What happened to manga Rock Reddit?

I’ve read that it’s a piracy issue & the creators aren’t making money. But isn’t the market mainly located in Japan tho? Isn’t that where most of the money comes from?

If it wasn’t for this app, I would have purchased physical copies of mangas that I found good because I read it on manga rock first. I find that this app is actually good for exposure.

What about the small manga artists? Or the short mangas, who don’t even have English translated physical copies? Or barely any recognition for it to be purchased physically?

I’m just saying that it’s not easy internationally as it is in Japan to go and walk to a store and buy manga and for the manga collection to be huge and not only filled with popular ones.

I don’t want to come off as rude at all, I’m just a little confused as to why they’re shutting down. Also, I remember reading that the manga Namaikizakari (which isn’t even that popular compared to much other popular mangas) sold a million copies despite having so many reads on MangaRock?

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but will this actually encourage people to purchase manga or it’ll just encourage them to search for other sources to read from?

Alright... I have something to add to the legal argument! I was a fan subber in the early 90s to the mid 2ks. I was a timer for some of the those "pirate" fansubbers you guys hate on so much. Hours of timing irc... laser disks, vhs. You guys wouldnt even know what anime was. Nothing came to the US or otherwise anything other than Japanese. We did all the work. 24 hours after the release we would put it up for people to see. Things no one would ever get to see because they thought there was no market... We were ignored, except by fans who appreciated our efforts. Then when they realized that English readers represented a market they could capitalize on.... thus began cruchyroll and funimation. I now stop my fansubbing because there is no need. I have a subscription to both services. SO please don't be stupid and say... it doesn't help. It does! I even bought from Japan directly back in the days I was timing, I spent thousands .. and more.... to support artist and mangakuns. NO... it does help. It brings recognition to fans that otherwise would have been none the wiser.... When they have the same service for manga. I will sign up. Until then... I would like to continue to read odd obscure manga.. and support the artist.. By buying directly from the publisher... Oh yeah they mangakun makes more money.. then having to pay the middlemen in the publishing business to publish it in English. Oh and btw, they love hearing from you as well. Hunt them down on the web, Write them an email. And say " Thanks for your hard work. I am a fan that has read English translations and have bought your manga from Japan." The usually respond with appreciation.

Hi Manga Rock readers,

Since a Japan-only announcement last week, there have been rumours of Manga Rock’s shut down.

Today, we’d like to make our official statement on what is happening with the Manga Rock app and website.

Please go to https://mrcomics.com to find out more.

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Anyone know what's going on with the app? Been down for 2 days...

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"There is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, accessible from the convenience of your personal computer or phone, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."

This was said by Gabe Newell about 9 years back, and it still stands true. The only way this will stop piracy in the way you want to is if it's cheap and more convenient then piracy which is hard to do, but hey, I'll stay optimistic.

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So basically MangaRock just took everyone’s premium money and fucked off. Yeah, that’s actually a well known classic for internet scams. Pretending like you’re real and then running off with everyone’s money as soon as you hit a certain goal. I’m kinda curious what that goal is, and wish you at the very least let people keep their reading list.

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When I learned that Manga Rock was shutting down, I went to anime-planet.com which is where you can save manga you want to read and keep track of manga that you have already read. If you downloaded the app it is still available. I am not sure how long it will be, but I will enjoy it as long as I can.

Don't get me wrong as a writer I understand that it's not fair because they don't receive the profits. I don't mind paying to read manga, but a lot of manga that is on manga rock is not licensed in the US. So it's nice to be able to read and enjoy it online. I think that there needs to be more coordination with the US and Japan with getting licenses for manga. If they use the data compiled on these free manga apps they can see which manga are popular and begin releasing them to the US. That way they can make more of a profit.

There are always going to be pirating sites. Manga Rock is closing, but there are a dozen other sites like it. It's nice for me to read manga online especially if I cannot get the book version or the ebook version because it's not in English.

MAnga Rock has been polling its users on suggestions to make the authors and readers happy such as paying to read online and also tipping authors. I think that sounds like a good idea.

