“There is an end to everything, to good things as well.”
So reads the header of One Manga’s closure page, now visible if you visit the site. One Manga has announced that they will no longer be hosting “scanlations” of manga (i.e. scanned manga that is fan-translated), because manga publishers don’t like what they do. Now One Manga isn’t exactly Pirate Bay, so instead of sticking them a finger, they’ve decided to take the quiet route and shut down site activities.
This week is the last you will get on the site to read free online manga, which isn’t legal, but has long been helpful to the tons of people who don’t have access to manga otherwise, or space to maintain a collection. Of course, this isn’t the end of the road. While the guys at One Manga aren’t sure about what they’re going to do next, you can assume that a hydra-effect may evolve, and we’ll end up with even more manga sites. It probably doesn’t need mentioning that there already are tons of other sites hosting manga online, and then add file-sharing sites to that.
So for now, good night, sweet prince.