Exposing the Independent: Manga Reborn
Back from the grave to give a spotlight to a website that I may have touched on briefly in the past.From Sato Shuho, the creator of the digital book Manga Poverty, comes his own response to the slowly fading publishing industry of paperback manga with the scope on connecting profit back to their respective authors.
Manga Reborn is a product of his conception built and administrated by Beyond Perspective Solutions Ltd. with a goal of making unknown manga available worldwide. The system models the modern Japanese method of digital manga distribution via cell phones through a pay-per-chapter pricing. Manga Reborn serves as a global platform f
or both amateur and professional artists alike to upload their works (similar to Inkblazers and Mangablues) while also providing the option of pricing their works. The site also has a rather complex social networking function that allows users to follow their favorite authors, comment, 
upload fan art onto the series' pages, and provide thorough reviews. Translations can be uploaded by community members and different languages are easily organized separately from the source. There's also a bunch of other features like statistics, etc.
How one makes payments throughout the site is through the use of coins as credit. Coins can be purchased 1000 coins at a time for 1000 yen (approx. 10 USD) or 2000 coins for 2000 yen, 3000 coins for 3000 yen, and 5000 coins for 5000 yen. Currently, only VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and JCB credit cards can be used to purchase coins (debit and VISA gift cards should be fine).
The manga there are DRM, meaning you can't download and store them onto your computer like Kindle. There's a lot of them available (not all with English translations) and one of Sato's series, Give My Regards to Blackjack, is free to read in English (a medical drama). The site seems to be evolving as time progresses and currently, PC is the only platform natively available.
It was a little hard to navigate in the beginning but it is inevitably becoming more streamlined with more traffic. So if you want to help support the indie manga front, I would give Manga Reborn a visit.
Manga Reborn is a product of his conception built and administrated by Beyond Perspective Solutions Ltd. with a goal of making unknown manga available worldwide. The system models the modern Japanese method of digital manga distribution via cell phones through a pay-per-chapter pricing. Manga Reborn serves as a global platform f
or both amateur and professional artists alike to upload their works (similar to Inkblazers and Mangablues) while also providing the option of pricing their works. The site also has a rather complex social networking function that allows users to follow their favorite authors, comment, 
upload fan art onto the series' pages, and provide thorough reviews. Translations can be uploaded by community members and different languages are easily organized separately from the source. There's also a bunch of other features like statistics, etc.
How one makes payments throughout the site is through the use of coins as credit. Coins can be purchased 1000 coins at a time for 1000 yen (approx. 10 USD) or 2000 coins for 2000 yen, 3000 coins for 3000 yen, and 5000 coins for 5000 yen. Currently, only VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and JCB credit cards can be used to purchase coins (debit and VISA gift cards should be fine).
The manga there are DRM, meaning you can't download and store them onto your computer like Kindle. There's a lot of them available (not all with English translations) and one of Sato's series, Give My Regards to Blackjack, is free to read in English (a medical drama). The site seems to be evolving as time progresses and currently, PC is the only platform natively available.
It was a little hard to navigate in the beginning but it is inevitably becoming more streamlined with more traffic. So if you want to help support the indie manga front, I would give Manga Reborn a visit.
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