Welp, it’s been a good run, but it is seeming more and more likely that the age of MangaDex is over. With the wave of over 7000 takedown requests and policy changes requiring explicit rights or permission to upload, scanlators have largely stopped using the site.
So, what comes next? I don’t know, but let’s chat about it. Additionally, feel free to use this thread like you would any other weekly general thread by sharing about what you read this past week, asking for recommendations, or questions.
Like normal, please be careful with spoilers. I wrote a guide about spoilers in case you need a refresher on how to handle them (also linked in the sidebar).
First things first, this whole situation sucks, and not just for us (users of MD). It is going to suck for these publishers as well. Without sites like MD spreading manga to international audiences, those audiences are simply going to stop reading it and consume some other form of entertainment. The official avenues to get this content largely don’t exist in many parts of the world, and where they do exist kinda (very much) suck. As readership drops, the value of their IP for licensing will also decrease.
I have a lot more understanding for these companies issuing takedowns for IPs that have been licensed, but the vast swath of unlicensed content (that is almost guaranteed to never be licensed) makes this feel punitive to the community as a whole and vindictive.
As for the future, I fear that scanlators are going to go a couple different routes:
In any case, it is inevitably going to fragment the community.