yes, if they are better than scanlators. payment would depend on the service: image size / quality, quality of translation, speed of release, browsing comfort, download options, do i pay per page / per chapter / per volume / flat rate and of course, the manga they translate

If there is a site like this I will pay:
1.Pay a certain fee to read, and a higher fee to download raws uploaded by the publishers themselves.
The raws must be up-to-date or a little bit slower--->This choice is for scanlators and people with good Japanese.
2.The site must be a home for scanlators, where they can upload their works(in any language other than Japanese). At a higher price than above, we normal readers can access to these scans;with some additional fee, we can download them.The scanlators are payed monthly for their contribution----> Legalized scanlating, benefit normal readers.
3.The fee must not excess 35$/month. This is my limit.

Last edited by MewMan at 6:33 am, Jul 23 2010

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I would pay as much as 15 a month, but this website would need to work with scanlators, unlike Crunchyroll which does not work with fansubbers. It would also need a library like Toshokan had, with both mainstreams and unknowns on it. In other words, a wide selection of uncensored content. The only thing that could come from publishers are the raws so the fans can translate them and put them up.

That said, I don't see this ever happening. They will never get everyone to agree and secure the appropriate licenses, so selection will be limited. Further there will be issues with censorship, and with the posting of mature content altogether. I can see that these publishers would rather spend their efforts on forming coalitions against so called piracy instead of actually doing something meaningful. I for one have been turned off by this move, and will not buy anything from these publishers unless they were to redeem themselves. At this point it will take a whole lot of redeeming to get rid of the distaste I feel against them.

However, I have seen such attempts from publishers before, especially with textbooks. They sell the digital version for as much as the paper version, or just a little less ($5 to $10 less) and they make you download and install special software that restricts the way you can view the content, i.e. for a limited time period only, or only through this software instead of a convenient PDF. All of the time, without fail buying a paper version from EBay or Amazon is cheaper than their digital version, sometimes by $30-60 for a 100 dollar textbook. That is just unacceptable, I will not pay the same price for a digital version with all kinds of restrictions on it. There is no reason for this other than pure greed.

If they were to make a digital distribution site for manga, I can very much see them going with this same model.

making a legal site for scanlators basically means that they will have to provide us with the RAWs; a thing that won't happen.

The way we're getting raws now it's illegal. You can't take an illegal thing and make it legal by asking money for it.

That will be impossible to do. The reason being is that all manga is owned and licensed by many japanese and many american publishers, not just one. I am willing to pay up to $30 a months as TOTAL for ALL of my manga needs, not $10 to read shounen jump manga at one site and $10 to read other manga and $10 to reach other manga and so on and have no access to archive of previous issues.
The best example of how it should be done is Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, which offers a reasonal subscription of $9.99 per month and unlimited access to over 5000 comics. In order to placate comic shop owners, new issues are not digitally released till 3mths after initial paper release, however, all old comics are there and archive keeps getting bigger plus in terms of promotion, Marvel has several digital-only comics not available on paper for months if ever. Also you cannot download any comics.
Even that venture is barely breaking even for Marvel and it can only afford it because its so big and profitable right now due to its movies and does it in order to combat internet piracy. (it is also plagued by bugs in its comic reader)

this will be impossible to do for japanese manga simply because none of them owns enough manga archive to make it worthwhile for its subscribers. Furthermore, delay in digital form for few months after initial paper release will only work if the original release date is for japanese version, if fans have to wait months if not years for the comics to be released in US in paper form PLUS additional time for digital release, it will not work out at all.

Frankly speaking, I don't see this happening, unless its done by japanese publishers themselves and they proven to be notoriously technology averse.

Sorry but no, i have enough internet subscriptions expenses as it is.(Megaupload/rapidshare/an mma website/last.fm,etc)

I think $5~ a month seems reasonable, if all legal issues were settled. And I wouldn't mind it if we got a new chapter a day after we usually get it, since it might take some time to process and such. Also, it must have an extensive manga database, not just the most popular shonen/shoujo.

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The World God Only Knows -Favorite manga of all time

This is the deciding factor for me. In Japan, I know that they play anime on TV, which is basically free (ie. you don't need to pay extra to watch it). For that reason, I never had qualms dl'ing anime because I feel I should also be able to view it for free around the same time they view it, as opposed to hoping adult swim picks it up 2 years later, or having to wait for the DVDs to be released (around 2 years later as well, if ever).

I don't know how manga works. From what I pick up, people in Japan read manga from weekly or monthly publications like Jump, or by waiting for Tankoubon versions to come out. They pay for that. Unfortunately, the Tankoubon versions in the US are really behind, and the US version of things like Shounen Jump are a joke (also really far behind). If they can make it almost as instant and accessible as it is in Japan (both the weekly and monthly publications as well as the Tankouban versions), then I wouldn't mind paying since people in Japan do as well. I just don't see that happening.

the thing is, like me, the online manga community consists of many teenagers and even younger who wouldn't have the ability to pay for it and most likely wouldn't ask parents to pay for their children to 'read comic books online'.... so yeah. if i wanted to buy a manga that i really wanted, i would buy it or read it in the book store if it was liscensed.

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I'd pay $5 a month subscription fee; $10-15 if it is REALLY good and has everything I want, with minimal ads. I want releases to be prompt, a few days after the Japanese chapter at most. I want them to be high quality translations, no engrish. And I want a wide selection. If it doesn't have everything I need, it's easier to just download the scanlations. If they can make a huge publisher alliance to attack scanlation sites, they should make a huge publisher alliance to host a legal alternative. If they don't, then why should we care about what they think anymore? If they're just going to paint us as villains no matter what and not even attempt to give us a legal alternative, then I say let's become the villains.

Exactly. I certainly couldn't pay, even if I wanted to. Even now, my parents think it's a waste of money to buy manga, let alone pay to "read comic books online," like PeachMangoTea said.

But if the worst comes, I would rather learn IRC and download manga the old-fashioned way, rather than pay for an online legal site--not because it's free, but because I can't pay.

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I would pay, but it doesn't need to be a scanlation site, if the japanese publishers putted all their stuff online for about 3/4 of their original price, I would buy it.

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I'd much prefer a yearly subscription personally. Up to$50 maybe, depending on access, content, ect.

Yes, between 19.99 to 10.00 at max

Isn't there a website already like that?
Anyone know the name?

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“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
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Shonen Jump Monthly here in the US is a joke. I remember when the anime airing in Cartoon Network actually passed the manga. I was like "Why do I even buy this?"



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Pokémon - Favorite anime and game series of all time!


The World God Only Knows -Favorite manga of all time