Since I bought my iPad 2 and found the Viz Manga app, I have become an avid user and fan of purchasing and reading manga digitally. Now there are a good amount of official methods to acquire manga digitally in a legal manner. Joining Viz in the mobile app world are Yen Press, Kodansha Comics, Dark Horse, and Comixology. JManga.com has also provided digital manga, but currently only through their website at this time. Over the next week or two, I am going to be writing an article on each service and give my thoughts on the manga provided, the ease of use, quality of the manga provided, pricing, and more.I also hope these articles help people who complain about the lack of legal means to read digital manga to stop pirating and start supporting the US companies.

I will begin with my favorite of the services, which is Viz Media, who I believe have set the precedent for how manga should be delivered digitally. They started with an iPad app, and eventually branched out to phones and a website, which is all tied to one account for the user. This guarantees you can download or read the manga you purchased pretty much anywhere. I found that this one account idea to work extremely well. While I prefer to read my manga on my iPad, I have had instances where I only had my phone and decided to download a volume to it, and it downloaded with ease. Downloading speeds are also very reasonable and you should have a single volume downloading within minutes. As for the website, you read the manga via their reader built in to the website.

They launched with a diverse catalog of products featuring plenty of Shonen, Shoujo, and other genres. They feature very popular Shonen titles such as Naruto, One Piece, Bakuman, and Bleach. They also have Shoujo titles like Arata, Story of Sainkoku, and Fushigi Yugi. Finally they carry titles from other genres like Saturn Apartments, Evangelion, and a couple others. My only complaint so far is that they lack many older titles from their catalog. This may be due to licensing limitations, but something they should probably work on getting released in the future. It can only benefit them in the long run.

They update every week on Mondays with new content, and in the beginning they were releasing new volumes from most series three or four months after they have seen a physical release. More recently they have started releasing manga volumes at the same time as retail, and in some cases earlier than the physical volumes. If you have purchased a volume of a series, it will notify you via push notification that a new volume is available, so there is no need to check back every Monday. You can easily browse through the content by looking at the featured page or new releases, or if you want to browse via series, you can do that as well. They even offer free previews of first volumes of many series, and they give you plenty of content to make your decision.

The quality of the manga is superb, and there is no loading of each page which leads to a seamless reading experience. You can of course read the manga in portrait view per page, or landscape for a 2-page feel like an actual volume of manga. The pages look crisp and you can really see the detail in the art. While some may prefer to read manga in book form, I think the lack of paper helps the quality stand out further. You can also close out the volume you are currently reading, and it will usually remember where you left off as long as you don’t sync your iPad with your computer. I really haven’t noticed any major or even minor issues at this point when it comes the quality of manga or the reading experience at this point.

When it comes to pricing, I feel Viz has set a very good precedent. Most volumes launch at $4.99, with some large volumes releasing upwards of $8.99. This makes the digital price point very comparable to physical volumes, and has actually caused me to start reading some series I might normally skip at physical media pricing. Another thing Viz does well is having sales. They have had sales based on series, and very intelligently held sales on first volumes. These sales have seen volumes drop as low as $1.99 each, which makes it hard to pass up a purchase that I may have been on the fence about.

Viz has even launched their new Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. The lets Shonen fans read their favorite manga shortly after they print in Japan which includes, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach and more. Each issue is $0.99 weekly, or you can pay $25.99 for a yearly subscription. When you buy yearly you have a full year of access to each issue, while individual issues will be available for four weeks.

As one probably can tell, I have very little issues or problems with the Viz Manga digital store and apps at this time outside of their lack of back catalog titles. For those who are like me and trying to downsize their physical media library, this is an excellent and affordable way to continue reading manga without having to worry about storage or reselling of titles they may no longer want. Some may not like that they can not sell back digital copies like they can in physical form, but thanks to the pricing I don’t see this as a big issue. Viz Media has set quite a high standard that other companies should look at as a fine example of how they should model their digital manga stores and apps.

