Japanese video game and entertainment company Square Enix has just announced their arrival in the American manga industry with their new Manga Up! app, offering a little competition in an industry that's increasingly dominated by just a few names.
Despite being known largely for their video games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix has a long history of publishing manga in Japan, with its flagship magazine Monthly Shonen Gangan having launched back in 1991. Despite not being as big of a name as Shonen Jump in Western countries, Gangan has been home to some incredibly popular manga over the years, including Fullmetal Alchemist, Goblin Slayer, and Soul Eater. While some of their properties were adapted for English by third-party publishers in the past, this marks a new chapter in their presence in the US market with the company publishing directly.
Despite the Manga Up! app having only been released in English on July 25, it has existed in Japan since 2017 and has a rather unusual method of reading content. As s read and utilize the app, they earn various currencies, referred to as UP and XP, which are earned by opening the app daily, reading during special promotions, and so on. These points can then be used to unlock certain chapters to be read, and more points can be earned by buying "coin" through microtransactions if the reader wants to progress to the next chapter faster. As a result of this gamified system, it's possible to read all content for free, although it may take a while. Fullmetal Alchemist, for example, has the first five chapters available to all, with later chapters needing to be unlocked. Chapters are also split into even smaller segments that need to be unlocked individually. While the app's FAQ also mentions a subscription, it seems that feature may not be fully implemented at present. The app does have new series like Daemons of the Shadow Realm, the new series from FMA's Hiromu Arakawa, and has indicated its intent to "simulpub" these currently running titles.
Early reviews of the app have had some complaints about the unlock system from dedicated fans hoping to binge their favorite series right away. The unlocks also last only 72 hours according to the FAQ, although they can be read as many times as desired in that period. Other complaints relate to the app's use of censorship, with black bars appearing over content that might get the app pulled from the Google and Apple app stores. Viz's Shonen Jump app has been known to have similar issues, with several chapters of Ayakashi Triangle pulled or skipped before they dropped the series entirely. The subscription feature may help to mitigate some of these complaints, whenever it becomes available.
While the Manga Up! app may not be the most accessible, it does open up the possibility for a number of Square Enix manga that haven't been officially translated to finally see release in the US. The industry will also likely benefit from a little added competition since there have been a small number of publishers for manga both digitally and physically in recent years. Fans of Square-Enix's manga can go the Manga Up! app from their respective app store now and start racking up those points early, and decide how they feel about the app's unique system for themselves.
