K MANGA
reviews and complaints

I was very excited when I heard that Kodansha would have their incredible lineup available through official means via a manga app. I thought that it would be subscription based just like Shonen Jump or the recently released Viz app, but I was sorely mistaken. Instead, it’s this ticket and coin system that feels incredibly outdated and costly. This model may have worked in Japan, but it feels so expensive and unnecessary. I wanted to support the company that brings me new and old works like Shaman King or Blue period, but the entire experience has left a sad taste in my mouth. And to make things worse, there are pages that are censored, so we are paying for a lesser product overall? Just why?

This app requires purchasing points, tickets, has nonsense reward system, and a sloppy casino looking layout. I appreciate having access to quick releases to manga I follow; however, I don’t like apps that hide user cost through a messy points system.

A straightforward purchase approach with tiered subscriptions that also allows for a-la-carte purchases with actual $$ is better. A simpler layout would also be a improvement rather than an overwhelming app that looks like you landed on an internet spam site.

A cross between Kindle/Comixology, Apple Books, and Crunchyroll would be far better than this; hopefully the company rethinks its approach because the app looks like an online gambling app.

The tickets/points system is absolute garbage. English readers DO NOT want the Japanese paying model. The UI is trash too, and looks about a decade outdated.

Who is going to pay $1-$2 to *renta *chapterwhen you can get unlimited access to 100+ series for $2/mo on Viz’s app? It’s literally cheaper to buy Kodansha’s digital series from Amazon or bookwalker rather than buy or rent them on this app.

And giving away free points by installing scam games and apps and buying unaffiliated services is the absolute nail in the coffin. This app is completely out of touch and reeks of boneheaded decisions by out-of-touch Japanese management which clearly has KodanshaUSA on a tight leash. Would have been better not to release this at all.

I was excited to hear that Kodancha was releasing an official manga app so that some of the series I enjoy I could read legally. Buuuuuttt the moment you open the app you can tell that it’s all about the money for them. Besides the few chapters of series you can read you then have to use a “ticket” to access a chapter for free or pay for it. And sure you can get more tickets for free but you have to watch 30 second or longer adds each time for a lottery chance to get another ticket.

I wish they’d just have the membership option like VIZ/Shonin Jump does as I’d prefer a monthly payment to get rid of the adds as to me their app is set up like one of the illegal manga reading apps you can get on here. Oh and there’s no dark mode function.

So let me save you some time. You get “free chapters” for a set amount of time (5-25ish). After that point you have to purchase “points” to read chapters. 1 point = 1 cent. Most chapters cost 69-99points (69cents-99cents). So if you wanna read say, Blue Lock, You’re gonna be coughing up $200+. The folks over at Viz/Shonen Jump have already established the subscription format and it’s working. If this had a sub, it’d be a success. But since they’ve chosen this asinine “points/ticket” mess… lemme put it this way, for $1.99 you can read 2-4 chapters on K Manga, or you can read 10,000+ chapters on Viz for an entire month. I’ll stick to buying Kodansha books physically, for a couple bucks more I don’t need to jump through hoops and I own my books forever.

Initially I was very excited for a Kodansha app, but this has completely snuffed out any positive feelings I had. No research was done about the west, most people do not enjoy in app purchases and the gatcha system, especially when it adds up to such high numbers just to read a story. Far cheaper to buy the volumes, or even cheaper just reading for free online via piracy since this app makes no attempt at making it easier and convenient to read legally. On top of all that, they’re censoring panels even though the app is rated 17+….. giving consumers a subpar experience by all accounts. They’d have been better off putting more chapters onto Azuki. Take this down and start from scratch. The competitors clearly have it figured out to some degree, not saying those apps are perfect. But they are convinient.

Having a points system to read chapters is a horrible, predatory business choice which requires users to shell out huge sums of money to read very few chapters. If you follow more than a couple series they carry (which I do) you’re looking at spending tens of dollars a month just to stay current. So you force us to spend money on points for each chapter and, based on your current prices, averages out to about a dollar a chapter?

