Manga Box (マンガボックス) is a manga magazine mobile app developed by DeNA. It was launched on December 4, 2013 as free app for iOS and Android devices and as a website platform. The app hosts manga by Kodansha, Shogakukan, and other manga publishers. Mangaka Shin Kibayashi serves as editor-in-chief of the app and pens several of the app's titles under his numerous pseudonyms. In addition to the original manga series run on Manga Box, several of the titles on the app are based on existing works, including Ghost in the Shell, Kindaichi Case Files, Attack on Titan, The Knight in the Area, Space Dandy, Fatal Frame, and Ultraman.
Contents
Features
The app is available in Japanese, English, and Chinese in 140 countries and regions around the world. Issues are posted on a weekly basis with the twelve most recent issues being accessible to users for free. Additionally, users can read the first 100 pages of a title in the Digest section of the app. Most titles are serialized weekly, on any given day of the week, though some appear bi-monthly or irregularly. The app displays a schedule of series per issue and what day the next chapters will be released. Users can read chapters before their scheduled release by sharing messages to Facebook or Twitter. Users can also choose series to subscribe to and receive notifications for when a new chapter of the series is released.. There is no uniform standard number of pages per chapter either, with individual series having their own standard ranging from 10 pages to 20+. The app also uses censor bars for excessive gore and nudity. The website platform is more limited than the app counterpart; only a series' latest chapter or 'Digest' can be read.
In the Japanese version of the app, users are able to purchase digital tankōbon of the series through an in-app store. A feature that hosts amateur manga called Indies (インディーズ) allows users to view and favourite submissions, and displays the view count and number of favourites per series. The Japanese Twitter account of Manga Box posts a tweet for the release of every new chapter of a series.
Legacy
Titles such as Kindaichi Case Files: Takato's Side and Love and Lies (Koi to Uso) have achieved mainstream success and have ranked on weekly highest-selling manga charts. The series Fat Chaser (Debusen) and A World Without Boundaries have transferred to physical magazines such as Weekly Young Magazine and Shōnen Ace, respectively. Additionally, Fat Chaser (Debusen) will be adapted to a live-action drama. Spoof on Titan and I Am Space Dandy have been licensed in English by Kodansha Comics USA.
In the first year of the app, most series that debuted on the platform were translated to English. Early into its second year, English support for new series ceased and English translation for over a dozen series that were still in serialization abruptly stopped without notice.
List of Series run in Manga Box
The list is organized by 8 columns. The first is a numbering that sorts series first by issue, then alphabetically by romanized title if they share the same issue.
Series Title - The English title of the series, either used officially by Manga Box or unofficially by ANN or elsewhere, is shown first, then the Japanese title (if different from the English title) and then the romanized Japanese title (if appropriate). If there is no English title, the romanized title is then used.
Mangaka/Artist and Author - If the series is authored and drawn by one person (or group), they will be listed in the Mangaka/Artist column (as the mangaka). If the series is a collaboration between an artist and author, the artist is shown in the third column and then the author in the fourth.
First and Last Issue - The first issue a series appeared on in Manga Box as well as the final issue. Displayed as formatted on the Kodansha Comic Plus website.
English - Answers whether or not a series was translated into English by Manga Box. This does not include other translators or publishers.
Translation Status - Tells the English translation status of a series. Complete (in green) if a series was fully translated, Ongoing (in green) if a currently serialized series is actively translated, Stopped (in red) if the series was only partly translated, and N/A (in yellow) which is not applicable as the series was never translated in the first place. Translation Status does not included extra chapters found in tankōbon and only covers chapters serialized in Manga Box.