Where to read free Japanese manga

Popular titles are often serialised and broken down into mini or micro-chapters. It’s one way to read most chapters (if not all) of the series for free, in exchange for your time!

Not to mention a handy way to re-read familiar series or find new ones that spark your interest.

• Shogakukan eComic Store
• Dokusho no Ojikan (Ameba Manga)
• Digital Margaret (formerly Margaret Bookstore, Ribomaga)
• MangaPark (web and smartphone app, has a detailed category list)
• ebookjapan
• comic Fleur (boys’ love)
• Yomonga (smartphone only and requires a LINE account to register)
• Comic Pixiv
• Mecha Comic
• Comic Days (latest series chapters)
• Kurage Bunch
• comico
• piccoma

These are free-to-read promos, usually the first volume or the beginning of a series that is free.

• sokuyomi
• Amazon Japan (Kindle), search results
• Hakusensha e-net!
• ebookjapan
• Dokusho no Ojikan (Ameba Manga)
• BookLive
• Bookwalker Japan
• Mecha Comic
• Ribomaga (formerly Margaret! Bookstore)

or at any of your preferred ebook retailers!

Check out my list of ebook retailers alongside a quick breakdown of their features. If you prefer to enjoy Japanese fiction on audio, check out this post which includes Japanese audiobooks!

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Where to buy digital drama CDs

Last updated: November 16, 2021

Here’s a guide to where to buy and support drama CD releases! You can bookmark by Ctrl+D; Command+D or star/bookmark icon on your favourite browser 😀

Many hours of research have gone into this guide and feel free to share the post with your friends, tip me on Ko-fi or with BAT on my Twitter!

Everything can be found after the cut 🙂

Where to buy Japanese manga

Exactly where and how does one buy Japanese e-books and digital manga? A lot of Japanese publications have gone digital now so no more hefty import and shipping costs!

This post is not comprehensive and while I try to cover key points for each website listed, let me know if there’s anything else you want to know.

If you enjoyed this post or found it useful, consider sharing it or supporting me on Ko-fi!

Want to read free manga? Read here instead.

Changes to new eBookJapan registrations

Note: As of Feb 28, 2019 onwards, the original eBookJapan site no longer accepts new registrations and existing users can migrate their account and books to the new website.

Note 2: The migration process has closed in May 2020 (or so).

Note 3: Japanese mobile numbers are now required if you wish to create a Yahoo! Japan account 😦 – I recommend checking BookWalker for international-friendly accessibility for manga in Japanese and English (global store).

I will go into detail about the merging of eBookJapan with Yahoo! Japan’s Bookstore (their ebook retail arm). Read it here.

This post is originally published on September 21, 2017 with major revisions made on June 13, 2019. Some revisions are still ongoing.

Contents

Page 1 This page is for existing users. Read more after the cut.
Page 2 for creating a new account.
Page 3 is how to login on Android.
Page 4 is the out-of-date guide for the now defunct eBookJapan Initiative website.

Note: This post is heavy on graphics/screenshots.

1 2 3 4

Songs from A3! (Act! Addict! Actors!)

Basically where you can stream A3! songs for free.

I need to thank whoever who used the search term to get to my blog. I don’t provide downloads but enjoy this guide!

First, A3! has full releases of their music on Spotify in Japan and internationally. I’m somewhere in Southeast Asia and I can listen to most of their songs on Spotify if not all.

Official Playlists

By Pony Canyon*

• A3! (エースリー) -Game Size Ver.-
• A3! (エースリー)

By Spotify

• A3!

*Pony Canyon playlists are not kept up to date.

Playlists I made

I’ve made four different Spotify playlists in an attempt to collect all the tracks. You need to toggle ‘show unplayable tracks’ because some are still unavailable.

• A3! All Songs, Instrumentals, BGM (エースリー) – basically all the game music releases (vocals, instrumentals and BGM).
• A3! All Character Songs – Vocal tracks from the game, full and short sizes.
• A3! Anime Discography
• A3! All Stage Play Songs

Will try and keep them updated 🙂

For those who don’t know how Spotify works, you can listen to whatever music you like for free. There’s a catch though. There will be ads and that you can’t choose which specific tracks you can listen to.

It plays on shuffle and has a limit to how many tracks you can skip until an ad pops up on the smartphone. You can overcome this on the PC/Web version or iPad (other tablets included) app but the skip track limits will still be in place.

Paid subscription removes all the above limits and allows you to listen to the music offline by downloading them on the device.

Second, iTunes and Apple Music

According to the official Twitter account, their music is also released on Apple Music. I have also found the link for their 1st theme song single and the latest release by the rookie members of the A3! family on Apple Music (United States).

A3ders! artist page (Apple Music)

And if their songs are available on your side of Apple Music, there is a 3-month trial for you to give it a go.

I won’t mention Japan’s region-restricted sites such as mora and recochoku but Youtube can be helpful at times like this. I think Google Play Music is also another option if you’re on Android and have that in your region.

Lastly, if you have the cash to import, you can buy their CDs from CDJapan and Amazon Japan for example. It’s not cheap but worth the effort and money since the design, colours and the music are absolutely amazing.

Plus! If there is still stock with the codes (if they have not expired!), you can get a special card of your choice that you can’t get elsewhere.