New manga subscription service launches with a quarantine-friendly 2-month free trial

For those of you looking for more ways to occupy ourselves while staying at home during the global pandemic, a brand new mobile manga subscription service has launched with a two-month free trial.

Available in Apple’s App Store as of Wednesday, Mangamo offers subscribers unlimited access to popular manga titles in English, including “Attack on Titan,” “Somali & the Forest Spirit,” “Fire Force” and “Arte,” for $4.99 per month (after the free trial period is over).

For the uninitiated, manga are Japanese comic books, which means they are written and generally read from right to left. Since people of all ages read manga in Japan, they span many genres — action, comedy, romance, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and others. That anime you checked out on your favorite streaming service? It likely originated from a manga.

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“I grew up reading manga and watching anime as a child in Japan, and I’m inspired by the global rise of this treasured Japanese form of entertainment,” said Mangamo founder and CEO Buddy Marini in a press statement. “Mangamo offers something I’ve always wanted as a fan: an easy and affordable way to read a ton of new manga while giving back to the publishers and creators so they can continue to make the manga I love.”

The entirety of Mangamo’s curated library is officially licensed and professionally translated. Among titles seeing their first official English language release are “Dropkick my Devil,” “Akatsuki Babies,” “Reset Game” and “Daily Meteor Strike.”

The service is partnered with 11 manga publishers and expects to roll out more than 300 titles in upward of 1,000 volumes over the next three months, with new chapters added daily.

While Mangamo is available only on iOS devices for now, there are existing alternatives for those without access to an iPhone or iPad. Digital manga is also available through your browser or Android device on sites like Comixology, Shonen Jump and Crunchyroll. You can also check in with your local bookstore or comic book shop to see if they will ship any manga they have in stock.