Q: What’s the biggest missing ingredient to make this work for you?
Mostly just working some kinks out. A few chapters of Mysterious Girlfriend X lacked text on the first few pages. These kinds of things are easily reported and easily fixed, so I imagine these kind of bugs get worked out quickly. What I think the real competition is to Crunchyroll is the scanlation/aggregation complex. And now if I was going to check out Coppelion, to maybe compare the manga with the anime, would I choose to view it via Crunchyroll rather than some shady site? Absolutely. The paid CR experience, with no ads and faster loading time, is better than the “free” aggregators. But the manga library is eventually going to have to grow.
Kory – They’ve taken the biggest first steps in putting an app out on both Android and iOS platforms to go alongside a perfectly fine selection of comics to read. But what’s missing? Of course, a larger selection. Some extra functionality on both the app and browser versions of the system would be nice as well, even if everyone doesn’t use them, the ones that do will appreciate it. I’m not talking huge extra functions, but little things like having the settings retract when you move the mouse away or being able to return to the page you were at without having to bookmark it.
A big missing piece I think is being able to buy individual volumes for download-to-own, similar to Viz’s app. Since it’s, I assume, downloading those individual pictures to view on your phone, you’re chained to an internet connection or mobile data.
Kate – Princess Jellyfish. No, seriously!
Kestrel – I’m not the biggest manga reader, so it’s not as if Crunchyroll is pulling me away from scanlation sites as it is. I’m always happy to support their endeavors, though, especially when they’re delving into another field entirely and clearly putting in the effort that’s needed to make it work. However, I haven’t been greatly inspired to read anything beyond a little testing of their setup. I was glad to see them start some series from volume 1, since the “jump straight to the newest chapter” model, while obviously sensible, doesn’t help people like me unless I want to go get caught up on the series via scanlations anyway. I think the point at which I’ll start getting into it at anywhere close to the level of their anime service (okay, I’m watching 23 currently airing series from them right now, so probably not that much) is when new series start coming out and they pick them up for simulcast from the beginning. That way I don’t have to jump in at a point that doesn’t make sense, nor do I feel the pressure of a whole series of backlog to get through as quickly as possible. That’s how I’ve gotten into most of the anime series on Crunchyroll. And as for catalog titles, especially if hits may help the chances of licensing even for very old titles, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.
Chris K. – Honestly, I am extremely satisfied with the service so far. There a little bugs and quirks right now, but that’s to be expected. The base functionality and usability are just right, in my opinion. Now if only this can become a manga heaven where I just get every single damn title I want! A “Netflix style” subscription service for manga is what we all wanted back when JManga came out and here it is; fulfilling what I’d always hoped to experience with such a model.
Greg – More titles. The interface is 90% there. If they would want me to be a regular user of their manga service, they just need to make sure to do a little more quality assurance before releasing material and get a whole lot more titles that I have an interest in. If they do that, for me they’ll have a winner.
Mastilo – Aside from minor bug fixes and UI fine-tuning that have been mentioned throughout by myself and others, along with a Kindle Fire app, all that I can really say is missing is the ability to see recent chapters of volumes in progress. Users can see the current simul-pubbed chapter, but not those which precede it in a yet-to-be-printed volume, leaving a gap between, say, Vol 7 Ch 52 and Vol 8 Ch 82 (Mysterious Girlfriend X). And of course a download-to-own options would be grand, but depending on licensing fees and what have you, that will probably not be plausible until readership numbers can prove its potential.
Jessi – There really aren’t any major missing components, in my opinion, just a few minor quality-control issues that need some ironing-out. I’m mainly waiting for the addition of some more titles. Unlike with anime, which by its nature requires a certain lengthy time commitment, it’s all too easy to blaze through several manga volumes in a very short length of time (depending on your reading speed), so I feel like I might run out of manga that interests me too soon. It’ll be more enticing to keep my subscription at the higher tier if there are some more incentives there.
Chris Beveridge
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
He likes to write a lot, as you can see.