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Recently my partner has grown very fond of Anime/Manga of all sorts. She has several applications on her iPhone allowing her to view manga. I would like to know what you all believe the best method is, to perform:

  1. Buy Manga sets in an electronic form, such as Naruto Season 1;
  2. Have an application (iPhone and Windows preferably) to allow us to categorise the manga; e.g. By Rating, Type, Language etc. ;
  3. Allow transfer of library between platforms so that we can read on Windows and iPhone

Here is an example:

I buy Naruto, Season 1 in electronic format and download it to PC as *.mobi, *.pdf
I then edit fields such as category, author, rating, etc. 
I then sync with my iPhone using App_X

Now I understand that there are plenty of online sites where you can read Manga, but I want to be able to own the manga titles and be able to access them offline, on the road etc.

I had a look for Book Crawler for iOS which seems like a wonderful application for book management in the sense of "what have I read and what did I rate:, but not for what I need.

Viz seems like my best option to own the Manga. I am not entirely sure if there are any cheaper alternatives on the market. If I buy via their application then it appears that I am locked onto an iPhone to read the manga. Fair enough, she never uses a computer however I'd like to be able to edit it.

I've used applications like Calibre to edit and tag my books before on Android..so I was hoping for some integration with iPhone to PC.

DankyNanky
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  • there are apps for reading manga where you have to download them and read it offline so you want them in android or ios , where you can search manga with title – mirroroftruth Sep 18 '15 at 06:12
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    You question is not clear as the actions in list you have are not mutually exclusive. As stated by @mirroroftruth, the apps allow you to store them after downloading and you can read them offline at your leisure ("offline, on the road etc") – Tyhja Sep 18 '15 at 06:16
  • @mirroroftruth Yes, I understand this. I am looking at purchasing the content exclusively in electronic form so I can sync it across devices and manage custom tags. – DankyNanky Sep 18 '15 at 06:19
  • @Tyhja I was half way through editing the question. See the reviewed answer here. This is more of a question of where do I obtain legal copies of manga? I do not want to download the content through a torrent then manage the book through a web client for tagging, then sync to a phone. – DankyNanky Sep 18 '15 at 06:19
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    Viz Media offers their own [apps and digital releases](http://www.viz.com/apps) which allows you to read their Manga on a tablet device however i don't know what DRM is used. their main app is a subscription app for Weekly Shonen Jump while it appears you use the native book reader on tablet devices to buy other manga – Memor-X Sep 18 '15 at 06:19
  • @Memor-X Thank you. I have just updated this question with that reference! I am looking at the iOS application now. Are you aware if I am able to self-tag the files, and also sync them across devices such as a PC? I know you mentioned tablet but would like to know if I can login to a browser and access to. Please add this as an answer so that I may accept it if it works. :) – DankyNanky Sep 18 '15 at 06:21
  • @MichaelNancarrow Viz Media is the only one i know and i don't use it myself so i don't know if it meets the other requirements or not, thus the comment. – Memor-X Sep 18 '15 at 06:37
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    @Memor-X Thank you for your post. The software question should definitely be posted on SR but was hoping I could get a store and editor in the same field. If I had 15 rep I would definitely mark this up. Thank you for your help. – DankyNanky Sep 18 '15 at 06:38

2 Answers2

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Well there are a couple of resources but this review page [alternate webarchive link because it was down] might interest you pertaining to certain uses. I'll just leave it as an answer here instead of the comments.

The author titles the post :

This is How You Can Read Manga Legally in 2013

While not quite 2013, it has still many relevant links:

First the author mentions E-manga

Where you can read it: It’s a worldwide service.

How you can read it: Bunch of ways: you can download it in 7 formats (PRC, MOBI, EPUB, PDF, CBZ, Apple EPUB, Kobo EPUB), for a bunch of devices, though it depends for some: PC, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Kindle, Kindle Fire, Android, Nook 6”, Nook Color, Kobo 6”, Kobo Tablets, Sony Readers, Linux, Mac, Windows, and Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Motorola Xoom, Abode Digital Editions, Blackberry, Bebook, Aluratek Libre Pro, Cybook Opus, Digital Reader 1000, EZ Reader by Astak, Hanlin, iLiad, iRiver Story.

The author further provides their social media, email and about links in the review page:

Anything Extra: Registration here

Email: customerservice@emanga.com

Social Media: Twitter, Facebook

He also does a mini-review or commentary of that particular site that he lists which I found quite nice:

They have just about every type of manga you want: Shoujo, Shounen, Seinen, Josei, Yaoi, Yuri, Hentai, the works. They are pretty pricey though, ranging from the $9.99 range or higher for a good portion of their titles. As far as I know, most people don’t like to spend that much for physical books; they’ll probably just laugh at seeing the prices here. Otherwise, they’re one of the few publishers that actually allows you to have files for you to keep.

He goes on in this format, mentioning other sites:

While the sites are directly linked here, if you need more information other than where to buy electronically scanned manga, like the reviews for each site, support the author by going to the site.

Community
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Tyhja
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  • Thank you for marking this as an answer. Whilst it does not provide software (I can easily use Calibre and import), it definitely provides enough sources to get me going. – DankyNanky Sep 18 '15 at 06:37
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    @Tyhja this is a wonderful answer, well done and thank you! – DankyNanky Sep 18 '15 at 09:46
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It might be worth keeping an eye on https://www.humblebundle.com/books - they've done manga bundles before , and you can download them as .PDF , .mobi , etc.

Also, a lot of devices have Kindle reader apps, so you could check out Amazon's selection of Manga ebooks too

Toshinou Kyouko
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    That is definitely a good find for purchasing bundles and I love the fact you can ask where the money goes. I will bookmark this as a great offer but find their repository a little small. Thank you for this post. Sadly I cannot vote this up as I'd like due to rating. – DankyNanky Sep 18 '15 at 06:36
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    @MichaelNancarrow yeah, unfortunately it's mainly novels & comics - but it was the first source I could think of - I'll try to think of more :) – Toshinou Kyouko Sep 18 '15 at 09:09