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so sad I forget to download the app now is gone forever

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HAHAHAHA, if you already had a tab open for MR it still works. GET YOUR SCREENSHOTS BEFORE IT COMPLETELY SHUTS DOWN

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Now the browser version is taken down, All of the ones I had bookmarked now unusable, all the ones i had been looking forward to reading I cant read. Now hear me out, I DO buy manga sometimes but i read up to about 15 volumes worth of content a month. There's no way in hell I can afford to buy paper copies of all that a month, It's become the only entertainment I find solace and comfort in these days. Sites that allow us to read the things we love for free are doing something wrong but morally, People who can't afford to but copies all the time that love manga are extremely grateful for them. Even if they come out with a new platform it's most likely going to be one of they "Pay this amount of coins to view this chapter" systems and that's going to run themselves into the ground in no-time. It was great knowing mangarock. Goodbye one of my greatest joys.

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nice job now u read my life story

i born in shittest country i study about 17 years and i dont have job (i mean i search every where and still didnt find any job)

i learn english by watching series and movies and manga/ manhua (and idk if im good at it or not)

our country doesnt even let us protest even if we do they kill us like ants

my only passion was reading manga and webtoons and ofc i dont have money for buying that and i read it for free i got about 511 favorites manga/ manhua in mangarock. now idk wtf i can do to keep living idid thinking about suicide but i don't have guts to do it maybe now u help me with that or didnt :) ty hope my life would be better after death ( my tears coming out when i was writing idk why im not kid anymore when i was kid my dream was traveling all around world and learning their language until day i die(same time my father hitting me and fighting with my mother until day they divorce ) now i know that was impossible dream )

love u all ty for this awesome app i hope all of u guys have happy life and

Merry Xmas Everybody

level 2

Please dont kill yourself over an app shutting down

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I'm not doubting you or anything but how do you have internet and a device to use reddit? honestly curious.

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Fan translations were born out of necessity. The only two “official” manga readers on the AppStore are crunchyroll and Shōnen jump. Jump supports itself with a collection of about 100 manga and crunchyroll only picks up the big names. This means all of the little guys are left by the wayside because there are literally NO official English translations to read them with. By taking down every fan translated manga on your app you’re removing the option to read that in the West with no replacement. That leads to the question of how the new MR will get content. Will it continue to support the ‘big names’ to remain profitable? Will it start it’s own translation teams to start woking officially with creators? And if so how massive will that team be to be able to functionally deal with thousands of manga per week? Will every series that’s been fan translated be redone by an official team? What it seems like to me is that you’ll end up losing the content that so many people love and all that will be left is a very select group of titles thus hurting independent artists more by simply losing their content all together. I’m all for supporting the creators and I’m subscribed to the jump app, but I’ll be watching what happens here with skepticism.

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I think if there's a demand, it will be met eventually. It happened with video games and it happened with anime and it happened with tv shows. It's only a matter of time before someone makes a serious legal attempt. I think it won't start with big names, I think a fledgling company with little capital isn't going to be able to secure too many of those.

But it depends. Will deals be done on a series by series basis or are they going to sign on with publishers? Time will tell.

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Good riddance. Clearly none of y'all can read Japanese, because Japanese artists are always on twitter complaining about westerners stealing their work. Do you think the mangaka are glad you're stealing their shit? Seriously.

"It's a niche title that's not licensed." Mangaka still hate this. They don't care. One of my favourite BL mangaka, who has basically nothing licensed, was complaining about her work getting pirated and posted in English on her twitter.

Respect the artists' wishes.

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Hard no bud, I'm a rural teenager from wisconsin, im not going to learn a god damned language just cause an artist js too lazy to actually sell it in english.

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u saying this like 95% of mangaka even have a way to buy there work internationally

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Gotta love that moral highground you have going there.

You can read japanese? damn, son! You're amazing! I've never seen someone that knows 2 languages!

Well, other than you jerking off to being able to read another language some of us can't. If There would be a service like crunchyroll, but without region restrictions, and an actual data base of manga like mangarock had to offer, then i'd gladly pay a good 15-25 Euro a month for a subscription.

Till then, cry me a river and yarr harrr.

level 1

It looks like mrcomics is a dud from the start. If you're gonna go official, you better do it with a kick ass lineup, not this crap

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So if you still have the app you'll still be able to use it like normal amd get updates?

Does manga Rock still exist?

Why did manga Rock shutdown?

What did manga Rock change?

When did Mangarock stop?