So Much Manga and Manwha, So Little in the Local Honya (Mangafox.com)

Member Name: shroud

Product:	Mangafox.com
Date:	02/09/09 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: chance to read original manga/manwha that otherwise would be unobtainable in English

Disadvantages: dropped projects, occasionally poor quality imaging/translation, content controls could be tighter

~~~~What's up with the title?~~~~

Manga and manwha are graphic novels usually produced in serial magazines, then collected into a tankobahn (a bound book) with each weekly or monthly set of pages forming a single chapter in the bound volume. Manga originates from Japan, while manwha is from Korea. Honya is the Japanese word for book store. I bring this up because there are ever so many monthly and weekly manga magazines that stories within them rarely see publication into a tankobahn, much less one translated into English and brought over to book shops where we can buy them at our leisure. Luckily there are scanlators at work though, to feed our hunger!


~~~~What is a scanlator?~~~

Ah...scanlators are groups of people who buy the magazines, scan them at a high resolution, clean up the images, and translate the text into another language. In this case, the site is in English, so the translations are into English. These are fan made, and only distributed until either licensed in English, or other wise asked to cease and desist. That actually happens but rarely, as publishers often view this activity as a sort of free advertising. People read many new works, often by authors not yet famous in English speaking parts of the world, and as they can keep track of number of reads and see the readers' ratings, they get a good idea on which works to promote for licensing. Licensed goods that remain onsite are usually there because the English version is heavily edited, so the publisher allows them to remain as an Uncut version (which occasionally ends up getting licensed itself)

~~~~So, what does this website have to do with all these scanlator people?~~~~

MangaFox is a site that hosts the finished files and provides a gateway for people to come read the works legitimately. The homepage promotes different manga in rotation each week, so that visitors have a chance to discover a new work that might interest them and that might have otherwise been overlooked. It also lists the top 15 read series, though this is actually a bit misleading, as the site does host mature manga, but as it is designed for all ages, leaves those out of the tabulations so as to not draw attention to them from younger audiences. The homepage also has the feature of being able to view the newest uploaded chapters, as well as the expected links for searching for a title, logging in, and so on.


~~~~Logging in? I have to JOIN?~~~~

No, you do not have to join in order to read onsite. Joining does give one some handy benefits, however. For example, members can help edit entries, so if you see that a manga is listed as complete and you know full well it is not (or the other way round), you can request a change with a simple click of the mouse. Only members can make use of the forums as well, where members can discuss various aspects of their favourite series or mangaka (writer/illustrator). Also, only by logging in can you
rate a manga you have read. The best member's only feature though, is in my opinion, also the handiest. This is the bookmark feature.

Logged in, one can click a link under the description. This link says BOOKMARK, and it does just this. Clicking that will bookmark that series' homepage for you. Likewise, if already reading the series, when you come to a stopping place, you can click a BOOKMARK link in the upper right hand corner of that page (or the next one), and it will save it to your bookmarks page. Your Bookmarks page is easily accessed from any page on MangaFox, being located in the menu section on the top right hand corner. The layout of the Bookmarks page is also very easy to navigate. Your latest bookmarks appear at the top, and your earliest at the bottom. Clicking the little x asks if you wish to delete that bookmark, so no accidents are likely to occur while pruning either. There is possibly a finite number of bookmarked pages available, but so far, I am at four pages of bookmarks and I have not found the limit yet.

~~~Ok, you said they have kid friendly and mature stuff, so what is there?~~~~

Well, nearly everything. They have manga and manwha suitable for ages 8 and up there abouts, as well as some pretty mature stuff aimed firmly at the adult market. By this I do not mean just sex, but violence, gore, you name it. You can find everything from sweet little stories about magical princesses saving the world and find their handsome prince a la Sailor Moon, to Naruto doing his Ninja thing, to darkly beautiful vampires slaughtering each other, all the way to stuff that is quite ecchi (strong sexual content). Granted the mature stuff you have to now log in for, and certify you are 18 to get a look at, but if you have kids, keep an eye on it, because we all know that kids find ways around these things!

There is little chance of stumbling on anything you might find objectionable, though, as the themes are labelled quite clearly. So you are quite unlikely to think you are going to read a nice straight on sci fi story about aliens coming to earth to destroy Tokyo only to find it is all about tentacle rape with aliens that look like they came from the Simpsons, as it will carry a clear label with warnings.


~~~~I see that the scanlators have recruitment pages on the manga they upload!~~~~

Yes, if you can do Photoshop, speak Chinese, Japanese or Korean, or have a high quality scanner, feel free to answer one of their "ads". Or start your own group. There are sites that put the raws (scanned, untranslated manga) out there for anyone to grab and have a go. MangaFox have links for you to upload the manga when done. It is a volunteer thing, so no volunteers mean no scanlations. Got it?

~~~~~Do I have to pay anything?~~~~

Ack, no. It is a free site. Taking money would be theft, as this is unlicensed so that the publisher and mangaka get only free publicity. When and if it becomes licensed, support them by buying a real copy! But if you like to read, especially if a fan of this genre, do have a good look. Used responsibly, it is an excellent way to read some great stuff for free.

Summary: A good place to get your manga fix inbetween book deliveries.