from the content and browsing is super easy. Viewing manga is also fantastic, and the zoom functions are simple to use,” said Allen Kesinger, Mangamo user. “I’m pleasantly surprised how smooth it all is, offering very little loading time between pressing “Read” to being taken to the manga’s cover page. Some of the other online readers I’ve used had a tendency to chug sometimes.”

Users have the option of reading from right to left as manga is originally published, or by scrolling vertically like they may be used to on their mobile devices. Genres include anime, action, adventure, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural, kawaii, romance, slice of life, and many more.

Mangamo was created by executives and leaders from Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, VIZ and more. Mangamo currently partners with 11 publishers including Kodansha, Comicsmart, Toppan, North Star Pictures and others, with that list set to grow.