A while back, I wrote about Futekiya, a boys’ love all-you-can-read subscription service for $6.99 a month. Well, now a sister site has made its debut, so it’s time to take a look.
According to the press release, Manga Planet launched in 2012 by Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. and FANTASISTA, INC. FANTASISTA is the same company behind Futekiya. While Futekiya is dedicated to yaoi and shounen-ai manga, Manga Planet’s Library is geared toward a general audience. But otherwise, the two cost the same per month and have the same site setup and manga reader.
At or shortly after launch, Manga Planet included previously released titles like After School! and The Golden Age of Decadence. Throughout November, new manga started being added:
Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft and Satoshi Ogawa
Gaira by Syufo Itahashi
Hana Gurui by Fumi Shimomura
Hoshi Demitasse by Yusu Matsumoto
Inugami Kai by Masaya Hokazono
My Favorite Carrera by Kia Asamiya
Toward the Terra by Keiko Takemiya
More manga are planned for the service. As Manga Planet explains:
“Manga Planet is also working with publishers BUNKASHA PUBLISHING Co., Ltd., KAIOHSHA PUBLISHING Co., Ltd., WANI BOOKS CO., LTD., TOKUMA SHOTEN PUBLISHING Co., Ltd., SHODENSHA Publishing Co., Ltd., Home-sha, Starts Publishing Corporation, K.K. HarperCollins Japan, MUGENUP Inc., and artists such as Masaya Hokazono. More information on licensed titles from these publishers and artists will be released on mangaplanet.com.”
You can browse the schedule and see what new manga is coming out each day. Almost every day has at least one chapter being released with listings all the way through July.
…Which brings us to the same complaint I had when Futekiya launched: there’s not enough content. The Golden Age of Decadence is only two volumes long, so it’s not something people are going to follow for very long. It and the current two volumes of After School! are also available on Kindle Unlimited to read for free. At $9.99 a month (less when they have a sale, which often happens around the holiday time or during events like Prime Day), even if you subscribe for a single month, you can read both of these series in full plus a whole lot more rather than waiting a couple of months for them to finish on Manga Planet. Of course, they could pull these titles any time, so make sure to check beforehand. Another option: you can own them for about $3.50 a volume, so you can get both volumes in the series for about the price of one months on Manga Planet. Sure, you don’t get to read all the other chapters that are releasing daily, but you also own them forever in case you want to reread them.
Of course, Manga Planet already has plans to work with additional publishers, and more titles besides the initial 10 or so will be added. Futekiya has been around for about five months now, and they’re up to about 50 manga. Still, a lot of those are a single chapter or one-volume, so you could still easily marathon most of Futekiya’s library in a month or two. Obviously, both Manga Planet and Futekiya’s monthly service costs about the same or less than one volume of a digital manga from most of the major manga publishers.
One of the disadvantages of Manga Planet though is the current lineup. While they already have a list of publishers they plan on working with, right now, it’s all shounen and seinen titles. Manga from those demographics are quite popular and tend to have a wide audience in age and gender. But, compared to Futekiya, BL fans are known to be quite passionate and dedicated, and they may have or will subscribe just to support the market. But I don’t know if fans of shounen and seinen have that same fervor since they have more options, including the dirt cheap Shonen Jump subscription service at just $1.99 a month. There, you get simulpubs as well as a large back catalog. I’m not saying the offerings there are necessarily better, but for about one-fourth the price and 10,000 chapters, it’s easy to get your money’s worth. Although Manga Planet is going to work with more publishers and creators like K.K. HarperCollins Japan, which has shoujo manga available in English through MediaDo, who knows if it will be just a couple of weeks or a couple of months before they’re added to the service.
But while their current titles were all serialized in magazines targeting young men, it’s nice that Manga Planet already has a bit of variety in regards to the titles themselves. Toward the Terra is from the 70s/80s, and it’s been out-of-print for years after being released by Vertical, Inc. under the name To Terra…Lovecraftian horror has a lot of fans and has seen a boom in recent years, and lots of people are car lovers. So their initial listings aren’t full of plucky young lads going on an adventure, isekai journeys, or romcom harem antics. Nothing wrong with those, but different options are nice.
For me, though, just like Futekiya, I just don’t see enough to get me to subscribe. It might have been nice if both Manga Planet and Futekiya were one service or at least offered a discount if you sign up for both, like maybe $10 to $11 for both. BL and shounen/seinen aren’t naturally complementing genres, but at least it would feel like you’re getting more bang for your buck even if you don’t read everything. Manga Planet has a lot of partners lined up, and hopefully they can quickly line their virtual shelves with titles to get people to jump on board.