THE BRIDGE

tag manga

Moe the World: Add fun anime flavor to your mobile photos

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As we head into the weekend, here’s a fun photo app from Higher Bridge Inc. called ‘Moe the World’. I’m not going to try to accurately explain what the Japanese term ‘moe’ means (Wikipedia does a better job than I would), but rather I encourage you to try out this photo decoration app, which in a nutshell enables virtual cosplay. The application, which initially launched back in December, received a new update this month with more manga eyes and wigs to add to the existing decorative elements. So if you’re in the mood for adding some fun to your cherry blossom party photos this season, do check out Moe the World over on the App Store.

moe-the-world

As we head into the weekend, here’s a fun photo app from Higher Bridge Inc. called ‘Moe the World’. I’m not going to try to accurately explain what the Japanese term ‘moe’ means (Wikipedia does a better job than I would), but rather I encourage you to try out this photo decoration app, which in a nutshell enables virtual cosplay.

The application, which initially launched back in December, received a new update this month with more manga eyes and wigs to add to the existing decorative elements. So if you’re in the mood for adding some fun to your cherry blossom party photos this season, do check out Moe the World over on the App Store.

Mobile manga service Comico surpasses 1M downloads, now allows amateur contributions

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Late last year we told you about Comico, a free online manga service available on the web, as well as on iOS and Android. At that time we mentioned that NHN PlayArt, the company behind the service, had set an initial goal of acquiring 300,000 users by the end of 2013. It appears that the company is well past that goal now, announcing earlier this week that Comico has surpassed 1 million downloads, requiring only about 100 days since its initial launch to do so [1]. In Japan, it is now the top free iOS ‘books’ app, and the sixth ranked Google Play ‘comics’ app. NHN PlayArt is a subsidiary of Naver Corporation, developing many of Line’s popular casual games including the recently released Disney Tsumu Tsumu, currently the top free app on both iOS and Android in Japan with over 4 million downloads in its first 14 days. So overall it has been a pretty good start to 2014 for the group, which is housed within Line Corporation headquarters in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. When Comico launched, there were 56 different comics available to read, free of charge. The service has since expanded to include 71 comics. And as of…

comico-lead

Late last year we told you about Comico, a free online manga service available on the web, as well as on iOS and Android. At that time we mentioned that NHN PlayArt, the company behind the service, had set an initial goal of acquiring 300,000 users by the end of 2013. It appears that the company is well past that goal now, announcing earlier this week that Comico has surpassed 1 million downloads, requiring only about 100 days since its initial launch to do so [1]. In Japan, it is now the top free iOS ‘books’ app, and the sixth ranked Google Play ‘comics’ app.

NHN PlayArt is a subsidiary of Naver Corporation, developing many of Line’s popular casual games including the recently released Disney Tsumu Tsumu, currently the top free app on both iOS and Android in Japan with over 4 million downloads in its first 14 days. So overall it has been a pretty good start to 2014 for the group, which is housed within Line Corporation headquarters in Tokyo’s Shibuya district.

When Comico launched, there were 56 different comics available to read, free of charge. The service has since expanded to include 71 comics. And as of this past December, it also allows amateur manga artists to submit comics for consideration, with prize money currently available as part of an contest. After February 17th, 30 works will be selected from these submissions, and then reader voting will take place to chose a winner.

As for the Comico app itself, it’s interesting to compare it to Japan’s other popular manga app these days, DeNA’s Manga Box. That app has seen over 2 million downloads the span of about a month after its December launch. For readers abroad, you’ll find no English interface or translations in Comico yet, so perhaps Manga Box, which has better titles available in my view, might be a better option.

comico
In Comico, you can crop a section and share with friends

Comico does have some interesting features though, most notably the fact that its manga are in color (as opposed to black and white). There is also a pretty interesting crop-and-share feature, which will let you easily select a snap of your manga to share with friends on social networks or over email (see picture above).

It’s good to see more and more services offering mobile manga solutions. As we pointed out before, Line also has its own mobile manga app, Line Manga, which is doing quite well too. It is currently ranked fifth in the iOS ‘books’ category, and second in the Google Play ‘comics’ category.

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Comico’s ranking on iOS since its October release (App Annie)

  1. As of February 8th.  ↩

DeNA’s Manga Box sees 2M downloads in just over a month

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Back in December, Japan’s DeNA launched its comic book app Manga Box. Since then it has fared remarkably well on both iOS and Android with over 2 million downloads as of January 7th. In Japan in particular, Manga Box has ranked high in the Books category on iOS (currently third), and is the top Comics app on Google Play. But it still has room to grow beyond its home market, and considering that most of the manga are available in both Japanese and English, it should be a must-have for English-speaking comics fans. I’ve been using the app for a few weeks and I found that it had a surprising use as a language learning too. For example, I can try reading an issue in Japanese (a language I’m studying), and then I can switch the app to English to clarify any difficult parts that I may not have understood. Similarly, I think Japanese students of English could do the same by first reading in English. The app takes the form of a weekly digital magazine, with about 20 episodes of various comics included. It’s a pretty simple application to use with granular push notifications that let you select which…

mangabox-lead

Back in December, Japan’s DeNA launched its comic book app Manga Box. Since then it has fared remarkably well on both iOS and Android with over 2 million downloads as of January 7th. In Japan in particular, Manga Box has ranked high in the Books category on iOS (currently third), and is the top Comics app on Google Play. But it still has room to grow beyond its home market, and considering that most of the manga are available in both Japanese and English, it should be a must-have for English-speaking comics fans.

I’ve been using the app for a few weeks and I found that it had a surprising use as a language learning too. For example, I can try reading an issue in Japanese (a language I’m studying), and then I can switch the app to English to clarify any difficult parts that I may not have understood. Similarly, I think Japanese students of English could do the same by first reading in English.

The app takes the form of a weekly digital magazine, with about 20 episodes of various comics included. It’s a pretty simple application to use with granular push notifications that let you select which new issues you want to be notified about. You’ll be told when there are new comics you like, but for those you don’t like, the app won’t bother you.

I confess, I’ve never been a big manga fan but I’ve been enjoying Manga Box so far. I’m especially glad to see DeNA take a global approach to releasing its app, perhaps aware the enthusiastic market for Japanese manga abroad. When Line Manga launched in April of last year, it was for the Japanese market only, and to my knowledge the company hasn’t expanded to other languages since then. But on the other hand, Line Manga is Japan’s top grossing iOS app in the Books category, and the top grossing Comics category app on Google Play. So from a business point of view, maybe Line doesn’t need to expand Line Manga just yet.

So how will DeNA monetize its Manga Box app? I’m told that the company’s model is to sell stand-alone books, both digital and printed. So a user could buy the first volume of a title after all its episodes have been published. For the time being, users can also gain access to new episodes though social sharing via Twitter for example.

It’s good to see more companies involved in the promotion of Japanese culture online. Companies like Tokyo Otaku Mode, for example, have shown that the West has an appetite for anime and manga, so it is encouraging to see a service like Manga Box that helps fans around the world consume it.

If you’d like to download Manga Box, you can get it for free on iOS of Google Play.

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Japanese publisher lets readers tweet out their favorite manga page

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Japanese publisher Kodansha is making aggressive moves toward digital recently. Our readers may recall we wrote about their partnership with Line’s novel service back in June. Another initiative from Kodansha is its mobile app ‘D Morning’ provided in cooperation with internet portal Excite Japan. There is a weekly comic book entitled ‘Morning’ that has been in print since 1982. Since then, the comic book has attracted so many manga fans of all ages, especially men. D Morning is the digital version of this comic, and works as a subscription-based app. The application was released back in May and provides about 500 pages from popular comics such as Shimakosaku and Uchu-Kyodai. Users of D Morning can enjoy the latest issues of comics every Thursday at 12am, faster than anybody else. The two companies just updated the app, with a unique feature that lets users share their favorite page from a selected comic to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Readers can tweet out their favorite quotes or pictures that they find especially moving. This feature is exclusive to iOS users for now, but the Android app will see an update sometime in October. D Morning can be downloaded for free,…

D-Morning

Japanese publisher Kodansha is making aggressive moves toward digital recently. Our readers may recall we wrote about their partnership with Line’s novel service back in June.

Another initiative from Kodansha is its mobile app ‘D Morning’ provided in cooperation with internet portal Excite Japan. There is a weekly comic book entitled ‘Morning’ that has been in print since 1982. Since then, the comic book has attracted so many manga fans of all ages, especially men. D Morning is the digital version of this comic, and works as a subscription-based app.

The application was released back in May and provides about 500 pages from popular comics such as Shimakosaku and Uchu-Kyodai. Users of D Morning can enjoy the latest issues of comics every Thursday at 12am, faster than anybody else.

The two companies just updated the app, with a unique feature that lets users share their favorite page from a selected comic to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Readers can tweet out their favorite quotes or pictures that they find especially moving. This feature is exclusive to iOS users for now, but the Android app will see an update sometime in October.

D Morning can be downloaded for free, on both iOS and Android. The first download comes as a free issue, but subsequent downloads will cost 500 yen (about $5) per month. The back catalogue, going back to the time of registration, is available as well.

D-morning-share

DeNA and Docomo joint venture empowers amateur comic and novel creators

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Everystar is a joint venture between DeNA and NTT Docomo that allows people to publish and distribute their own comics and novels for consumption on mobile devices [1]. While most of the content is available for free, some of it is paid as well, with those who sell their works collecting 40% of royalties from published works. Normally those publishers are professionals, but today it was announced that Everystar will be allowing all users to publish and collect 80% of their royalties for a limited time campaign. The promotion will run until December 31, 2013, during which time if any user wishes to sell their content on the Everystar platform, they can opt to do so. To date there are more than two million works listed on the site, with some notable success stories. For example, the King Game keitai novel saw great success on the platform, and even went on to publish on Amazon, subsequently selling 4.6 million physical books and comic books. The Everystar service sees over one million daily unique users, which makes it a valuable outlet for aspiring creators to reach an audience. Having originally launched back in 2010, it’s already a profitable business for its…

everystar-2

Everystar is a joint venture between DeNA and NTT Docomo that allows people to publish and distribute their own comics and novels for consumption on mobile devices [1]. While most of the content is available for free, some of it is paid as well, with those who sell their works collecting 40% of royalties from published works.

Normally those publishers are professionals, but today it was announced that Everystar will be allowing all users to publish and collect 80% of their royalties for a limited time campaign.

The promotion will run until December 31, 2013, during which time if any user wishes to sell their content on the Everystar platform, they can opt to do so.

To date there are more than two million works listed on the site, with some notable success stories. For example, the King Game keitai novel saw great success on the platform, and even went on to publish on Amazon, subsequently selling 4.6 million physical books and comic books. The Everystar service sees over one million daily unique users, which makes it a valuable outlet for aspiring creators to reach an audience. Having originally launched back in 2010, it’s already a profitable business for its operators.

Over the past few years I’ve developed the habit of referring to DeNA as just a mobile gaming company. And while gaming is still its bread and butter business, it’s interesting to see that company actually has diverse internet offerings, with services like DeNA Shopping, its Groovy music app, and its social network for seniors called Shumito Club.

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  1. The venture is 70% owned by DeNA and 30% by Docomo.  ↩

CocoPPa partners with Tokyo Otaku Mode on anime-themed decorations for your smartphone homescreen

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See the original story in Japanese. CocoPPa, a smartphone wallpaper/icon decoration app from Japanese web conglomerate United, has tied up with Tokyo Otaku Mode (TOM) to allow Cocoppa users to bring their favorite illustrations from TOM to their smartphone homescreens. This is the first such collaborative business endeavor for Cocoppa. Both Cocoppa and TOM are popular sites among young people, and both have succeeded in spreading Japanese culture around the world. For TOM, this partnership gives its users more chances to show off their works as well. CocoPPa recently surpassed 8 million downloads worldwide, and TOM has accumulated more than 12.5 million likes on its Facebook. We expect that this partnership between two globally influential startups can bring about great results and more awareness about the two companies worldwide.. On a related note, we reported earlier today that has also just released a new smartphone app called Tokyo Otaku Mode mini. It’s a busy week for the up-and-coming company!

CocoPPa-TOM

See the original story in Japanese.

CocoPPa, a smartphone wallpaper/icon decoration app from Japanese web conglomerate United, has tied up with Tokyo Otaku Mode (TOM) to allow Cocoppa users to bring their favorite illustrations from TOM to their smartphone homescreens.

ec94b5743a833a9c53b3514949659d33This is the first such collaborative business endeavor for Cocoppa. Both Cocoppa and TOM are popular sites among young people, and both have succeeded in spreading Japanese culture around the world. For TOM, this partnership gives its users more chances to show off their works as well.

CocoPPa recently surpassed 8 million downloads worldwide, and TOM has accumulated more than 12.5 million likes on its Facebook. We expect that this partnership between two globally influential startups can bring about great results and more awareness about the two companies worldwide..

On a related note, we reported earlier today that has also just released a new smartphone app called Tokyo Otaku Mode mini. It’s a busy week for the up-and-coming company!

Tokyo Otaku Mode releases new Otaku news app for iPhone and Android

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo Otaku Mode announced Thursday that it has introduced a new smartphone app called Tokyo Otaku Mode mini, which is available for both iOS and Android. The new app delivers news updates on otaku culture, including Japanese anime, manga, and games. Users can set what time they want to receive news updates each day. And once a news article is downloaded, it can be read offline on the app as well. Previously, TOM released Otaku Camera which we’re told has accumulated 3.5 million downloads since its release back in December of 2012. More than 90% of all downloads are from outside Japan. The app also provides lots of illustrated frames using famous anime characters. If you’d like to try out the new Tokyo Otaku Mode mini app, you can get it over on the App Store or on Google Play.

tom-mini-logo

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo Otaku Mode announced Thursday that it has introduced a new smartphone app called Tokyo Otaku Mode mini, which is available for both iOS and Android.

The new app delivers news updates on otaku culture, including Japanese anime, manga, and games. Users can set what time they want to receive news updates each day. And once a news article is downloaded, it can be read offline on the app as well.

Previously, TOM released Otaku Camera which we’re told has accumulated 3.5 million downloads since its release back in December of 2012. More than 90% of all downloads are from outside Japan. The app also provides lots of illustrated frames using famous anime characters.

If you’d like to try out the new Tokyo Otaku Mode mini app, you can get it over on the App Store or on Google Play.

tom-mini

Manga plates turn dinnertime into an epic comic food fight

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Some of you may recall when we recently featured the recently launched crowdfunding platform Anipopo. On that site, you can discover and support manga artists, or any projects that you think deserves some help. I came across an interesting design item that any manga fan would love on their dinner table. It’s called Mangazara, ‘zara’ or ‘sara’ meaning ‘plate’ in Japanese. And these manga plates are really awesome, because the printed design makes your food look like it’s part of a manga story. There are eleven designs available in total, like two women in a stare-down or a big manga-style sound effect for example. With the latter, you could put some popcorn on there to make it look like an epic snack battle! Comicalu, the company behind these manga plates, has just released more mangazara in collaraboration with Glass Mask (or Garasu No Kamen), a famous manga that started way back in 1976. The company says that the three types of illustrations make for a very dramatic dinner table, all for the affordable price of 2980 yen each (about $32). It’s certainly a great way to initiate some dinner conversation. But if you don’t like kids playing with their food,…

mangazara-pancakes

Some of you may recall when we recently featured the recently launched crowdfunding platform Anipopo. On that site, you can discover and support manga artists, or any projects that you think deserves some help. I came across an interesting design item that any manga fan would love on their dinner table. It’s called Mangazara, ‘zara’ or ‘sara’ meaning ‘plate’ in Japanese.

And these manga plates are really awesome, because the printed design makes your food look like it’s part of a manga story. There are eleven designs available in total, like two women in a stare-down or a big manga-style sound effect for example. With the latter, you could put some popcorn on there to make it look like an epic snack battle!

Comicalu, the company behind these manga plates, has just released more mangazara in collaraboration with Glass Mask (or Garasu No Kamen), a famous manga that started way back in 1976. The company says that the three types of illustrations make for a very dramatic dinner table, all for the affordable price of 2980 yen each (about $32).

