Literally the worst possible route they could have gone. I'm fine with paying for content, but paying these prices to RENT chapters is ridiculous. This should have been a subscription service. Since the library has so much in it, a more premium price would have been fine. Point and ticket systems to rent is just a scam. You need to relaunch this. The way chapters are split into multiple transactions is also extra scummy.
Reviews for K MANGA
← Back to K MANGAWho came up with this system? People can watch ads for "up to" 50p (more like 5p), but need 69p to read most chapters. Otherwise, they can install other apps, or just pay for points. Not installing other apps. And you want $1 for about every 103p. That's around $67 to read 100 chapters. People can pay $3 and read almost all of Shonen Jumps' catalog. Literally thousands of chapters. I was willing to pay a similar fee, as I've paid Jump for 3 years now. But this pricing system is absurd.
The app begs for quality of life improvements. For new releases, they charge around the same money per-chapter as what it costs to buy a physical volume, while saving the costs for producing and distributing physical books. Chapters are cheap, but it adds up, and with the app you don't get physical copies to own and share, while they earn much, much more money off your reading. Throw us a bone, Kodansha. Charge less money, and add at least basic settings for customizing the UI and reader.
Per chapter based model that is ridiculously expensive. Up to $1 or more per chapter on some titles which is just insane. It should be a subscription based model and heck they could even charge $5-$10 a month and I'd say it's worth it with the selection of titles but with the prices now you're better off just buying the physical manga.
Using this app let me read some of my favorite series. However, once you read the first 5-10 chapters for free, you are then presented with an option to use an "unlock key" to view a single, additional chapter. After that, you are encouraged to buy "points" to unlock more chapters to read. It is at this point where this app appears to be a cash grab. My advice would be to search for a different low cost subscription based app. Wait for this one to improve. If it doesn't, I recommend deleting it.
The best thing I can say about the app is reading feels good on it, but other than that, it won't bookmark the page you left off, there's censorship in some of the series and the worst is how monetized it is. It absolutely feels like a cash grab. I wanted it to work, but it seems I will be keeping to other manga apps for now. At least I can say I gave it a fair try.
The primary issue is the monetization system, it's far too expensive for digital media. With the Viz model it's much more palatable, I would be more inclined to pay for a subscription then this pay as you go coin system, it's like webtoons which is why I stopped reading. The UI and search also needs improvement. You have the key elements there, it wouldn't take much to be able to search by say completed series, frequency of updates, and more. Pinch to zoom also does not function on the pixel6
My biggest issue is the black box censorship, they aren't your typical tiny black boxes but boxes that take up the whole page at times. Not only are you missing out on the art it just makes you uninterested, at least it does for me. They should honestly just have some series marked as 18+ or something at this point. Overall the app is fine, has some great stories. Just your typical manga app, maybe a little less good compared to other apps such as manga up, manga+ and viz/shonen Jump.
I don't like the point system, highly disappointed. I was this app was going to be similar to the shonen jump app, but unfortunately it's not. While they're are free chapters provided, which is great for new readers, but for readers who are caught up on a series, you have to jump through hoops just read the latest chapter. I wish there was a decent subscription option similar to what other legitimate manga apps have.
The UI is good, though somewhat confusing. The point system is awful though, pricing isn't consistent and they lie about titles being completely free (only a free chapters are, then you get three videos to "unlock" chapters and that's it). I don't mind paying a subscription, but I won't do a point buy system. Sucks and makes me sad, I've been waiting a long time to read some favorites.
Exploitative monetization model, splitting up chapters into multiple parts so you have to pay MORE, and a confusing ticket system all paired with a bad app design (search doesn't seem to work half the time, no dark mode, among other weird choices) makes me not recommend this at all. I could overlook most of it if they got rid of the bad monetization choices and bring in a subscription model, but as it is right now, don't waste your money, and buy the actual physical or digital volumes.
Yea this is one of the most disappointing releases in quite some time. Let me start out with what might be the only positive: a good UI and competent scrolling/search. Now for the bad... In all the market research that was done, who thought it was a good idea to copy the flop that is MangaUp? Instead of a subscription based service, we have to pay double sometimes triple for full releases. In an industry where your main competitors (SJ/Viz) are killing it with the subscription model.
When analyzing this app on Exodus, it contains 21 different trackers, which is a ton. For comparison, Facebook has 9 trackers. No manga app needs this much data from its users. Add to that, this app is really egregious in monetization. There isn't a real subscription option, only getting a set amount of points each month to purchase manga chapters. Meanwhile, on Shounen Jump you can pay $5 every month and read as much as you want. Terrible value and a complete invasion of privacy.
The UI is nice at least... But why did they have to go with the points model? Shueisha's subscription model is infinitely better, and I can't afford to pay for all the latest chapters in this model (no, unlike Manga Plus, the newest chapters are generally not free from what I can see). Kodansha had the chance to become a real competitor in the online space, but this is... Not the way to do it.
I'll give an A for effort and having good selection. But an F for affordability. The price point is set way too high. For example; you would have to spend $75 to unlock 130 chapters of a manga. The problem is, you'll never own those chapters. So what incentive is there to blow your money on something you'll never own? The day this app goes under, you'll lose access to everything. You're better off using the free chapters and saving up to buy physical copies of the manga.
When pre registering, it was advertised that it would be completely free but instead it seems that everything is run by micro transactions. You have to get tickets or coins. When using tickets you don't even get to keep what you redeemed, it gives you a time limit. There are a lot of free chapters but even given that it launched a week ago they are already expiring. Take it back to the drawing board. Would not recommend.
Way too expensive. Uninstalling and very disappointed. Update: 3/14/24 I decided to give it another try. It's exactly the same. I wish I could give another 1 star rating or even 0 stars. Barely any chapters are free. Paid chapters start about less than halfway through a series and are extremely expensive and split into parts. I'll stick with digital or physical volumes.
The price points are way too high, especially for an app that's heavily bloated with ads. It's only slightly cheaper than buying the physical volumes. The manga quality is great, so it's a fantastic way to try out a series while supporting the official release. That is, until you hit the massive pay wall and just go back to pirating. If they let you catch up to current with the ad based ticket system, or added a subscription fee, it would be great, but they don't, and most likely wont.
Easy to use, large selection. They tend to split chapters which is especially annoying when you're effectively paying per chapter. They do offer quite a few free credits for chapters and you can watch an ad for credits or for access to a chapter but their primary method for access is for you to buy points that you can spend on access to chapters. The reader itself is easy to use. If they got a monthly subscription for all access it would be perfect.
It's not bad, but it's not great. The pricing alone is absolutely absurd. It's nice to be able to read stuff that isn't out/printed in the US yet. But having to pay $75 to get enough points to catch up on a recent manga I'm reading is a hard pass. If I'm paying that kind of money, I want the physical copy in my hands. I'll wait or find other means. I'd pay a subscription to read, even with cap chapters, like the SJ app. But I am not paying per chapter.