This is especially egregious when VIZ’s model exists. A low monthly fee to access the entire library, or pay a dollar a chapter to read a chapter. FOR EVERY CHAPTER OF A SERIES. Which would you get?

I’m so disappointed especially because they carry at least 8 series I follow.

Also, the design makes it look cheap and fake, like I’ll get a virus by clicking in the wrong place.

I was cautiously looking forward to this app, but unfortunately it’s even worse than I expected. They really didn’t everything on the Japanese side without taking any input from a single international fan. This is sad because they have a US division that has been operating for years now, but it seems they didn’t even bother with consulting them. The affiliates system to earn points is scummy, and even worse than the worst gacha out there. How did they even think it was a good idea to put the mangakas’ hard work behind such horrible schemes. Subscribe to Norton to get points to read manga? Install this suspicious app and subscribe to earn points? Really? It’s very sad. Hopefully someone is reading these reviews and telling their boss this was a horrible idea and that they should go back to the drawing board. I just feel sad for those who will spend money on an app that’ll inevitably get shut down sooner than later.

You need to pay money to read recent chapters for anything. Rather than getting “starter points” or something along the lines, you’ll be “given the opportunity” to buy discounted points for seven days. Users are given a “premium ticket” upon downloading the app which gives you access to one chapter out of literal thousands that would otherwise be unavailable. But not a new chapter, only something that’s in the backlog. There is a way to receive free points, but you need to watch 30 seconds of ads in order to get the chance at 50 points. You’re more likely to end up receiving 5 points for your time. Also, a single chapter is 99 points, so you could be grinding out half an hour’s worth of ads just to read a single chapter. If you want to take screenshots to share your favorite moments with your friends, the app will ban you if you screenshot a certain amount. The Viz media apps are much more worth your time and money.

Some Japanese publishers do not understand a non-Japanese market.
Kodansha, like Square Enix, decided to implement a gamified model for consumption of manga.

Similar to Square Enix‘s, Manga UP app, the K Manga app uses a coins/points/tickets model for reading chapters.

This is not a subscription based service.

The average price for one new weekly chapter is $1, while for a monthly chapter it would be about $2 since they split one monthly chapter into two parts.

Viz Media did it right with their Shonen Jump and Viz Media apps. Subscription based models, which let you read everything on the services. All Kodansha had to do was take what Viz Media implemented, and apply it to their own IPs.

To summarize Kodansha’s approach with K Manga, this is a Japanese publishing company that wants to expand outside of Japan, but has no understanding of the market outside of Japan or is too stubborn to adapt to a non-Japanese market.

First let me say I always try to support the official release BUT… I was on this app for 10 minutes before I decided this wasn’t worth my time. Yea you do get chapter for free but you also have use a “ticket” or watch a video to read certain chapters. Newer chapters you have buy points. 148 points cost 99 cents and new chapters cost 99 points. So if you want stay up date on a several series you going to have pay up or wait a week. At this point I would just buy the volumes physical or digitally. It’s not worth it. On top of that the interface is awful. It looks like a cheap cellphone game. Everywhere you look it telling you get tickets or earn points. I’m just here to read manga. This shouldn't be this complicated. Viz got this right with the Shonen Jump app and the new Viz app. I suggest getting those apps instead or just do what we’ve been doing for over a decade when we want to stay up to date with a series. Wink wink nudge nudge “ Ahoy Me Hearties”.

So I think its amazing that theres finally a app that will allow you to read official manga on mobile devices. Unfortunately this app misses the mark. Going the point route is pretty dumb and greedy imo. If I wanted to try an new manga out you can read the available chaptets they provided for free which is cool and all but if you want to continue padt that point, have to use point (earn thru tapjoy which I assume is downloading apps, open them for a bit, and wait for point rewards to come in). A app like this would be perfect if they had a monthly and yearly subscription. That way you dont have “ earn or buy” points to own manga that you’ll probably just read once and would fade its existence away in your library… And its more suited for the times. You don’t have to get rid of the points you should also have a subscription based model as well. Have access to all the manga for a monthly fee or yearly. Cancel anytime… and lose access to stuff you would be able to read under the subscription.

