http://www.jmanga.com/urgent-message

What the fk just happened? What does this mean to the future of (yuri) manga if their model failed? And what about their licensed titles? (and will Aoi Hana be picked up again after this?).

last edited at Mar 14, 2013 8:21AM

Whoa. Didn't see that coming. I think it's safe to assume their licenses have been dropped with termination of the service, though I can't say for sure. Scan groups are likely going to wait with picking series back up again (if at all) until more is known about the situation.

Whoa. Didn't see that coming. I think it's safe to assume their licenses have been dropped with termination of the service, though I can't say for sure. Scan groups are likely going to wait with picking series back up again (if at all) until more is known about the situation.

One thing is for sure, I dont like digital (manga/books) much, I prefer paper, if something happens to the digital content, at least I have something physical. Call me old fashion if you will, but at least when a publisher goes out of business at least I dont have to worry that the manga/books wont disappear along with them. But that's just me.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/news/2013-03-14/manga-reading-site-jmanga-to-end-service-in-may

subscribers will be getting refunds and those with unused points will be getting Amazon Gift Cards.

It means their model was shit. Microsoft points approach for stuff you can only read online, confusing webdesign like you're walking into a candy store and the only series they picked up (at least on the yuri side) was stuff that has been scanlated for years now and except for maybe Poor Poor Lips, they didn't even get beyond what was already scanlated in the case of uncompleted stories.

I will (and have) happily buy translated works to show my support. I'm not buying a lease on old digital content I only have limited access to (and fat load of good that lock-in bullshit did).

What jmanga did was two things: shown that yuri is more popular than a lot of people think, considering those series were pretty much consistently their best sells. And, with their great "Hey thanks for all your money. Have fun with your rental until May 30, then kindly fuck off" approach, scare people off from ever investing money into such a black box again. Both are good things in my book.

Personally, I have nothing against reading manga online, but like Phyis said, Jmanga's model was shit all along. Even if they just let you download manga you 'bought' their system would have worked a whole damn lot better.

And, with their great "Hey thanks for all your money. Have fun with your rental until May 30, then kindly fuck off" approach, scare people off from ever investing money into such a black box again. Both are good things in my book.

you are right on that, it will be a long time before someone decides to invest on this type of approach. Consumers would think twice before spending their money on a shaky product that one day will just disappear out of the blue. It feels more like you are just renting the product, rather than owning it/buying it.

And, with their great "Hey thanks for all your money. Have fun with your rental until May 30, then kindly fuck off" approach, scare people off from ever investing money into such a black box again. Both are good things in my book.

you are right on that, it will be a long time before someone decides to invest on this type of approach. Consumers would think twice before spending their money on a shaky product that one day will just disappear out of the blue. It feels more like you are just renting the product, rather than owning it/buying it.

If they actually rented out the manga in a way similar to netflix (pay X/mo for everything) it would have been a fair trade-off for not owning the product. But with the way it was you're going to get shafted at some point of time either way. Even if they had only gone down in 5 years it would have been sour, since people were under the assumption they owned something.

This was no surprise to me. They tried to lockdown something that was far bigger than they imagined or could control. Failure was pretty much inevitable and now they've pretty much ruined any chance that anyone else had at a similar approach.

I have no opinion on Jmanga, but I do feel bad for companies that attempt to turn a profit on digital goods. The piracy mentality is almost ubiquitous on the Internet, and it's all but impossible to prevent people from downloading, copying, etc., the material and redistributing it.

It might have helped Jmanga to face the reality that people are going to download and redistribute despite their best efforts. Rather than creating an apparently (never used it myself) annoying system of viewing the content online, they could have allowed downloads and been a more attractive service because of it.

Moreover, when it comes down to it, no one who refuses to pay and just wants their content for free is going to cave in and buy from Jmanga simply because they made it slightly more difficult to redistribute. Bearing that in mind, I think many of the people who would buy from Jmanga, despite their flawed system and selection of titles often already scanlated, are people who are just interested in supporting the medium and creators (at least in spirit, by showing support for Jmanga which in turn purchased a license, which assumedly benefits the creator). Making things harder for them is obviously not a good idea.