Top 3 Recommended Manga:

• Rosario+Vampire
• Arata
• Fushigi Yugi

Top 3 Most Wanted Manga:

• Ranma 1/2
• Maison Ikkoku
• Black Lagoon

After a very rough week of Scott dealing with Mevio, we try to relax and relaunch the show with a new RSS feed thanks to Mevio suspending accounts to our original feed. Please resubscribe to our iTunes feed and rate and review us again if you had done so in the past. We need to boost ourselves back up the anime podcast order. So follow the link at the bottom of this post.

As for the show, Scott lets off a rant about Mevio, we discuss my new figures, and quality of American cartoon sitcoms. We end the show with my initial thoughts on Kimi Ni Todoke on Blu-Ray, and Scott does his best to give a spoiler-free review of Mawaru Penguindrum.

In our news segment we discuss licensing announcements from Funimation (discontinued titles) and Sentai Filmworks (upcoming titles), Bleach enters its final arc, Sailor Moon hits number one in US again, Madoka Magica to have first episode streamed dubbed, and Black Rock Shooter to stream worldwide in eight languages.

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Geek Effect Episode 4 is finally here after a long week off.  Erick, Binh, and myself bring you a heated discussion on used gaming, project $10, and wild rumors of the next XBox eliminating the used gaming market. We also discuss Skyrim, SWTOR, NFL, Beer, Scott Pilgrim, Videogame Novels, MXC, Burn Notice and more.

Music Breakdown this episode is as follows:

• Dia Frampton “Don’t Kick The Chair”
• Trouble Maker “Trouble Maker”
• Ha-Ash “Impermeable”
• Jamal “Fades ‘Em All”
• B1A4 “Beautiful Target”

Disclaimer: This episode was rushed through editing due to being delayed for troubleshooting hardware issues. We apologize for any mistakes (2 major problems happened that I forgot to edit), numerous “uhms”, and extra silence that may have been missed. If people find problems with any missing audio or major glitches, I will try and re-edit a new version of the episode. I promise next week will be better… >_<

Listen via direct download and through iTunes. Rate and subscribe!

Thanks to PieMonster777 from SteamCovers.com for our artwork!

Episode 101 is here for our listeners, and ready to be enjoyed. Scott and I kick off the episode with some Skyrim talk and some thoughts on the Hatsune Miku and My Little Pony mods available.

In news this week, we see Appolon reunited Cowboy Bebop staff, Funimation suspending Dragon Ball Z Blu-Rays, NISA licenses Daily Lives of High School Boys, US Librarians rank top graphic novels, NicoNico to stream three winter anime series, Akai Katana SHMUP to see release in US, Nozomi will be releasing the original Dirty Pair features, and Funimation changing their combo packaging size.

We finish off the episode by reviewing the second season of Squid Girl that aired last fall season, and both of us think we can all agree that more Squid Girl is necessary.

Please follow this direct link while our iTunes feed is being migrated. Episode 101 – De Geso

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Scott Spaziani from Otaku in Review joins me for this special episode of The Brony Effect. We have two episodes to discuss this week, so the Brony Effect gets its own episode this time around. The two episodes we discuss are The Last Roundup and The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.

Music Breakdown this episode is as follows:

• PinkiePieSwear “Sunshine and Celery Stalks”
• WoodenToaster “Avast Fluttershy’s Ass”
• OmniPony “Clouds”

Listen via direct download and through iTunes. Rate and subscribe!

Sadly, I was informed by Scott that episode 101 of Otaku in Review is suffering a delay. This is due to Scott not being able to upload to the hosting service he has been using, Mevio. They have decided to randomly ban a large amount of podcast accounts with zero notification as to why. Scott hopes to hear back from them on this matter soon, but things don’t look too good. He is also shopping options in to a new host for the shows. We apologize for the unfortunate delay….

Read more on his blog here.