The practices here are disgusting. Not only does the app require you to buy the chapters, but also has two forms of currency to buy them with: premium tickets and tokens (which cost real money). This wouldn’t be so bad if the manga wasn’t censored. On an app rated 17+. Which, again, you have to buy. Now, you CAN get the he paid currency by watching ads and, at roughly 12 chapters a volume, it IS cheaper to buy each chapter on here. But, if you bought the volume physically, it wouldn’t be censored. Now, you do have alternatives! The Viz Media app is $3 a month, no censorship (though the translation of One Piece is still kinda rough), and comes with Shounen Jump, Jump Plus, and Viz Manga (Dragonball, Naruto, Pokémon, etc.) You do have to buy some series by the volume, older series like Ranma 1/2, but occasionally they do become free (Hunter x Hunter was paid, now it’s free). The other alternative is to sail the high seas which is morally correct when companies do not respect their customers.

This app isn’t worth anyone’s time. It costs ~$1 to buy ~1 chapter of manga. When you have Viz and Shueisha who are offering their equally large selection for only $5 a month with unlimited chapters, why would you choose this app? I heavily anticipated the release of this app in the hopes that I could directly support the manga market in the west. However, they never bothered to give us any insight into the app prior to launch other than “KMamga will host licensed simulpubs for Kodansha manga”. Now that I’m met with this awful business model I’m repulsed. This is pretty disrespectful when you can simply buy the physical copies of the manga for almost the same rate as you can buy digital copies from this service. Not to mention the fact that other sites sell the digital copies at cheaper rates. If you want to purchase these manga digitally just use Amazon. I don’t expect this app to succeed one bit and I hope Kodansha can learn from it and adapt with the market instead of trying to fleece good-willed customers.

I was reading my manga online somewhere else. Heard about this app and updates will happen here going forward. Cool, come on over to learn of a point and ticket system. That’s fine, as long as everything is fairly cheap with points and tickets it shouldn’t be that bad. The newest chapter I wanted to read was 99 points and the watch a free ad doesn’t give you 50 points, it’s only a chance at 50 points. I watched 3 ads and only got 15 in total so I imagine getting 50 is pretty rare. I looked on the shop to see how much it would be and even tho it’s only a dollar for 148 points and I could read the chapter, I’d rather go look else where for it. Not gonna spend the money to read updates, if new chapters were 5 points it wouldn’t be that bad. This is also only for a manga I currently keep up with, what if I wanted to read something new? Sure they have free chapters but eventually your gonna have to spend points to read farther. Seems like a waste, I’m sure you can find it elsewhere if you look. You can also purchase the books online, purchasing digital chapters isn’t the play.

I can’t believe they’re using some kind of bizarre point system to read chapters. Maybe that works in other parts of world but this business model does not work in the west. At least if the newest chapters were free it would be ok. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t create subscription service instead of basically charging $1 for each chapter that you read. Whoever decided that this point system was ok isn’t familiar with business practices in other parts of the world. If K manga had some subscription service I was already ready to pay a monthly fee. What makes this look even worse is Viz just released a $2 a month subscription that I didn’t know was coming out the day before this mess! I signed up for Viz immediately. Even if K Manga charged $5 per month it would be acceptable since they offer a lot more new content. One possible solution for the time being is lowering their points to read a chapter from 99 points to 5 points. Having simultaneously translated work is amazing but they need to create a better way to charge for it. They can’t stop piracy if they don’t make it affordable.

