While anime streaming is mostly limited to a few sites, now, there are plenty of different manga reading platforms. Some, like Renta!, require payment to read more than a brief sample. Others, including Comikey, offers a good amount of free reading. Some services have an all-you-can-read option which can include all or part of their entire catalog, like Azuki.
All of these options have their upsides and downsides — and some teeter toward one more than the other — but VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump subscription has been one of the best values. For $1.99 a month, a fan could read up to 100 chapters a day, and the service includes simulpubs as well as an extensive back catalog that includes some major hits. Of course, as it name suggests, the service is limited to those associated with that label; titles from Shojo Beat, for example, are mostly MIA, making this not an ideal option for fans of fluff or high school romantic dramas. However, at a price cheaper than a cup of coffee at most places, that limitation is understandable.
However, that is about to change.
Starting in January, Shonen Jump’s subscription will be $2.99 a month. The exact date has not yet been confirmed, and the website (as of this writing) still advertises the $1.99 price.
Some will look at this and note it’s only $1 more, while others will see it as a 50% increase. Still, this is below the cost for competing services, and even just to borrow two or three chapters at some places will cost about as much as Shonen Jump’s digital vault. Also, unlike some other services, manga fans don’t need a subscription if they just want to follow new series; most have the first three and last three free.
But while the $1 extra per month may not necessarily be newsworthy during a time when one of the biggest headlines is inflation, this is being accompanied by another change: no more website subscriptions. In other words, manga fans must have a mobile device running iOS or Android to sign up.
For most people, this isn’t an issue. If you are old enough to be able to pay for Shonen Jump’s digital vault, you almost certainly have a cell phone or tablet, maybe even both. And most people are probably going to read manga chapters on one of those devices versus a bulkier laptop or desktop. But I can see how it might be more convenient for people to sign up with a credit card or PayPal online versus a mobile wallet. I would also expect a service to prefer website sign ups, as Apple and Google take as much as 30% commission of in-app sales.
Meanwhile, on websites, the fee can be around 3 to 4 percent plus perhaps a transaction fee. And even if using a third party processor on iTunes/Google Play purchases, the tech giants are only reducing their take by 3 or 4 percent. Yes, not so coincidentally, the same amount as credit cards charge.
You can buy digital manga at VIZ’s website, so it’s not like they don’t have the ability to take payments. And, of course, you can sign up for a VIZ account.
So it is a little bizarre they would disable subscriptions on the website and make them app-only.
Either way, whether the $1 is going more toward Apple and Google to cover the Shonen Jump cost or because of inflation, who knows. But at about $3 a month, it’s still a great deal, and it’s not a significant enough change to cause most readers to reconsider.