This week we have another poll by Viki.kdrama. What type of thing do you mostly read nowadays?

You can submit poll ideas here: https://www.mangaupdates.com/topic/kilkdnn/site-manga-poll-suggestions

Previous Poll Results:

Question: Do you go back and read the extras and side stories that are released after you've already finish the main series?

Choices:

• Always - votes: 431 (23.4%)
• Usually - votes: 584 (31.7%)
• Sometimes - votes: 690 (37.4%)
• Never - votes: 140 (7.6%)

There were 1845 total votes. The poll ended: July 19, 2025

As long as you realize they even exist...

A just ruler amongst tyrants

I don't know... Mostly switched to Korean mahwas lately, as those are easier to find official translations of...

I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. © Trimutius

Over the past decade or so it became harder and harder for me to find new Manga's I was interested in. Seemed like so much of the new content that was being put out there were just harem-isekai's. I was initially interested in some of the "earlier" series such as Shield Hero, Gate, Kumo, and re:monster, to name a few, but lost interest in most - some way faster than others...

Right as that happened more and more Manhwa's started getting translated, so I slowly transitioned into that space. I'm not exactly in love with most of what I'm reading now on the Manhwa front as most of those series are cookie-cutter stories leaning on very similar tropes and often leading to very unsatisfying endings.

Yet the mainstream generic Manhwa series still seem to appeal to me more than most of the generic mainstream Manga's even though the isekai trend seems to be winding down. Most of the manga's I'm still reading are monthly and have very erratic release schedules. The one or two series I look forward to every week are now Manhwas.

I used to love having weekly/monthly series I was excited for, but it's gotten harder and harder for me to find quality content that I can consume with any kind of regular cadence.

Meanwhile the Manhwa scanlation scene is just a complete mess - I know plenty of the manga speed scanning groups of yesteryear weren't exactly beloved by the community, but I at the very least never felt like their content was straight up awful and wrong, and found they mostly stuck to decent series and never tried to translate literally everything they could get their hands on. Now I can't find a single Manhwa scanlator that isn't an aggregator trying to translate virtually anything they can find, usually to poor results, while simultaneously complaining about not being able to make a career out of their illegal translations and asking for money/paywalling their scans. By todays standards Narutofan wouldn't have been a scandal but an above average service...

Could you add such release filters? It's _manga_updates. I don't want to see manhua, manhwa, indonesian, oel and such.

As for the title, I read more manga than anything mmm... But I probably spend more time reading LN/WN lately mmm...

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

Mostly Manga and LNs. I still see no reason to try other country of origin stuff.

I have moments when I read mostly manhwa or LN/WN(Korean or Chinese, rarely Japanese), but I think I still read more manga than anything else in general.

I read a mix of manga, manhua, and manhwa, as well as oel comics, but I definitely read far more manhwa than anything else.

I used to read more manga, but over the years I've read less and less manga for a couple of reasons. The first reason is it's just less available/frequent, I don't want to wait months between chapters only for those chapters to often be broken up into 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, etc. I have other things I'm reading and I have a terrible memory, so if it takes you a year and a half to release one chapter, I've had to go back and reread the story every time you've tossed me a sliver. At that point I'd rather wait to get the whole chapter so I'm only rereading once.

Manhwa on the other hand tends to have much more frequent and consistent releases, and it's usually easier to find out when it's on hiatus at least even if I don't know when it's coming back, and while fan translations can still sometimes be inconsistent with release schedules, over the years official translations have become much more common and accessible to read online, and with lots of them having wait until free options or watching ads or doing reading events to get coins/points/ink/whatever currency, it's much more affordable than buying volumes of manga. As a teen I wasted so much money on physical volumes of manga, and I just don't have that kind of budget anymore.

Even more than that though, while I don't exclusively read it and do still read other genres, the vast majority of what I read is rofan, and honestly I'm so tired of the same copy paste rofan manga heroines, they have no personality. I'm not saying all mangas are like this, and you can definitely find manhwas like it too, but soooooo many manga FLs are just endlessly kind and hard working, they could never hold a grudge no matter how badly they're treated, they never get angry on their own behalf, only on the behalves of others, and they're always so innocent and humble and don't have a selfish or ambitious bone in their bodies.

I want characters who are flawed and selfish, who realize their own self-worth and are willing to fight for what they deserve, who struggle with overcoming their flaws and who don't easily forgive those who've wronged them, I want a relatable messed up human being as a main character, not some boring saint whose only flaws are working too hard and being too kind and humble, and there are just way more FLs like that in rofan manhwa than there are in rofan manga.

Specific: Long-stripe full color Manhwa

Please do NOT limit yourself to Japanese Manga only!

I have found good and trash in Manga, Korean Manwha, and Chinese Manhua

And when Thai, Malay, Philippine, Vietnamese, and other East Asian and Pacific works start to become visible, then popular, I will like to find them here too!

I, as an English reader, like reading familiar and unfamiliar stories, characters, genres, and tropes from Non-Western sources.

Professionally translated, passionate fans, mercenary aggregators, MTL.

As long as it is not OEL - Original English Language - I’m happy.

Not even from the most devout and reverent “weeb” who thinks they can create something that feels true to the original style.

Those who are dual-world, I would have to think about. But the worldview , for me, would have to be predominantly Non-Western.

I can’t quite describe it, but there is a certain … quality? voice? attitude? that can show “Western-y”

And the works …

I’m sorry, but your culture and worldview are leaking through.

The culture and worldview, mindset, thought process, authorial and artistic style of these translated works are “fresh” and enjoyable to me.

Whatever you do, do not make this a repository for OEL works. That’s what WattPad, Webnovel, Webtoon, AO3, Amazon self-publishing, et.al are for.