For an app that is a basic ebook reader and ebook shop, the method and service the app uses is so unpleasant it makes me simply not want to read the series published. The app lets you buy a volume of manga for essentially the same price as any other digital retailer except you use points instead of money and you have to buy each chapter individually.
The points are simple enough as 99 points = 99 cents but the tickets are the real disaster. For one ticket each day you can read one chapter of a series. This is not only a nightmare for binge reading but so off putting that I’d rather either go somewhere else and read the volume of manga in its entirety or skip the series all together.
The other problem with the tickets is that only a certain number of chapters are free to read with the tickets so if you weren’t planning on buying a later volume of a series you have either wait months or a year for those chapters to enter their “free period” or go somewhere else which would not only be faster but you could read it much sooner.
The service is so needlessly strange I’d rather buy the same product from someone else instead of dealing with this nonsense.

Ignoring the actual quality of the comics, The business model is just strange. You get one free chapter per day, per comic, not including whatever chapters are free. Ok, cool. Except the most recent chapters are PAID only. And while this isn’t unheard of (I.e, webtoons fast pass system) this is limited to 3-5 chapters at most. Some of these comics are pay locked behind the last 20 chapters or more. Coming out to nearly a dollar per chapter, with very little ways to generate enough free points, unless you read absolutely INSANE amounts of manga it’s barely any cheaper than buying physical copies. Compare this to SJs 3$ a month for their entire vault? Not worth it. I’m not even saying that they shouldn’t charge more for their manga. I think the app could maybe be worth it as high as 10$ a month if it had SJs model. But paying nearly physical price for digital comics, without being able to read up to date comics for free? No thanks. I wouldn’t mind ads, paying a little bit, etc. But this is an egregious amount just for the right to simulpub.
Plus apparently they’ll even split up some chapters in to two parts so you have to pay twice as much for longer chapters? Insane.

First off the manga are all censored. I understand there’s some issues there with how Apple usually tends to be regarding adult content.

The solution there, is to do exactly what VIZ and SJ plus did where you go on the site VA your browser where you can view mature rated content.

But if that were the only issue it would be manageable. It’s not.

The biggest issue here is you have some sort of coin system, which might work for Korean porn sites, but isn’t going to work here.

Not to mention the Korean pornwha sites have better deals.

For under six dollars a month I can get VIZ and SJ plus and read thousands upon thousands of chapters. For six dollars with K-manga, I can read maybe like 4 or 5 new chapters.

Not only is this service outrageously priced and annoyingly censored, but the typesetting on some of the chapters looks absolutely terrible.

You can fix about 50% of your problems by just making this subscription-based service like it should’ve been from the get go. 25% can be fixed by just having a web browsing site or we can read things without having to view censorship. And the other 25% will understandably take time but you don’t see the same issues SJ/VIZ simulpubs quality.

You can either fix these or the rest of us will just continue to pirate and not use your service.

The choice is yours.

I was looking forward to K Manga’s release, because Kodansha has most of the titles and series that I really love, but this app really left me feeling disappointed. If it were compared to Manga Up! or Shonen Jump, it’s definitely most alike to Manga Up. It requires a constant buy-in of points and exhausting dedication to earn tickets. I thought that maybe I could get buy with just keeping up on a couple of series I cared about the most, by “earning” points to unlock the most recent premium chapters, but it’s entirely too inconvenient. The 3 chests, which is essentially a lootcrate system, netted a total of 15 points for the day. When I tried to take some surveys to earn more, I was shown webpages that stated the maximum responses were reached instead. All that’s left for me to do is to buy points, but I’m feeling too jaded to really want to do that. I wish this app were like Shonen Jump— with a simple subscription, a daily reading limit, and few ads. I don’t even like the majority of Shonen Jump’s series, but I pay the sub to read 1 weekly series and 1 monthly one while knowing I could just as easily read those same latest releases on MANGA plus for free. The only way this format works is with Tapas and Webtoons, because those platforms cater to independent artists/authors as well as Korean and Chinese webseries. Large publishers like Kodansha give a very poor impression when they make apps like that— like K Manga.

K-manga has a terrible system for anyone wanting to catch up with their favorite current titles. As opposed to Viz’s new app that allows free simulpub new chapters, and only costs $2/month for a subscription, Kodansha appears to be setting out to take every possible cent from their U.S. ONLY readers they possibly can. I don’t think the gatcha system will ever fly here in the states, and all this will do is make the issues of piracy worse.

