Even though 2019 was a convenient year for online manga readers due to the increasing popularity of manga worldwide some people were still resorting to pirated means to get their daily dose of manga.
One such service was Manga Rock, the service allowed users to read manga online and even download it for offline viewing. Due to its presence on Android and Apple stores, it reflected a sense of legitimacy on its user, making them think it is entirely legal.
Why is it shutting down?
It’s time to bid farewell to Manga Rock. Unfortunately, the company has closed down, and the Manga Rock app on the Android and iOS app stores have also been taken down. Although they are not closing their business for good, they are completely rebranding and remaking a new platform from scratch called MR Comics.
Initially, they only region-blocked it for Japan and Korea, which means it was still accessible for someone outside Japan and Korea or for someone using proxy servers. Still, now it has been completely taken down.
It is being estimated that over the years, they had collected more than 50,000 works on their website and gained more than 5 million downloads on their mobile apps. The most significant cause of criticism was the fact that Manga Rock even had a premium subscription where they charged users $5 for access to freshly released manga.
What Happened?
The series of events took place after Irodori Comics CEO, On Takahashi posted a series of tweets in both English and Japanese criticizing Manga Rock. This post was retweeted more than 60,000 times and even attracted a lot of outrage.
Japanese Tweet thread explained in English.
— On Takahashi （高橋温） (@OnTakahashi) August 28, 2019
For those interested in wondering what I wrote regarding @MangaRockApp , here are some basic points I translated into English. https://t.co/CRAxENMzvV
Not a Basement Studio (parent company of Manga Rock) told J-Cast News that the Manga Rock project was started by a group of college students, and they had put scanlations on the web which were already released. The company continued by saying:
“At that time, we didn’t understand the manga industry, and we didn’t know the origin of the scanlations (including things without official licenses). As time has passed, we have come to understand the damage being incurred by manga creators and publishers. Moreover, as Manga Rock’s popularity increased more and more, the damage also increased. Therefore we are deeply reflecting on our role in accelerating the popularity of scanlations, and we give our heartfelt apologies to the victims, manga creators and publishers. As a result, we plan to shut down our scanlation website and app. We also recommend that similar scanlation sites (there are many) shut down as well. We are truly sorry for causing problems for the manga industry.”
In the past, we had witnessed many such cases, such as Mangamura, which was removed in April 2018. When some Japanese publishers had filed criminal complaints against the website in 2017. Police even made several arrests in that case.
About Manga Rock:
Manga Rock was a web service that allowed its users to read manga for free and download it for offline viewing. Although the sources of manga offered by Manga Rocks were scanlations websites.
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