And

I started with Manga and Anime, and when the internet became faster and available more worldwide, I seem to be reading more Manhwa, with Manhua picking up steam.

I watched Shounen Anime, desparate for Shoujo, Josei, and Seinen content to be animated.

But some certain “art” styles became tiresome to ignore.

Now I’m glad to see Donghua and Hanguk Aeni!

The art styles of China and Korea are beautiful in and of themselves, all things being animated, and influenced from Around The World, not just Japan.

Just as Western animation developed from the multiple cultures it has, and then encountered globally.

So, AF ,RF ,BG ,BL, GL ,NP ,R-NP, No-Ship, Drama, Slice of Life, Comedy, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Gore, Suspense, Erotica, Fantasy, Historical, Modern, Interstellar, Isekai, Regression, Rebirth, Reincarnation, Transported, Coming of Age, Coming Out, and, and, and (shhhh p*rn)

It’s ALL works I want to read!

Don’t hide them from me!

Let them ALL influence me, and each other!

And the one who wants only “Manga” of a certain island nation and language is acting as a me-first gatekeeper keeping a world that was discovered by them “pure” and unadulterated.

News flash, it isn’t now, and never was.

If other Languages offend them, let Baka MU add an Original Language Filter so it does not sully their eyes.

In the Western world now and perhaps world wide, these terms have broadened and become interchangeable, purists bemoaning this sound like language “Academies” fighting a an evolving and losing battle against inevitably of any language’s development for millennia.

If you want your language and meanings to stay pure, don’t watch anything, don’t read anything, don’t travel, don’t welcome visitors or immigrants or conduct business.

Stay in your hamlet? But your neighbors can influence you? Stay in your house! But your family can influence you? Stay in your room! Only then can you be pure.

So today -cave drawings, sketches, drawings, paintings, illustrations, satires, funny papers, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels are also manga, manhwa, manhua, webcomics, webtoons, vertical comics, some of the terms I’ve used interchangeably to greater or lesser degree for works, regardless of origin (except in historical or scholarly references)

And I’m not conducting research!

Don’t be a pendant.

Otherwise - Anime?

Shall the West take back the word for animation and make everyone not Western coin a word solely within their language. (cough … donghua)

Animation - moving drawn pictures

Animated - having been depicted in a moving drawing

But also

Animated - acting in lively or energetic manner, moving about, spirited

And from the Latin

Anima - soul, spirit, vital principle

I don’t think Caesar Augustus will be sending Roman Legions to the East to remove the word anytime soon.

Drawings moving, as if alive

Anime

It’s not a genre,

It’s A Medium!

And it’s already spread, a genie out of the bottle, Pandora’s box, and it can’t be re-contained.

Manga is approaching that now.

BTW - Comic, Manga; they pretty much right now delinate West and East, sensibilities , styles, languages , or origins.

To most non-readers of our devoted tomes, it’s all ,manga to them.

It’s just that manga and anime are what we first encountered on this side of the world.

But it wasn’t the only thing, and now, it’s all one big glorious deluge.!

Don’t fight it!

And yes, I’m a hypocrite in saying that I don’t want to see OEL Western works here.

But this WAS originally a site by fan translators, for fan translators, of those Japanese Manga.

It became a recruitment, meeting place, and finally a publicly viewable repository or database of all the works of these ardent translators, Doing It For Love And For Free!

And because capitalism will find new unexploited niches to mine, the Failure of Japanese Publishers to release, translate, and License their works overseas in the beginning, is starting to reverse.

It has now become a source of new and historical references, to out-of-print, unlicensed ( see doujinshi) and newly released works in Japan, Korea, and now China, with other countries waiting to be discovered.

And a warning to fan-sites and aggregators to be careful with certain publishers, or when works get licensed in English.

And a source to readers to like me , to read the newest issue as soon as possible, and then, If and When published in English, to support the authors/artists.

Just remember, this is the dawn of AI Just look at MTL It won’t always stay that bad!

This is a fantastic time, but just like horse drawn carriages and carts, it will become eventually a devotion by passionate translators, editors, proof readers, talented in their own right as much as authors and artists.

There will be a time, maybe sooner than we’d like, when the written, drawn, animated, acted works will be created in one place/language, and then immediately available worldwide to ANY OTHER LANGUAGE translated, annotated, subtitled, dubbed, captioned, narrated, available to EVERYONE!

And we can then see, appreciate, denigrate, mimic, mock, and finally learn and understand cultures new to us as well as we do or own works in our own languages.

And currently? I like what I’m reading , seeing, and watching now from CKJ, and don’t need to sift through the OEL/West stuff here. I’ve done that elsewhere for decades.

Cherish this now!

Cheers!

"No matter where you go, there you are."
Buckaroo Banzai

No I'll be sticking to just manga. Nothing else feels good.

I'm not sure I can validly pick any of the options, since — aside from nonfiction and Literature (printed novels and such) — for several years now, it's been about a third manga, a third manhwa (mostly webtoons or similar), and a third web/light novels (Korean and Japanese). I've also read some Thai works here and there. And some Xia Da: aside from her, I've found Chinese works to mostly be either lower quality, disgustingly-over-the-top-revenge stories (usually they're examples of "there's no kill like overkill" or people who never actually did anything themselves also get killed for being related — historically that was reserved for the Chinese equivalent to high treason — or villainy is ascribed through determinism), or Xianxia (which is cool and all, but not my thing in the slightest).

To be fair, I often go on brief kicks of manga, manhwa, or WNs/LNs. That said, they don't usually last more than a week. And I end up more-or-less alternating.

So basically, I'm not-manhua. Would that qualify as "other"?

There is one already. If you click advanced search, and scroll down, you will find an option for only Manga.