Shame on Kodansha for making such an outmoded app.

this app is a terrible cash grab. some chapters are $1 each meanwhile other manga apps are offering monthly subscriptions of 100 chapters a day for $2 a month. absolutely insane model for a manga app. not only is it gross, but the system is also incredible confusing. there are points but also tickets? and you have to pay for both i think, but not sure due to how confusing it is. immediately uninstalled this app. save yourself the trouble and just install one of the better manga apps already available.

I really really really want to like this app. I really do and I’ve been waiting for something like this for a while. Kodansha has so many great titles but they just completely dropped the ball with this. New chapters are locked behind a point/ticket system and you have to watch adds or do sponsored quests(aka go buy products) to unlock if you don’t want to spend money. Instead of a subscription service we’re stuck buying coins in order to read chapters that are “free” on the app. Stay as far away as you can

I was hoping this would be a rival to Viz’s manga apps (Viz and Shonen Jump), but was immediately disappointed. Viz charges $1.99 a month to read all of their manga on Shonen jump and some on the Viz app. But this K Manga app uses a point system where points can be bought. Each chapter requires points to unlock and would probably be nearly as much as buying the volumes outright. I suppose it’s just a different business model they’re going for, but still, very disappointed that it’s not just a month fee like Viz.

The pricing model will only encourage more piracy. Not discourage it. It’s plain out stupid. I’d rather wait for physical volume to come out tthen end up paying more to read the chapters here. Censorship is also pretty ridiculous. Viz has done such an amazing job with Shonen jump and new Viz app and you’ve actually managed to ignore their amazing system and make the piracy issue worse. Just delete this app and maybe try again when you figure out what’s causing the issues in the industry and listen to the fan base.

This is deeply disappointing. The offerings are great, though I’ve read that they’re censored which is a confusing choice for something you’d have to pay for. Then there’s the way to pay… impenetrable points and tickets, comes out to like a dollar or more a chapter. I don’t have any interest in figuring out a system like this seemingly meant to be confusing. Flat rate subscription is about all I’m interested in. Could be tiered, or limited views per day, but I don’t want to think about anything more complicated. Big fail

I was so excited for Kodansha to finally have a way to access all their mangas but after even just a few minutes neither their system or setup seem to be nearly as nice as VIZ or Shonen Jump. It’s not as “free” as they advertise, which is fine, but instead of allowing a subscription it seems to be earn points (not practical enough to actually enjoy a series) , use tickets to read one chapter a day, or buy individual chapters. I’ll continue exploring it but so far it seems like a lower end setup that had so much potential.

Just wanted to say how stupid it was to make this a point/ticket based system. I get not matching shonen jumps similar cheap price since kodansha is offering more titles (a lot more) but you still could’ve went the monthly payment route and pricing it similar to Marvel Unlimited and DC infinite (No more than $10 IMHO).

Don’t want to see this app crash and burn but kind of do since y’all wanted to go with this predatory microtransactions like honestly how y’all going to make the tickets we purchase have a expiration date?

I was so excited when this app was announced. Setup the preorder to make sure it downloaded as soon as it released all to be extremely disappointed. Paying per chapter is ridiculous for chapters I’ve already read. The pricing structure doesn’t even seem legit. It has gacha mechanics for stuff we legitimately want to own or always have access to with a subscription. I don’t want to watch ads to get more points/tickets. Let me pay my subscription give me access to 90-100 chapters a day. That works. Also Loser Ranger isn’t even current.

I never write reviews but I was super excited about this app coming out only to be disappointed about how confusing and complicated it was .
I just want to read manga not watch a million videos to read one chapter . They got overly greedy and really ruined the app . In my opinion an monthly subscription would be the best way to do it .
If you’re gonna keep it ad-based at least let me read the whole chapter after an ad. Hope it’s not to late for them to change the system. Manga readers are eager to have an app to read Kodansha titles in but this missed the mark.