Closing its doors in the way it did, without offering a refund for purchases or a way for users to permanently keep the content, Jmanga has probably damaged the image of digital manga services. Add to that a rocky service with points and lack of downloads... people may not trust this kind of endeavor in the future.

EDIT: Everyone who bought titles from Jmanga they want to keep should look into ripping methods. It's not exactly difficult.

last edited at Mar 15, 2013 1:31AM

Yeah, I feel bad for the people who bought stuff. I also feel bad for what this represents from the perspective of those people interested in legally supporting the industry. Although I never did sign up for JManga's model, I do maintain a seasonal subscription at Crunchyroll, and was definitely planning to seriously look into their (JManga's) service at some point if their catalogue got wide enough.

Hopefully, some other digital manga licensing service pops up at some point with a more sensible business model. Logistically speaking though, it does seem as if manga licensing faces a whole host of greater obstacles in terms of competing against fan scanlations than the anime simulcasting sector does.

last edited at Mar 15, 2013 3:49AM

if they went out of business, it probably doesn't matter if they retain the licensing... i doubt they would have the resources or even inclination to do anything about any site that might choose to host stuff they had licensed.

just a thought...

The biggest issue Jmanga had, was that they didn't add any value to the fan-based scanlation system.

Crunchyroll has been successful, and I think a lot of that is because they add value outside of legitmacy. The simulcasts they offer is something that no fansubber can compete with.

With Jmanga you had to pay for a service that was worse then what scanlators currently provide for free.

Imagine if Jmanga released a chapter of Sasameki Koto a day after it was released in Japan, and that you could download a zip or ebook of it. That is not something that scanlators could have competed with. How much more likely would you have been to have purchased it?

The biggest issue Jmanga had, was that they didn't add any value to the fan-based scanlation system.

Crunchyroll has been successful, and I think a lot of that is because they add value outside of legitmacy. The simulcasts they offer is something that no fansubber can compete with.

With Jmanga you had to pay for a service that was worse then what scanlators currently provide for free.

Imagine if Jmanga released a chapter of Sasameki Koto a day after it was released in Japan, and that you could download a zip or ebook of it. That is not something that scanlators could have competed with. How much more likely would you have been to have purchased it?

Very much more likely

last edited at Mar 17, 2013 11:24AM

Sounds like they ran out of money. Sad.

I also get annoyed at some of the jmanga supporters who are screaming at NA manga fans for being theives and not supporting the industry. I buy SHITLOADS of manga, I just didn't wanna RENT from jmanga....

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-03-18/alc-publishing-founder/no-plans-to-publish-anything-new

We are going to be reuploading items that were removed due Jmanga licensing them.

last edited at Mar 18, 2013 3:21PM

http://okazu.yuricon.com/2013/03/18/hard-decisions/

last edited at Mar 18, 2013 4:55PM

I would've loved a proper digital distribution for manga. Living in Sweden, shipping costs are through the roof, if it's even shipped at all (mostly it is not). I would've paid good money for a consistent and stable delivery system that allows you to download the stories you've bought to wherever you log in. An approach similar to steam would've been fantastic. In fact, such an approach would be fantastic for TV-series and movies as well. Urgh, they are missing out on mountains of cash.

http://okazu.yuricon.com/2013/03/18/hard-decisions/

Pretty messy. I really do sympathize with Erika on this, but at the same time some of the criticism is justified.

The whole fall of JManga thing seems to have been a pretty major thing within yuri circles/the yuri community particularly because ALC was so involved and yuri become such a prominent part of JManga's limited success. However, I think ultimately the point to realize is that yuri is a niche and so the survival of the digital manga licensing/publishing industry needs to first bank on the sustainability of a mainstream model. Even if all the western yuri fans bought into JManga, they would probably still have a tough time getting by.

