Kodansha announces K MANGA app's international release in India and more

Modified Feb 04, 2025 20:16 GMT

Kodansha announces K MANGA app's international release in India and more (Image via Kodansha)

Tuesday, February 4, 2025 saw the official X account for Kodansha’s K MANGA smartphone application officially announce its international release in India and several other countries. The app is live in these countries as of this article’s writing, with full features available to those in these international regions. Although there are still plenty of territories without access to the app, Kodansha promises in this latest announcement that there are “many more to come.”

While the K MANGA app’s international release excitingly provides an official means of reading the publisher’s series, it isn’t quite as easy as it is with Shueisha’s MANGA Plus service. The key point in this regard is the app’s use of a point system, with users then using these points to unlock new chapters of the series they’d like to read.

Kodansha’s K MANGA app begins international rollout with several major countries/regions, including India

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As mentioned above, India is just one of several countries where the app is available. These newly announced regions include the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Mexico, and Brazil. The app initially launched in the United States of America exclusively, and previously launched in Australia and New Zealand. As mentioned above, Kodansha teases more international availability announcements coming at some point in the future.

Some of the most popular series offered on the K MANGA app include Shangri-La Frontier, Blue Lock, Rent-a-Girlfriend, GACHIAKUTA, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse, and more. However, as mentioned above, users need to go through a few extra hoops to read their series than competing publishers’ similar platforms may require. This is largely due to the implementation of a ticket and points system within the app.

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Users are provided with one free “Normal Ticket” once a day. This can be used to read a single chapter of a “K MANGA original series” per ticket. Three to four “Premium Tickets” can be obtained per day from login bonuses and special campaigns, in turn allowing users to read four to five chapters per day. Alternatively, users can purchase points and use these to unlock chapters of a series, with points also being available to earn for free via in app activities.

The app first launched in the United States on Android and iOS on May 10, 2023. At launch, the app offered roughly 400 titles, 60 of which were said to be simulpub titles whose chapters would debut on K MANGA before on other platforms.The first few chapters of most titles were available for free at the time of launch, and still are for the most part. As of this article’s writing, it seems Kodansha has no intent to move away from the app’s point system despite criticisms.