Super Gotenks writes: February 11th, 2012

Dear MangaStream supporter,

It's with a heavy heart that I make the following announcement. MangaStream will no longer be
releasing the following series:

- Naruto
- Bleach
- One Piece
- Hunter x Hunter
- Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn!
- Claymore
- D.Gray-man

VIZ Media has demanded that we end our scanlation work for all of the above. This comes despite
our best efforts to pursuade fans into supporting official distributors by being the only group to
actively prevent an archive from forming on their website through the removal of chapters that are
older than a couple weeks. They've succeeded in little more than invoking inconvenience to the
community as their digital magazine missed the mark; it runs several issues behind and only
features 3 of the above series. So long as their product continues to be slow, awkward and inferior to
something a ragtag group of nobodies can churn out in a few hours - fans will continue to look to
scanlation groups and aggregators for their weekly fix.

The aggressive and escalating nature of their threats have forced our hand into removing the content.
MangaStream will no longer be posting full scanlations for any of the aforementioned series, we will
instead focus our efforts onto the series we do that are not licensed by VIZ Media (you can assume
everything currently on our directory will be continued).

http://mangastream.com/content/jump

________________
A just ruler amongst tyrants

I'm quite sorry to hear that, as I've been a long time reader of several of these series on MangaStream. Hopefully the VIZ sales will drop because of this.

________________
Revan, Prodigal Knight

I hate to say it, but I agree. They put out pretty poor quality releases, and are slow at doing so. The fact that a small group of users can do it incredibly faster and do it better in the process, for no profit, is crazy. Maybe they think people will flock to their releases now, but I don't foresee anybody doing that. The people that want to buy their releases are already doing so.

For every point you said, I can't agree more mmm...
The fact that not just Viz but other licenser actually sell something with worse in quality and speed than a single team can do is really a shame mmm...

________________
I will change this world mmm...
So the world can change me mmm...

They probably should have hired some of the scanlators from mangstream to help them make releases faster and cheaper than what they have been doing.

now the lesser known titles can get some more love ;_;. Other than that, if viz can somehow match japan's release speed with an ad supported manga reader for people who can't buy (WITH NO COUNTRY BLOCKING, CHRIST, THE INTERNET HAS NO BORDERS) and paid weekly downloads like their sublime titles, it'll be nice... Most people have a credit, debit card or paypal.

i fully agree, no hate involved. i've never bought anything by viz. i learned japanese for the sole purpose being that manga and anime import companies are horrible at their job, and i didn't know about scanlators back then. today, i mainly read scanlations to basically double check if i read it right. ^^;

this is a big hit to others though. it's sad to see MS stop those mainstream series due to corporate bullying... sheesh, if you want people to buy your stuff then produce material worth buying...

________________
[CENTER][/CENTER]

This really doesn't change anything. Some other group will start doing it, or people will just post their work on IRC. If they really wanted to hurt someone they should go after the manga reader sites and see what happens instead of the real fans who just want to enjoy the Jump series'.

Viz is afraid of competition, I see. Good companies use competition to improve their services instead of hiding behind laws and forcing status quo. Good companies see competition as an opportunity rather than as an obstacle.

Yes, MangaStream's activities are illegal, but forcing them to shut down isn't the only way to reclaim your market (if you can even do so in the process). A better alternative would have been for Viz to improve their operations; that has much better chances of raking the money in.

another way is also have viz team up some what with the scanalators and find a way for them to get the money they want while the people who dub the series get the manga they want faster and for free. Have viz do something with advertizement so we can still have free and then legal manga with free subbers.

I want to cry.... Mangastream already become part of my childhood...
I don't know who VIZ Media is... but hopefully other scanlator can do same wonderful job like Mangastream did

A shame to see their most popular work dropped.

But MangaStream is correct in their announcement. It's something mangaka Ken Akamatsu noted in his Twitter and interviews as well - if companies are going to consistently release delayed, expensive, and mediocre publications while fan groups surpass them in every way, this type of infringement will continue.

That can be considered as "improving their operations."

Bottomline is Viz has to realize that they're doing something wrong/they're not doing enough.

This has a really strange timing, on the moment that everything went wrong with the economy, followed by the aggressive attacks on free file hosts. And now viz blames the lower sales on mangastream, I guess. That this movement is now is rather suspicious, their releases of Bakuman vol.9 and Blue Exorcist vol 6 aren't out either. And in the bestseller list is generally filled with Kodansha licenses (in the past VIZ ruled the top sellers).
Now is the question what effect this will have on the market, are people that are furious still going to buy it (Similar things happened in the past) and people that bought it out of obligation after reading it will also being lost (I'm in this group). VIZ doesn't probably know that they have to thank a lot of the series success of mangastream (and crunchyroll), they even force people to buy it. Most scanlations groups aren't the culprit (the main culprit are those big COMMERCIAL online-readers).
At least I hope they don't go bankrupt like Tokyopop, then I will lose all trust in in the North American Manga Industry.

________________
Even after dead, we raise from the ashes for the sake of manga.

If they would releases it the same way as in South Korea (Naver, Daum.... Internet full force), then problems would be solved. But yeah, as most publishers in Japan and USA ignore, this is the 21th century, not the 20th century anymore, people won't buy everything what is thrown to their head anymore. But everyone wants a warranty that it's worth buying it. And this is the free of charge manwha on daum and naver, or the anime that is free of charge on crunchyroll/ television.

________________
Even after dead, we raise from the ashes for the sake of manga.