As far as a mainstream model, as just another leecher/fan I'm not really in a position to talk about it, and, given goals/ambitions/commitments in other directions, will probably never have the opportunity to do something particularly concrete. Here are just a few of my thoughts though, given the discussion in this thread and in the blog post:

• digital downloads are probably not necessary as a core component of a digital manga publishing service. Crunchyroll doesn't offer them, and the popularity of online reader sites like MangaFox, Batoto, and even Dynasty points towards the acceptability of online access (however objectionable some aspects of that format might be).
• what is important is speed and content. The major, most popular manga series have to be targeted. Crunchyroll got its foot in by bagging popular shounens like Bleach and Naruto and putting the freeze on fansubs for those series. A mainstream digital manga service needs to do the same thing, aiming for a subscription based service based on magazine releases, rather than sticking to collected volumes.
• digital downloads for collected volumes could be maintained as a side option. Therefore the basic subscription would give readers access to the entire output of weekly/monthly magazine translations, while full volumes for individual series could be downloaded for a separate fee.
• the most difficult aspect of this model (aside from obtaining enough startup capital to try it) would be acquiring enough translators, due to the vastness of magazine content versus broadcast anime. Individual manga publishers over in Japan would have to be won over on a case by case basis, targeting select serialized magazines based on translation capacity (Shounen Jump being key, for example).
• on the other hand, with major magazines like Shounen Jump being so thoroughly covered by 'fan' scanlations, another significant opportunity exists with regards to pursuing publications for niche content (like YuriHime). I'm sure that much of the yuri community would jump on the chance to have full scanlations of YuriHime nearly simultaneously after physical release for example, given our current lack of scanlation capacity, just for a small monthly fee.
• The combination of acquiring popular mainstream magazines and establishing currently non-existant support for niche ones would create a sustainable model. As the service became more established and becomes able to manage/acquire more translators, they could expand to support other serialized publications they initially passed up on.

I admit I have little practical knowledge of business given my current experiences, but I imagine a service such as this could probably reach a level of sustainability similar to Crunchyroll.

last edited at Mar 18, 2013 6:18PM

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-03-18/alc-publishing-founder/no-plans-to-publish-anything-new

We are going to be reuploading items that were removed due Jmanga licensing them.

Do they still hold any licenses, though? Even if they aren't planning on publishing anything, them sitting on the licenses is still a barrier to many scanlation groups picking up the series.

I agree with you on most of the points, however I think downloads actually would have contributed to Jmanga's success. Other online readers, like you mentioned, run on ads, or are just non-profit (like this one). But to sell the manga the way they did, would only be justified if they offered downloads, so people don't lose all their shit when they go down, and simply for practical purposes.

Another option would have been a subscription model like Crunchyroll does it, in which no download option could be defended to some extent, since it's clear you're renting their stuff rather than buying.

If Crunchyroll's model was to sell you stream access to a series for the price of the DVD box, they'd be dead by now. Subscription streaming services are sustainable, so are digital content shops. But not the former while trying to pretend you're the latter, that has been tried for decades now and it always failed. Trying to pin the failure of jmanga on the customers because they apparently don't want digital is disingenuous at best.

• digital downloads are probably not necessary as a core component of a digital manga publishing service. Crunchyroll doesn't offer them, and the popularity of online reader sites like MangaFox, Batoto, and even Dynasty points towards the acceptability of online access (however objectionable some aspects of that format might be).

Even though this site is strongly focused on online reading and only one small link to download, we get a significant amount of downloads. For example yesterday we had 14,500 chapter downloads, compared to 55,000 chapter views.

I'm sure that much of the yuri community would jump on the chance to have full scanlations of YuriHime nearly simultaneously after physical release for example, given our current lack of scanlation capacity, just for a small monthly fee.

Yea, I would pay for that.

last edited at Mar 18, 2013 7:12PM

Do they still hold any licenses, though? Even if they aren't planning on publishing anything, them sitting on the licenses is still a barrier to many scanlation groups picking up the series.

While there is no way to know for certain. I think if they still held licenses they would keep their website open to purchases and reading, even if there was no new content was posted.

I imagine they do still hold the license, in which case I don't really care, we're going to put whatever we can back up. They can go suck a dick if they don't like it since they're going to deny people the ability to view the stuff soon enough anyway.