Back in April, a new manga service called Manga Flip debuted. So it’s time to try it out!
Manga Flip is released by a Japanese company called Amazia, who has a Japanese language manga app called Manga BOOM. But now they are going international with Manga Flip.
Manga Flip is unavailable to browse on a computer, but its app is available on both Android and Apple devices. I downloaded it on my iPad Air 3.
Before going any further, I have to add that “Manga Flip” is a name I think could get lost in the crowd. There are several official services with “manga” in their name (MANGA Plus, for instance), but piracy sites like to call themselves “Manga Something-or-other”. The preview images on iOS say “Original Japanese Manga App” and “New episodes are updated weekly”, but maybe there was a better way to emphasize this is a legit source with exclusive titles.
Anyway, the app took a bit to load when I first started it up, and I even had to reload it. But then the cover images finally loaded.
The main page is divided into three categories: New Episodes, Featured Mangas, and All. Menu options are limited to Manga (the main page), Bookshelf (read titles), and Account. The Account includes the usual version and terms info, but there’s also a calendar of upcoming releases. I really didn’t understand the schedule. Only six of eight manga had the next chapter listed, and there was also a huge gap in the list, going from Sunday, June 27th to July 3rd. From some of the dates on the already-available chapters, it seems like each title would update weekly, but maybe there are breaks? Or the calendar isn’t kept up well? Anyway, the Settings option is limited to choosing whether to start from the last page read.
There are currently eight manga titles available on Manga Flip:
- Dungeon Battle Royale
- I Was Invited to the Otherworldly Country as a Warrior, But I Refused and Decided to Start as a Soldier
- Kukuru Mawase
- Milimoss Saga – War Records of the Reincarnated Youngest Prince
- Necromancer of White – The Road to the Spirit King
- Robustness
- The Date of Marriage – If You Can’t have a Fiancé Let’s Get Married
- The Gargoyle on the Ground is Still Dangerous – Adventure Diary of the Wingless
The way the titles are written vary. Sometimes they follow standard English title rules, such as in the case of The Gargoyle on the Ground is Still Dangerous. Manga like Dungeon Battle Royale are in all caps. Others like the long isekai title about starting as a soldier only have the first word capitalized. So I’m not 100% sure if the way it’s written in the app is how they want to officially title the English version. Because if the app’s titles are as-written, I guess a series of chapters are titled “SUMMONED INTO ANOTHR [sic] WORLD AND THE ADMIRATION FOR A SOLDIER”. (WHY ARE WE SHOUTING??)
Anyway, the lineup includes a mix of isekai (which makes up half of the manga), sports, fantasy, and female-oriented romance. I do like how Manga Flip at least is trying to include some variety. These are all made for online serialization, but unlike other platforms’ releases, the manga are to be read like a book instead of scrolling vertically. I really don’t like the webtoon scrolling format, so I was glad to see the flip style.
Clicking on a manga will bring up a page with a summary, basic info, and the chapter list. Chapters are about 10-15 pages long. Generally, three of these chapters will share the same title, just divided into sections. These are then gathered under a part number, and a group of parts is roughly equivalent to a manga volume. So even though these series are written just for Amazia and could end on cliffhangers like most weekly magazine serializations, these are chapters divided into parts so that there can be odd endings. Other services have this same abruptness.
Anyway, starting a chapter brings up an overlay with buttons for next chapter, previous chapter if there is one, and a progress bar.
Again, by default, you will start a chapter over if you leave and come back later (chapters are grayed out if you’ve read them before), but the app can remember where you left off.
Clicking on a chapter will automatically add the series to your bookshelf, so if/when this app grows, I can see this getting cluttered very quickly. I’d like to see this section separated into, say, favorited/followed titles and history.
Pages for me either loaded instantly or took about 4 seconds. More often not pages were ready when I flipped to the next page, but randomly, I’d have to wait. This happened even if I had been reading slowly. So not the snappiest app, but pretty good overall, although I hope the server speed grows in proportion as new manga and chapters are added to Manga Flip.
The images look a little compressed, which is noticeable around the text. You can zoom in on a page. Obviously, zooming in will make pages look worse, but it does help emphasize the rather lackluster quality. It looks almost like a scanlation rather than (presumably) having the original digital files. I’d like to see the manga in higher quality, especially as phone and tablet manufacturers continue to push for better and better resolutions on their products.
The app does rotate with the tablet, which is something not all apps do. Unfortunately, if you put your device in landscape mode, part of the page is cut off. I could start to zoom out and see the cut-off portions, but as soon as I let go, the image went back to the default. Same with zooming in, as even if I try to move the picture over, the page would just move itself back to the same position.
Also, one weird thing I noticed was that the time and battery information on the top of the screen was always visible. In other apps, the app opens like in full screen so that info is hidden unless I press the middle to bring up the menu. But for some reason, Manga Flip runs in such a way that the device information is always shown when browsing. A bit annoying but not terrible, but depending on the tablet/phone, this may be more obtrusive when reading.
When you get to the end of the chapter, you get the same next/previous options and also a share button.
As for the manga themselves, obviously, quality and intrigue are subjective, but I found myself most interested in Rubustness, a tale set in ancient Greece about a young man wanting to become the best in the martial art of Pankration. Neat to see a historical action set in ancient times, and one with a sports theme. The art in each were good and did not have the hollow, solo work feel like a lot of made-for-online manga has. I did see honorifics in the manga set in modern times, and Japanese name order seems to be used as well. The translation seems to be fine from what I’ve seen, although there were some parts that were questionable. (Is the prettiest girl in school really known as an “omega babe”?)
The app was nagging me to rate it, which I found annoying. Never been asked so many times in such a short period of time.
However, I didn’t mention the best part of the app: it’s free. There weren’t ads built-in, and all chapters were available without some kind of subscription or payment. I don’t know if they can stick with that in the long term, but for now, it’s great!
That’s really the main reason to check out Manga Flip — it’s legal and free. It’s still just starting out, and it needs to make a few improvements, but most manga reading services put a limit on how much you can read for free. And while the selection is currently limited, the only way to get more is to have more people download Manga Flip and read. There are options for the popular isekai genre available, a few titles from other common genres, and a few more unique series, so it’s very likely manga fans can find at least one series that’s worth following. No desktop option is a disappointment since sometimes I like to read on my laptop, but at least the app is available on both major mobile device operating systems.
So if you want to see more free manga in English, you should seriously consider downloading Manga Flip.