Deep Dive Analysis - K Manga

As I was saying in the other ATW chapter, I rewrote this Deep Dive review. Yup, I scratched it out and made this into a new review for the app AND the website. Hope you understand the delay. Let's jump right into this.

First off, what is K Manga?
Well, it might not shock you, but this is the one and only Kodansha, one of Japan's biggest manga publishers. They released their app internationally for foreigners to view.

Before we get to the review, I also want to shout out all the manga providers/publishers out there who released their manga for foreigners to view. I will review and compare them all when I release another DDA chapter. But for now, I want to talk about K Manga.

We'll start this review by talking about Kodansha itself. What manga have been published there?
I want you to think of an answer at the top of your head.

If it's one of these, then you are correct.
- Attack on Titans
- The Cafe Terrace and its Goddess
- Diamond no Ace
- Gachiakuta
- Rent-a-Girlfriend
- The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity
- Shangri-La Frontier
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Vinland Saga

And so much more.

From these rosters of manga, you would definitely see the potential of this app and website, right? There is absolutely zero chance this publisher flops...

Well, we'll talk about that in just a moment.

The first time you open the app, you'll be greeted with tons of pop-ups to welcome you to the app. LOOOOTS of them. When you went through them, you were immediately exposed to their chapter system.
Tickets and coins.

My initial reaction was disappointment because this system discourages newcomers from reading more manga in your app and encourages them to spend those tickets only on their favorite manga.

At least that's how I felt about it. I don't know about you guys.

After that discovery, you're probably going to open one of the manga you want to read, right? Well, that's where the banner comes in. I will say that this feature is sooooo much better than other publishers did. We'll talk about that in another chapter of DDA.

In the banner, at least for the newcomer, you'll see a lot of recommendations for manga that they provide, as well as how to get coins and tickets.

If you're like me, you'd probably be curious about how they implemented the system to make you come back to their app. Bear in mind, I was still disappointed with their ticket and coin system.
The answer was ads...
Yes, to get coins, you have to grind them by watching ads AND doing treasure hunting. I shit you not, that's how they're making me keep coming back. They promised 50 COINS in a single treasure hunt, and so far, I have only gotten 20 at max in a single hunt.

This treasure hunt offers a variety of rewards, not just coins. You can get tickets if you're "lucky".

There is another way to get coins: play games. Wow wee, I never thought I would see this kind of system in this app. It's been a long time since I've seen this implemented in an app.

I did play one of them, though. Thank goodness that was a good game. Most of them are just trash, like you expected.

Okay, you might have asked yourself this, "Tim! Why do you paint the bad things first before talking about the good points of this app?"
Yeah, of course I said this first, because this is how they make money, AND it's trash. I have to talk about it first before I talk about the good, which there are tons.

Now, let's move on.

I have talked shit about their system, now let's talk about why I talked about their shit system first. You see, when you open one of the manga they provide, you'll be welcomed with a cover, a synopsis, a readlist with the number of things you have to spend to read, a star button(that's the subscribe/follow button), and a share button.

It looks alright. When you scroll, you can also see the recommendations they provide when you read that manga.

I will say this is so much better looking than Manga Plus and the newest Webtoon UI.
Great job on the looks, guys.

You opened the chapter, you'll be seeing the manga's chapter... of course. But here is the good part! Unlike Webtoon or Manga Plus, when you click on a page, you can see clearly what page you are on, like "Manga UP!". Manga Plus can do that, but it is annoying as hell. We'll talk about the details in the next DDA.

When you finish reading, you'll be greeted by yet another recommendation.
Remember when I said the coins and tickets discourage newcomers from reading another manga? They shoved the recommendation everywhere. I think this is their marketing strategy. It is actually very tempting.

Oh, I forgot about this. You can also earn 5 coins by reading a featured manga of the day. This also encourages newcomers to try to read new manga. I liked that!

We have talked about the system, how about the looks/UI?

For me, it's pretty alright.
You have your landing page called Home on the first tab, Serialized on the second, Bookshelf on the third, My Page on the fourth, and Ranking on the fifth.

I've talked about the Home page. How about the other?
Well, on the Serialized tab, you can see manga that K Manga provides. They showed it per released week. Minor issue that I find weird, unlike other Manga publishers, K Manga doesn't have a search bar on this tab; they have it fixed on the top right of the app. It's just a nitpick because sometimes I forget that the search button is there. I always go to the Serialized tab before I click the search.

Next is Bookshelf.
Not too bad. Inside that tab, you have a sub-tab ranging from Favorites, Purchased, and History. If you ever use this type of app, you know what all of these are about. If not, let me explain briefly.
Favorite sub tab is for all of the manga you clicked the star button on, purchased sub tab is for all manga that you had spent coins on, and history sub tab is where you see manga in order of your latest read.

The next one is My Page.
This one is weird. They put settings in this tab.
Your settings are inside your profile. Below your profile, you get your inventory of tickets and coins. And below that is the button to another page, the shop.

In there, you can buy coins, and if I remember correctly, newcomers will be given lots of deals.

Below the shop button, you have another recommendation. Yeah, they really outdid themself. 😂

And this is my other nitpick for criticism: The ranking tab.

Why is it here? No, seriously. Isn't it weird? You got tons and tons of recommendations shoved into every tab, and you got another DEDICATED tab for recommendations.

I mean, it's cool and all, but don't you think this is a waste of ROM? They could make the fifth tab an App Settings tab, but they decided to make a Ranking tab. Isn't that strange? 😂

Anyway, that was the app. How about the Web?
I'll just spit it out now. It's just okay. See, here is the thing, they never had a website until that day. It is wild to realize that a publisher never has a website.

I don't know about others, but as far as I know, Webtoon started as a website. They transitioned to an app in 2015. Correct me if I'm wrong.

To know that K Manga started as an app immediately felt weird. So, you're telling me they made the app based on nothing? That's impressive if it was true.

Anyway...
Like I said, it's alright. Nothing special. You can visit them to judge it yourself at https://kmanga.kodansha.com/

I do, however, have another nitpick for the web.
They really aren't keen on making a full list of their titles, huh?

Webtoon has it, Manga Plus has it, Manga UP! has it, so where is K Manga?
Like, are you not proud of all the manga you have in your hand? Show them in a nice selection! When you click the Serialized Titles tab, you'll be greeted by the same look as the app, which shows manga that are released weekly.

I mean, you can see all manga per category/genre by clicking the search bar and clicking the genre. But still, I think other publishers do it better than K Manga.

Overall, I rate the app 7/10, an average score. And for the website, 6.7/10.

I think that's it for now. I hope you like this new chapter. I will be back for more analysis, especially about manga/manwha/manhua/comic publisher or provider. Or I might be uploading a completely different analysis. Who knows.

Again, guys, sorry for the delay. I promised you I would release this chapter a long time ago. But I released it today, kind of a dick move from me, yeah. So, I'm so sorry for that. Next time, I won't promise anything. I will just say, it will come. That way, you guys will also get a surprise when I actually release the chapter.

Anyway, see you!