Quote:Everyone talks about how print media (also known as "dead trees editions," if you're a terrible person) is on its way out, and while the claim may still be contested, it seems that Shonen JUMP is throwing in the towel, at least in the US. Viz Media's Brian Piech announced at NYAF today that the print version fo Shonen JUMP will be gone from shelves by April 2012. Instead, the magazine will transition completely to Shonen JUMP Alpha, a digital equivalent available on Viz Manga website and on Viz Manga's iOS apps (and more channels in the future).

Non-Luddites will, potentially, have much to gain from the transition. Freed from the strictures of paper and the overhead associated with it, Alpha will be releasing new chapters at a near-simultaneous rate with the Japanese originals, starting with powerhouses like One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Bakuman, Toriko, and Nura. To make up for the existing difference between Nippon and the US, Viz will be initiation what they call a "warp", releasing chapters digitally at a rapid pace and ensuring that readers will be completely caught up by launch day.

Shonen Jump Alpha will launch on January 30th, 2012, and come out weekly from then on. Being a magazine, it does cost a nominal amount of money, though. Yearly subscriptions are available at $25.99 (same as print costs today), but readers can opt for a "trial" subscription, where players can "rent" an issue for four weeks at a mere 99 cents per. The latter option is good for folks who aren't interested in all that "archiving" junk and just want to keep up with their favorite manga as it comes out.

Some significant stuff is afoot in the industry. First the formation of Funico, and now Shonen JUMP Alpha? A lot of the things otaku have been claiming as justifications for not using legally-licensed channels are being provided. Are you prepared to join the fold?

MangaStream Wrote:Dear MangaStream supporter,

It's with a heavy heart that I make the following announcement. MangaStream will no longer be releasing the following series:

- Naruto
- Bleach
- One Piece
- Hunter x Hunter
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn
- Claymore
- D.Gray-man

VIZ Media has demanded that we end our scanlation work for all of the above. This comes despite our best efforts to pursuade fans into supporting official distributors by being the only group to actively prevent an archive from forming on their website through the removal of chapters that are older than a couple weeks. They've succeeded in little more than invoking inconvenience to the community as their digital magazine missed the mark; it runs several issues behind and only features 3 of the above series. So long as their product continues to be slow, awkward and inferior to something a ragtag group of nobodies can churn out in a few hours - fans will continue to look to scanlation groups and aggregators for their weekly fix.

The aggressive and escalating nature of their threats have forced our hand into removing the content. MangaStream will no longer be posting full scanlations for any of the aforementioned series, we will instead focus our efforts onto the series we do that are not licensed by VIZ Media (you can assume everything currently on our directory will be continued).

Our final message to our loyal JUMP audience will be this:
Thank you for supporting us over the past two years and making Mangastream your home away from home. It was a pleasure sharing our time with fans who were just as passionate and dedicated as we were.

Although MangaStream will no longer be hosting any of the Jump series, if it's something our fanbase is interested in, we're considering leveraging our connections to bring you accurate spoiler summaries for the Jump chapters as early as possible. We know this isn't much, but hope it can whet your appetite until the dozens of aggregators release the official Jump chapters on Wednesday.

Lozmaster Wrote:...translating shadow clone as shadow doppleganger.

CommanderJinn Wrote:And now Red Hawk was forced to drop Bakuman and Beelzubub -_-