{"id":1641,"date":"2013-12-20T17:04:39","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T09:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/?p=1641"},"modified":"2013-12-20T17:13:37","modified_gmt":"2013-12-20T09:13:37","slug":"digital-reads-ebookjapan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2013\/12\/20\/digital-reads-ebookjapan\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Reads: Ebookjapan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of the things I dreaded when I moved to Australia was how I’m going to weed my precious manga collection. By then, my collection has blown out of proportion and to choose which ones to part with tore me apart. Quite literally, if you ask my heart.<\/p>\n

Painful as the process was, it had to be done. Thankfully, my uni’s Japanese department was willing to adopt some of them. And to fill the void of my lost manga, I turned to ebookjapan.<\/p>\n

Ebookjapan<\/a> is a repository of Japanese digital reads: from novels, anthologies, to comics. The entire site’s in Japanese and only distributes Japanese language texts. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite useless for those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak moon runes, but it is a treasure trove for those who can. Also a great learning tool for those studying Japanese.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No geolocation restrictions<\/h3>\n

The hardest part about purchasing digital manga, Japanese or English, is location restrictions. As someone who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live in Japan or in the US, it sucks big time that I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t access some titles. Viz-released titles are available only to US readers. On the other hand, some sites like Honto requires a Japanese phone (and for some, they can only rent a manga for a period?) while Amazon Japan requires a Japanese credit card and address to purchase manga via Kindle.<\/p>\n

Ebookjapan doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have those kinds of restrictions. Simply register and log in their website, install their program in all your devices, and start purchasing titles from the website.<\/p>\n

Save on Digital?<\/h3>\n

I was really hoping that going digital saves a lot of cash but no. Not in the case of EbookJapan. Books in ebookjapan are sold individually. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no subscription service which is great and it makes you choose to buy the titles you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re interested in. Its prices competes with printed text which makes you want to buy the actual manga. However, if like me, you live in at the ends of the earth and shipping just one book actually costs thrice the price of the book, then Ebookjapan is a good compromise.<\/p>\n

Alternately, you can also wait for specials which sometimes halves or even dramatically lowers the price of a manga you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re interested in down to 100 Yen. They also have a point system which makes you earn points per purchase and use those points to lower the price of manga you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re reading.<\/p>\n

Manga interface<\/h3>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been using ebookjapan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s various programs over different devices over the years and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m quite amused how ebookjapan’s technology\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changed and adapted with the times. For many reasons, really. Protection from pirating mostly.<\/p>\n

[image type=”frame” align=”center” width=”500″ caption=”The Ebookjapan Mac Application Interface for downloaded books”]\"\"[\/image]<\/p>\n

For one, I find it interesting that it has its own file format, .ebi. For novels, they already have the .epub format but comics still have ebookjapan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own format, guaranteeing that no other program can read their files but theirs. You can now view the books you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve purchased either via the browser, their app (IOS\/Android), or their program (Win\/Mac).<\/p>\n

[image type=”frame” align=”center” width=”500″ caption=”The Ebookjapan Mac Application Interface”]\"\"[\/image]<\/p>\n

When purchasing comics, they immediately put your manga in a trunkroom (their version of a cloud) and it allows you to just download the manga that you want. Just a note: when a manga has been downloaded to a device and you want to get rid of it because it’s taking space: DO NOT DELETE IT. Deleting it will remove access to the title. Instead, you have to reupload back to the trunk so that you can redownload it again if you need it.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take a screen cap of ebookjapan when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using it in Mac, but you can using the browser and their Android app. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite convenient for me since I can just cap when I do reviews and share my reads via instagram, tumblr, or twitter. That said, the quality of the screen cap is not big or smooth enough for scanlators who have plans in using their raws for distribution.<\/p>\n

[image type=”frame” align=”center” width=”313″ caption=”Android Menu interface for Ebookjapan. All these menu things disappear when you tap the middle area”]\"\"[\/image]<\/p>\n

Reading interface on all devices is straightforward with easy intuitive controls and a menu that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not intrusive until you call on it. The browser and PC\/Mac platform has more zoom, reading, and review options. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually quite nice and competes even with Amazon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Kindle. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s browser option is far superior compared to Jmanga or Crunchyroll\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n

[image type=”frame” align=”center” width=”500″ caption=”The Chrome Browser Menu Interface”]\"\"[\/image]<\/p>\n

All the awesome manga<\/h3>\n

Perhaps my true joy with ebookjapan is that it has a lot of titles. A whole lot of titles, even out of print titles (which is awesome!) They started with smaller publishers and authors but now, even Shueisha has added their titles in Ebookjapan! ((They used to have it locked to smanga before. They also have it in Amazon. However, you notice that if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re living internationally, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t purchase Shueisha titles via Amazon Japan. But you can purchase them via Ebookjapan!))<\/p>\n

[image type=”frame” align=”center” width=”500″ caption=”The Chrome Browser Reading Interface”]\"\"[\/image]<\/p>\n

