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If you’re a lover of comics and manga then this is the battle that matters. There are a handful of different manga apps on the Play Store and some of them pretty good, but when it comes right down to it there can only be one winner and we’ll attempt to find out who that winner should be between these two epic manga apps. We’ll break down some of the features from each and as always we’ll be throwing a poll at the bottom so make sure to cast your vote. Who deserves to be crowned king? Let’s find out shall we?
Manga Rock
Manga Rock is a great app for reading your favorite manga. It has a beautiful interface which makes reading the manga very enjoyable as it has an optimized experience for reading on smartphones and tablets. The library is fairly large with over 100 thousand different Manga to choose from, pulling in manga from over 20 different sources. The app is localized in seven different languages too, supporting English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Chinese and Vietnamese. Whether you like to read in portrait or landscape mode, Manga Rock supports both orientations so you can enjoy reading however you like.
It has a useful backup and restore tool that allows you to access your Manga Rock data across multiple devices, which is something plenty of apps and games need am I right? If you’re running Android 4.4 or above Manga Rock supports the immersive mode so that you can read your manga without having the status or nav bars present, allowing the manga to take up the full screen. Search and filters make it easy to find the manga that you’re looking for, and if you want to read something new but just don’t want to go searching, you can use the built in discovery tool that will recommend suggestions based on previously read manga. View and sift through all manga in list view or in cover view so you can see the big picture art for each manga, giving the app some extra visual appeal and possibly making it easier to search for the manga you want thanks to the aide of matching the pictures to the name. It also features some really cool personalization option so that you can customize your reading experience, and downloading manga is fast, with storage of manga going directly to your SD card for offline reading. Manga Rock’s one downfall, is that it doesn’t contain access to certain more popular manga that are licensed by certain companies, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece just to name a few. Manga Rock is free, but it does support an in-app purchase for extra features.
Crunchyroll
When it comes to new manga, licensed manga, and anything current, Crunchyroll just might be the best place to go. Crunchyroll allows users access to the hottest manga as it comes out in Japan, so there’s no waiting to get your hands on the latest chapters or volumes and you can get to reading straight away. With Crunchyroll, the app is free but it does require a Crunchyroll account and a subscription if you want access to the all of the latest stuff. Because of this though, you get unlimited access to pretty much everything new and old, license or not. Crunchyroll is already the leading provider and distributor of Anime, and with their new app they’re eyes on the prize of becoming the number one Manga app.
As we stated above the app gets access to the latest manga as soon as it becomes available in Japan, and comes with full mobile support for Android devices including what Crunchyroll calls koma-view, which allows for the maximum scale per panel. You can view the entire series catalog anytime and anywhere. The Crunchyroll manga app is slightly newer than Manga Rock, so there will be a smaller library of manga to access, but they will also have access to hit manga titles like Attack on Titan which Manga Rock doesn’t have available.
So who deserves to be the champion of these two great manga apps? Do you prefer a larger library of accessible manga to read or would you rather have access to the latest manga as they come out in Japan, even if it means a smaller library of titles? Both appear to have great user interfaces and offer full screen viewing for the best and most enjoyable reading experience. One is free with a one time payment in-app to get some extra features, while the other is free with an associated monthly fee to the Crunchyroll service for full access to all chapters for every manga in the library. Cast your votes in the polls and help decide which is the king of manga apps on Android.