The end of a manga

OneManga.com, the largest source of Manga Scanlations (translated manga scans) on the internet, is to remove all manga content from their site.

The announcement was made suddenly on Thursday (July 22) on the site’s home page, by One Manga webmaster Zabi. He mentions the editors’ change of position on the scans and their decision to comply with his wishes.

Just weeks earlier, 36 top Japanese manga publishers and several US publishers had formed “a coalition to combat the” rampant and growing problem “of scans.” Among them are the publishing giants Square Enix, Viz media and Tokyopop.

The coalition is concerned that the scanning sites “now host thousands of pirated titles, garnering advertising revenue and / or membership fees at the expense of creators, while at the same time undermining foreign licensing opportunities and illegally cannibalizing sales. legitimate “.

The coalition has also reportedly threatened legal action against 30 scan sites.

Square Enix has announced that it will launch its own online manga site in the fall, which will be available to visitors from North America and France. However, it will not be free, as it aims to establish a “paid digital distribution channel” to “better serve the diverse needs of its global customers.” Square Enix is ​​best known for the popular Final Fantasy game series.

One Manga has been included in the position 935 of the 1000 most visited sites by Google, which obtained its data in May of this year. It claims that One Manga received 4.2 million unique visitors and 1.1 billion page views that month.

So is this the end of One Manga? Unlikely. Although the site will no longer offer visitors the translated scans that made them so popular, they already have a thriving community forum with over 100,000 members. They also rank high in many Google search results, offering huge potential for building a site for the same target audience.

Among the titles that readers of One Manga enjoyed were Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach.