It’s common wisdom that there’s never been a better time to be an anime fan. More anime than you could watch in a lifetime is legally available streaming online for free; for only a small monthly subscription, you can access another lifetime’s worth only hours after it airs in Japan. Gone are the days of paying $30 for a two-episode VHS, of gathering around a fuzzy fansub VHS at anime club, of tolerating nonsensical edits and low-quality dubbing to watch a show on TV. For people who have been into the hobby for fifteen years or more, it’s an age of miracles.
But if you’re a manga fan? Not so much.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still much better than it used to be – manga volumes are inexpensive and plentiful, with a wide variety of series being released. However, compared to the land of milk and honey that anime fans inhabit, it can feel a bit frustrating. Many fans end up turning to scanlations, scanned versions of manga volumes available for free online, using either amateur translations or sometimes outright pirating the official English releases. It’s not hard to see why this is popular or commonplace – manga is almost never free and convenient the way anime is, and fans weaned on online streaming are used to instant gratification. Many fans don’t even realize that these sites are illegal, since they’re often among the first results when you plug a title into a search engine.
Manga fans, there is a better way!
I Have a Heroine Problem 