Scott and I are elated to be celebrating the 100th episode of Otaku in Review. We couldn’t leave out the original co-host, so we brought Jon Ingoglia, from Out of Time Productions, back for the celebration.

First we go over some licensing news with Sentai Filmworks grabbing another two titles from the winter season, while Funimation adds only one. Newcomer to anime licenses, S’More Entertainment licenses two series, and JAST USA shows interest in bringing over Steins;Gate Visual Novel.

After the brief news, Scott, Jon and I discuss many of our favorite moments, how the podcast began, how Jon and I both became involved, and we go over our rapid growth in the past year. So sit back and listen to us reflect on two years of podcasting.

My Figure Collection Links:

• Scott
• Jon
• Mike

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Aaron from the GameEnthus Podcast is here to join Erick and I since Binh is out again. We breakdown our concerns, excitement and reasons why we may or may not purchase the Playstation Vita. Scott Spaziani, of Otaku in Review, joins me for volume 2 of The Brony Effect in which we discuss the latest episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Baby Cakes.

We also discuss BevNerd Mountain Citrus Soda Jelly, Ghost Hunters, NFL Playoffs, Futurama, 3DS, Kingdoms of Amalur, The Darkness 2, SWTOR, Zelda: OoT, and more.

Music Breakdown this episode is as follows:

• Wonder Girls “Be My Baby”
• Lana Del Rey “Video Games”
• WoodenToaster “Pinkie’s Lie”
• Karmin “Crash Your Party”
• Kyarypamyupamyu “Tsukematsukeru”
• Sunzoo “Get Down”

Links:

• Fitocracy
• BevNerd

Listen via direct download and through iTunes. Rate and subscribe!

Thanks to PieMonster777 from SteamCovers.com for our artwork!

It’s another new season, and as per usual Scott and I are joined by Jon Ingoglia from Out of Time Productions, and Greg “The Digital Bug” from Reisen Goes To School By Bus and the Eroge Bus Podcast.

Before we get in to our impressions of the new season, we go over quite a bit of new involving various licenses. Media Blasters will be releasing Fushigi Yugi Season 1, Maiden Japan grabs Polyphonica Crimson S, and Sentai Filmworks continues to add to their library with Motto to Lover-ru Trouble and Zero no Tsukaima F. Crunchyroll also finalizes their Winter simulcasts, and will now also be airing newer shows in 1080p goodness. We also go over the disappointing news of Funimation downgrading Heaven’s Lost Property Forte to DVD only.

Finally we cover the Winter 2012 shows, and our list is as follows:

• Knight in the Area
• Daily Lives of High School Boys
• Amagami SS+
• Kill Me Baby
• Brave 10
• Nisemonogatari
• Recorder and Randsell
• Ano Natsu de Matteru
• Poyopoyo
• Listen to me girls, I’m your father
• Familiar of Zero F
• Lagrange – The flower of Rinne -
• Mouretsu Pirates
• Another

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Episode 2 is here and with Erick and I is Binh, ready to make his debut as co-host of the podcast, and we also debut our brand new segment, The Brony Effect. The Brony Effect breaks down the latest in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with special guest Scott Spaziani from Otaku in Review. This week we discuss the latest episode, Family Appreciation Day.

Other topics of discussion are Scott Pilgrim, Justice League, Just Dance, Captain America, Infinite Challenge, K-Pop, the IT Crowd, Blast Chilling, Football, The Red Pyramid, X-Men Anime, Tekken 5, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and much more.

Music Breakdown this episode is as follows:

• Blood Stain Child “SOPHIA”
• hwayobi “Booty Call”
• PinkiePieSwear “Flutterwonder”
• Aqua “How R U Doin?”
• Orishas “El Kilo”

Skyrim downloads as discussed:

• Hatsune Miku Mod
• My Little Pony Horse Mod
• Fluttershy “Yay” Dragonshout Mod

Listen via direct download and through iTunes. Rate and subscribe!

Thanks to PieMonster777 from SteamCovers.com for our artwork!