Digital Manga Launches eManga Online Manga Rental

If there's one thing that every manga publisher talks about but very few actually execute successfully is online and cell phone manga. Now Digital Manga is taking their company name to heart by launching eManga, their online manga rental service.

Online manga delivery has been a hot topic with publishers for a while. With so many fans reading scanlations online, and with the growing market for cell phone manga in Japan, American publishers are keen to be first to market with the online manga "killer app" that'll turn the industry upside down. But who, if anyone has succeeded in making this whiz-bang trend profitable? TokyoPop has been plugging their cell phone manga and online manga reader for some time now. Go! Comi has pushed the multimedia manga envelope with Wendy Pini's Masque of the Red Death and their new O-Play online manga game. CMX Manga flirted briefly with cell phone comics and settled for publishing Flex Comics' cell phone manga offerings as printed graphic novels. Even Shonen Jump has dipped their toe into the pay-to-read online manga market with Jumpland.

So what is Digital Manga doing differently than the rest? eManga is positioning itself as an online manga rental service. The basic premise is that readers can "rent" a manga title and have 72 hours to enjoy it online, or if a reader rents the same title a second time, they can enjoy unlimited time to read that online manga title. Readers pay with "points" that they purchase and store with their account. According to the FAQ, 1,000 points can be purchased for $10, with most titles requiring about 400 points or $4.00 to rent. It ends up being $8.00 for unlimited rental, which is about 20 - 30% cheaper than buying the actual print version of the graphic novel, and takes up a lot less space on your bookshelf.

So far, only six yaoi (boys love) manga titles have been released and four how to draw manga books are up on the eManga site to try for free or buy. Presumably more will be added after the beta testing is done in mid-September.

Several online reviewers have chimed in with their review of eManga's offerings, pricing and interface, calling it "nicely designed.... but a little fussy," "a little narrow in its offerings" and unclear about its audience niche. All valid comments, to which I'll add that the navigation is will likely need either alphabetical or genre-based quick links like NetFlix for easier, faster browsing. It's easy enough to find titles now when there's fewer than 10 titles overall -- but once they get more than 12 titles in their library, I just want to find romances, sci-fi or action stories right away, or an A-to-Z list if I know which title I'm looking for vs. searching by publisher. A recommendation engine would make sense too, ala "if you like this, you might also like". There's kinks to work out, obviously, but eManga gets a B+ for trying something different.

Visit eManga and give it a spin, and while you're at it, give the eManga crew your comments so they can get through this awkward beta stage and get rolling with their full-fledged release to hopefully offer a broader selection of manga.

Image credit: © Digital Manga, Inc.