VIZ Makes Big Positive Move Against Scanlation

For years we’ve accepted scanlation as a necessary evil in the manga industry. This is due to publishers not doing enough to make the official releases more accessible. Industry giant, VIZ Media is finally making an effort to change that. VIZ have made a move against Scanlation by making simultaneous releases with Japan the new standard for their releases.

Beginning today, the current WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP magazine lineup of 13 series will be available to readers for FREE, including BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS, MY HERO ACADEMIA, ONE PIECE, and more. Additional series join the simultaneous lineup, including JUJUTSU KAISEN, ACT-AGE, HAIKYU!! and DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA. Combined with the current lineup, there will be a total of 25 free series, with all-new chapters published in English simultaneously with Japan.

Three Latest Chapters For Free

Fans can dive into the three latest chapters for hit series such as DRAGON BALL SUPER, THE PROMISED NEVERLAND, DR. STONE and more, with new series coming soon.

What this will mean is that there will be no need for scanlation for users who have access to the VIZ manga app or VIZ Media website. Due to region locking practices this new change will exclude a few regions, but there is till hope. If you have an android device then you can download the VIZ manga app as an APK then manually install it. This will grant you access to the free weekly releases despite your location. 

Hopefully more manga publishers will follow VIZ Media’s example and we’ll be able to get all our weekly releases for free through the official channels. It will also be great if every publisher gets rid of the archaic practice of region locking content, so that everyone has the option to support the official releases, because piracy thrives when limited to no options are available.

For the upcoming simultaneous chapter release schedule, please visit https://viz.com/shonen-jump-chapter-schedule.