Are you a fan of CGDCT (cute girls doing cute things)? Well, be a MRRFF (manga reader reading for free) with a new online app!
On September 28th, app developer WFS announced they had worked with manga publisher Houbunsha to release Manga Time KIRARA Comics, available in 240 countries. Based upon the magazine of the same name, readers can browse a selection of 4-koma comics via Facebook Instant Games:
Izumo Ito’s The Demon Girl Next Door
Ume Aoki’s Hidamari Sketch
Koi’s Is the order a rabbit?
Yui Hara’s Kin-iro Mosaic
Kakifly’s K-ON!
Harikamo’s Urara Meirocho
More manga is already scheduled to be added:
bb Kuroda’s A Channel
Miyuki Nakayama’s Blend S
Satoko Kiyuzuki’s GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class
Makoto Kawai’s Gourmet Girl Graffiti
Shotaro Tokuno’s NEW GAME!
Komata Mikami’s Yuyushiki
So, of course, I had to check it out by going to Facebook and hitting “Play Game”. Which, of course, sounds bizarre when your primary purpose is to read.
I used a laptop to first access Manga Time KIRARA Comics, and it feels like it’s an app made for your phone. I imagine it was easier to make this for Facebook than going the traditional Android/iOS route. The press release says it’s the “first to provide four-panel manga on Facebook Instant Games”, but I can’t imagine there was much of a race for that title. Anyway, I could open the “game” on my phone with Google Chrome, but Firefox Mobile would give me a broken link message.
After loading, there’s a rotating carousel of manga, then a “Recommend” section with titles, a “Characters” section with one girl from each manga, and finally a game. With only six manga, most of the sections feel redundant. You can see them all at a quick glance. Even with the second batch of manga waiting in the wings, the “Recommend” and “Characters” section could probably be just replaced with all the manga to browse.
Again, another instance of the app being geared to phones: on my computer, I couldn’t scroll horizontally. I could click on The Demon Girl Next Door and Hidamari Sketch, but if A Channel or any other title was available right now, I would either have to have a link in the carousel or a character image in order to view them. I tried on both Firefox and Chrome and no good.
While Manga Time KIRARA Comics is classified as a game, as I said, there is an actual game. It’s a really pointless diversion where your Facebook profile picture tries to collect stars that are located between pillars. Go to high, too low, or hit a pillar and it’s game over. You have to keep tapping to go higher, but if you don’t tap fast enough, you’ll drop like a log. Again, the game is geared toward phones and tablets and is absolutely miserable on a computer.
The only two menu items are a home button and a language button which allows you change between Japanese and English. It defaulted to English for me, so I don’t know if maybe it detected my settings or something. The Manga Time KIRARA Comics Facebook page posts in Japanese. I don’t know if they plan on posting in English, but you’d think they would since they have English manga.
Anyway, for the series already posted, they each have about 90 episodes which make up about half of their respective first volumes. Color pages and comics seem to be skipped, at least for K-On and Kiniro Mosaic. Excuse me, Kin-iro Mosaic — because you see, this is not Yen Press’ translation. Manga Time KIRARA Comics uses Comic Sans for lettering, and they don’t use honorifics — that may be disappointing for some. Most of Manga Time KIRARA Comics’ offerings are not available elsewhere though, so there won’t be a lot of debating over which is better for most manga here.
Yen Press 
Manga Time KIRARA Comics 
Yen Press 
Manga Time KIRARA Comics
Once again, I have to say viewing the manga is better on my phone. You can see about two panels at a time, but you can do normal scrolling on a phone. On a computer, you must use the scroll bar, no keys. There’s also a difference in the way it renders. On my laptop, you can see weird fake scroll bars.
Laptop 
Phone
The app keeps track of which mini-chapters you’ve read by marking them with a check. If you do leave a manga and go back to it later, there’s a button you can click to jump down to where the next episode is instead of having to scroll. Otherwise, once you get to the end, you can choose to go to the next part or go back to the list of episodes.
One downside though is that with only four panels, it means that there’s a lot of clicking. There’s no auto-load option, so on episodes with little dialogue, it may be annoying. But that’s nothing compared to this lovely beauty:
I keep my browser normally at 110% zoom, and I had to take it up to at least 200% in order to view it without squinting. There was this same issue on every new chapter (not episode) of Urara Meirocho and some additional ones. Sure, that’s only a fraction of the 89 episodes available, but Manga Time KIRARA Comics needs to account for these sort of arrangements.
As for the manga themselves, English fans will recognize most of them because of their associated anime adaptations. The original Manga Time Kirara and its spin-offs focus on 4-koma, so it’s no surprise that this app is dedicated to them. These seinen series star female-dominated casts, and some have a girls’ love vibe to them. Either way, it’s a lot of CGDCT manga. It’s good because there’s not a lot of competition out there on platforms like this. 4-koma also can face challenges in the open manga market versus standard works, but the panel format works for a mobile device-heavy world. Webtoons have risen rapidly in popularity thanks in part to this.
However, here, there’s a lack of variety, so if you don’t want to see a group of girls at school, at work, or just hanging around town, there’s nothing else to lure you to Manga Time KIRARA Comics. The game is sure as heck not.
Anyway, the original press release is somewhat vague about the service going forward. There’s a footnote that says, “The manga titles are partially available on the app”, but does that mean now? Forever? If more episodes are added, how often? Daily, weekly, monthly? One or two strips at a time? A half volume at once?
Maybe it depends on Manga Time KIRARA Comics’ popularity. But even if more episodes are added, will they cost anything? The “game” is listed as free, but the vast majority of games and apps are; it’s the in-game add-ons that cost money. Perhaps fans will have to play the profile pic game to rack up stars to redeem on future chapters? If not, I hope I didn’t give them any ideas because I hate that game!
So right now, while there are a few wrinkles involving the desktop version and page viewing, it’s less a matter of whether Manga Time KIRARA Comics is good or bad and more about long-term longevity. The Facebook Games format is not ideal for reading, especially since you can’t use it as a guest, but it obviously requires less upkeep than a traditional app. Hopefully that means that Houbunsha and WFS can instead put that time and effort into posting new strips on a regular basis. Manga Time KIRARA Comics is not an amazing service, but many developers have thrived on simple games, so a simple manga service could do well. With cute girls going to school, rocking out, and spending their days together, it’s not hard to get addicted, just like Candy Crush.