Ebookjapan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s release date of some titles may be a few months late but if you’re not in a rush, you can possible wait out those few months and hope ebookjapan releases those titles. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perfect for transients like me who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not sure when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be packing my books again or if I even have sufficient space to keep my comics.<\/p>\n

While I pine for manga that I cannot have, Ebookjapan fills the empty void in my manga heart. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all right. In fact, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m quite happy with it. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll try other digital options like honto but given that this company has been going on quite strong for the past 13 years, I have less worries about losing the titles I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve bought. So far, it seems they’re going strong with their repository of Japanese comics growing larger by the day.<\/p>\n

Now, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hoping something similar will be done in English. Will it be Crunchyroll? Amazon Kindle? Kobo? Who knows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I dreaded when I moved to Australia was how I’m going to weed my precious manga […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"For Digital Reads, I checked out @ebookjapan and their Japanese digital manga offerings! http:\/\/wp.me\/p26e5y-qt","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33,372],"tags":[470,471],"class_list":["post-1641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-reading-legal-manga-online","tag-digital-manga","tag-japanese-manga-websites"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p26e5y-qt","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2133,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2016\/12\/31\/my-favourite-manga-reads-in-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":1641,"position":0},"title":"My favourite manga reads in 2016","author":"khursten","date":"December 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 2016. What a year. It's been a tough year for many of us and personally, it was a challenging one. I was so busy with the last stretch of my dissertation that I hardly read any manga at all! When things finally slowed down in December, I started thinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Favorite Reads"","block_context":{"text":"Favorite Reads","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/favorite-reads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/best2016manga.jpg?fit=1200%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/best2016manga.jpg?fit=1200%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/best2016manga.jpg?fit=1200%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/best2016manga.jpg?fit=1200%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/best2016manga.jpg?fit=1200%2C550&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2012,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2015\/12\/31\/10-awesomesauce-manga-from-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":1641,"position":1},"title":"10 awesomesauce manga from 2015","author":"khursten","date":"December 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"2015 came and went so fast and I feel like I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read enough manga. OTL. More like, I feel like I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t written much about the manga I read in the last year. I remember making a call for more josei this year but I ended up reading so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Favorite Reads"","block_context":{"text":"Favorite Reads","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/favorite-reads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shelf","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1720\/23366688053_5fdb0ea604_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1720\/23366688053_5fdb0ea604_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1720\/23366688053_5fdb0ea604_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1907,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2014\/12\/30\/favorite-manga-reads-for-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":1641,"position":2},"title":"Favorite Manga Reads for 2014","author":"khursten","date":"December 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"2014 was a very busy year for me. The bulk of my research was done during this year and in terms of manga reading, I actually spent more time catching up or reading manga related to my research more than reading all the new manga I bought. But I did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Favorite Reads"","block_context":{"text":"Favorite Reads","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/favorite-reads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bookshelf","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7512\/15920118038_8fde071c1c_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7512\/15920118038_8fde071c1c_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7512\/15920118038_8fde071c1c_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1956,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2015\/03\/15\/nakamura-asumikos-doukyuusei-classmates-is-getting-an-anime\/","url_meta":{"origin":1641,"position":3},"title":"Nakamura Asumiko’s Doukyuusei (Classmates) is getting an anime!","author":"khursten","date":"March 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"So good things happened yesterday and one of which was this announcement that A-1 pictures, the studio behind Persona and Utapuri are animating Nakamura Asumiko's Doukyuusei series! You can check the\u00e3\u20ac\u20acofficial anime page too! The series casts the same crew in the official drama cd. That means Nojima Kenji plays\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2015-03-15-at-8.28.47-am.png?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2015-03-15-at-8.28.47-am.png?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2015-03-15-at-8.28.47-am.png?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2015-03-15-at-8.28.47-am.png?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2015-03-15-at-8.28.47-am.png?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1584,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2013\/12\/09\/digital-reads-crunchyrolls-manga-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":1641,"position":4},"title":"Digital Reads: Crunchyroll’s Manga Experience","author":"khursten","date":"December 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I think there's some of us who felt that a part of us died when Jmanga announced that they're closing shop. I really liked Jmanga and I enjoyed the convenience of their service. But as with things digital, the idea that what I own disappears with their sites just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7344\/11075898286_973107ebf9.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2024,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2016\/03\/09\/2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":1641,"position":5},"title":"42. Minori no Te (Minori’s Hand) by Scarlet Beriko","author":"khursten","date":"March 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend of mine and I were once talking about the value of hands in BL. Yaoi hands aside, we were wondering how there are some writers who value the very action of touching more than anything in BL. Beyond sex and all those things, there are boys love titles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Reads"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Reads","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Minori no te","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1580\/24890223344_9bc244ffc5_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1580\/24890223344_9bc244ffc5_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1580\/24890223344_9bc244ffc5_c.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1650,"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions\/1650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}