It’s certainly a great way to initiate some dinner conversation. But if you don’t like kids playing with their food, it might be something you want to avoid!

mangazara-popcorn

Japanese web conglomerate Septeni Holdings establishes manga-focused business, will build e-publication platform

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Japanese web conglomerate Septeni Holdings (JASDAQ:4293) has established a new subsidiary that will focus on building a manga content e-publication platform. The group gets most of its revenue from online advertising and social gaming apps. But with this platform, it is looking to diversify its business beyond intellectual property. The new subsidiary, Comicsmart, will establish a website, as well as discover and train new cartoonists for its comic e-publication platform. The company also announced a program to supporting aspiring cartoonists, called Route M, giving them complimentary painting materials, production facilities, grants, and distribution channels for their works. On a related note, Japanese gaming company Spicy Soft recently announced that it has handed over Manga Get (a manga-focused, user-generated content site) to Septeni. The site has more than 900,000 amateur cartoonists and more than 40,000 cartoons. Some of our readers may remember that Gyao and GREE recently established an investment fund for the anime business. Since the beginning of this year, anime-related startps such as MugenUp or Anipipo have been attracting much attention among Japanese consumers and investors.

comicsmart_logoJapanese web conglomerate Septeni Holdings (JASDAQ:4293) has established a new subsidiary that will focus on building a manga content e-publication platform. The group gets most of its revenue from online advertising and social gaming apps. But with this platform, it is looking to diversify its business beyond intellectual property.

The new subsidiary, Comicsmart, will establish a website, as well as discover and train new cartoonists for its comic e-publication platform. The company also announced a program to supporting aspiring cartoonists, called Route M, giving them complimentary painting materials, production facilities, grants, and distribution channels for their works.

On a related note, Japanese gaming company Spicy Soft recently announced that it has handed over Manga Get (a manga-focused, user-generated content site) to Septeni. The site has more than 900,000 amateur cartoonists and more than 40,000 cartoons.

Some of our readers may remember that Gyao and GREE recently established an investment fund for the anime business. Since the beginning of this year, anime-related startps such as MugenUp or Anipipo have been attracting much attention among Japanese consumers and investors.

CC-lincenced picture: Production IG Tour by Danny Choo
Production IG Tour, photo by Danny Choo, CC license

Cardboard themed mobile charger proves surprisingly popular in Japan

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Many Japanese people commute to work by train. This is the core time when they use their mobile phones. Due to extended use on trains like this, people often run down their battery, resulting a big need for portable mobile phone chargers. One popular charging device is the Cheero Power Plus Danboard version. The product has proven very popular, and is currently sold out. But it will be available again in mid-June 1. ‘Danboard’ means ‘cardboard’ in Japanese, and this particular danboard is a character that appears in a famous manga called Yotsuba&! named Danbo. This manga started 10 years ago in 2003 and so far has sold 10 million books. Readers may be familiar with Yotsuba&! since it has been translated into 13 different languages and sold in 23 countries. So Japanese or even non-Japanese manga fans may be familiar with the cute looking cardboard character. The Cheero mobile charger can recharge an iPhone 5 (or any other mobile phone) up to five times, and it takes about 11 to 13 hours for a full charge. It comes with a 75 cm micro USB cable and a linen bag. There are features to prevent overcharge and discharge, and there…

Cheero-danboard

Many Japanese people commute to work by train. This is the core time when they use their mobile phones. Due to extended use on trains like this, people often run down their battery, resulting a big need for portable mobile phone chargers. One popular charging device is the Cheero Power Plus Danboard version. The product has proven very popular, and is currently sold out. But it will be available again in mid-June 1.

‘Danboard’ means ‘cardboard’ in Japanese, and this particular danboard is a character that appears in a famous manga called Yotsuba&! named Danbo. This manga started 10 years ago in 2003 and so far has sold 10 million books. Readers may be familiar with Yotsuba&! since it has been translated into 13 different languages and sold in 23 countries. So Japanese or even non-Japanese manga fans may be familiar with the cute looking cardboard character.

The Cheero mobile charger can recharge an iPhone 5 (or any other mobile phone) up to five times, and it takes about 11 to 13 hours for a full charge. It comes with a 75 cm micro USB cable and a linen bag. There are features to prevent overcharge and discharge, and there is also an automatic stop feature when temperature gets too high. There are two sockets, allowing users to charge tablets and some game consoles as well.

The Cheero Power Plus Danboard version is 3,750 yen (or about $37). But as previously mentioned, it is already sold out on Amazon. Such a mobile charger is good for everyday use, but it is also useful during earthquake or other natural disasters. Yostuba, the company behind the product has also released an Amazon branded version of its character Danbo in cooperation with an anime figure manufacturer Kaiyodo.

Yostuba-amazon


  1. It seems that the product’s pre-order has ended already.