I am so disappointed in this app. I get wanting to make some money but really? The app gives you the option to “bulk buy” an entire series, and it’s just barely cheaper than purchasing the physical copies. With how many illegal websites there are, why would anyone convert to this? At least with the SJ app for a monthly fee of like $3, you get to read almost all of their titles with little drawbacks.

There is also a time limit on the stuff that you do purchase.

Maybe the shonen jump app spoiled me too much and this is the opening day for the app but no thank you.

As an avid manga reader, the ticket system where we need to PAY PER CHAPTER is bad. I’m not saying you should follow in a certain competitor’s footsteps, but their subscription model is objectively better. I understand that it’d be a pain to completely overhaul your entire service, but look at the immediate fan backlash. Not to mention the blatant and unnecessary censorship.

40 days worth of hyping up this service only for your competition to completely blow you out of the water with an announcement a day before you launch is embarrassing. Please, change for the better.

To read a (new) chapter can cost 99 points, which comes to about a dollar. The problem also is that older chapters cost points (and money) as well. Sure I’d like to support the authors but there’s no way I’m spending a dollar for every new chapter I’d like to read.

There’s a good amount of main stream manga, including some older ones which is nice. Unfortunately for me though, they only have two series I’m interested in.

The Layout of the app look outdated despite being new as well.

Was looking forward to this app when I first heard about it but it’s a huge let down.

Considering how annoying it can be to read Kodansha publications in the US, I had been long hoping for something like this. I think we all assumed it would be similar to Viz/SJ, but this point system makes me feel like I’m on a scam app. Ads are spammy. Genuinely feels like I’m playing a gotcha game, but this is actually worse considering gotcha games at least have a reasonable f2p model. I’m willing to pay a subscription like I do for Viz and SJ (more expensive if necessary), yet they went with the most bizarre point/ticket system. I’ll be back reading via other means unless they fix this nightmare platform.

You get what it says on the label: free manga chapters.
And they are free - if you don’t mind waiting 24 hours for another Ticket to read just one more chapter. Or if you don’t mind watching a ton of ads or doing affiliate nonsense to get points just to read the latter chapters of a series.
If it were subscription based like Viz’s apps, I’d have paid, no problem there, but this is just ridiculous. Convenience is the one of the biggest factors in preventing manga piracy, and someone didn’t get the memo.
Just wait this one out and buy the physicals, if you can. It’ll probably be much cheaper and quicker anyways…

Always looking for more ways to officially support the manga industry but this… this ain’t it. Basically requiring watching ads or paying per chapter instead of per volume, an abusive pricing structure for in app points. Daily login rewards to keep you coming back to be more tempted to cave and make purchases and offering free points to read chapters for specific series which is a “glowing” endorsement of the products themselves not to insult any of the manga specifically it just feels weird making people read one thing so that they can earn points to spend on something they’re actually on the app to read. Do better.

The prices are outrageous. In some cases I’ve seen, more expensive than buying a physical volume. On top of that, there is no subscription model like their biggest competitor, VIZ. The person making these decisions must be as greedy as they come or asleep at the wheel.

Edit: Oh my gosh the censorship! I can’t believe you expect people to buy a product that is so half baked. Black boxes over EVERYTHING that could be even the least bit controversial. Disrespectful to consumers and manga artist. Disgusting behavior all around. Not only will I not support this app, I will stop buying physical copies as well. Guess we’ll always have VIZ.

I don’t see the appeal of buying points per chapter when I can just buy the physical volumes, Especially for the price you’re selling these points for and how much points add up to just a single chapter, let alone an entire volume worth of points. The point of a Comic/Manga App I would think would be the CONVENIENCE and to entice readers to buy Physical Volumes or Ebooks not bleed their pockets dry and have them watching more adds than reading the actual content on your app for free coins. No one would mind paying a Subscription fee of $10 for the app. But absolutely no one is paying to obtain coins or watching dumb adds for free coins