[Updated] Manga Rock team announces new Mr Comics platform, apologizes & explains everything about shut down

This story is being continuously updated….new updates are being added at the bottom…..

One of the most beloved Manga piracy sites, Manga Rock, is shutting down, and it was announced earlier through the J-Cast news website on September 03. Manga Rock developers have officially confirmed this news today, and they have announced that they are launching a new platform MR Comics.

They have also explained the entire journey of Manga Rock platform in an official blog post and the reason for its closing. Developers have also confirmed that Manga Rock will be removed from App Store and Google Play store in the first week of September.

The Manga Rock website will also get shut down in the second week of September. All visitors will be directed to the new platform MRComics.com. The developers at Manga Rock have also explained how this new platform will benefit both creators and comic fans.

The main reason they cited for shutting down Manga Rock is that it was negatively affecting the comics industry and was hurting comic creators on the monetary front. Comic creators work hard to create engaging content for their readers, and if it is accessible for free, then it negates their hard work and efforts. Also, it gives no support to creators to further create new content.

Now, let us learn about the journey of our favourite ‘Manga Rock’, and how it all started. The journey of Manga Rock started in 2010 when the App Store was launched. A bunch of friends were excited to build a product for millions of people globally.

They built an app named Manga Rock which provided scanlations of popular Japanese mangas on the iPhone. The app became so popular among manga fans as it was completely free contrary to VIZ media, which offers subscription service. They subsequently released the app for iPad and other platforms.

From the year 2011 to 2016, they formed a company and shifted their focus to other apps. Over a period of five years, they made many popular apps, including Fuzel Collage and Wood Post. In the year 2016, they shifted their focus back to their roots, and that is Manga Rock.

In the year 2016, Manga Rock developers found that the app kept accumulating millions of readers worldwide and then they tried to learn more about the Comics industry. When they dove deeper into the industry, they learned how ignorant they had been, and their app was hurting the content creators.

Manga Rock developers wanted to fix their wrongdoings and decided to build a new platform, MR Comics, which will connect readers to the content creators in a better way. Developers are also launching a new tool called Backstage which will help creators to create, distribute and monetize their content.

On MR Comics website, readers will get access to some free chapters or pages of Manga, and if they love the creator work and want to read more of the content, they will have the option of paying to access it further.

The new platform is also looking forward to changing the mindset of readers who have been reading free content and scanlations of Manga for a long time. Whenever a user tries to read a fan-made version, a prompt will indicate to the user that there is an official version of this title. The official version has been dubbed Plus Titles. MR Comics developers have explained the Plus Titles in the following manner.

MR Comics Plus Titles

Plus Titles are content we officially acquire from publishers & creators. The Plus indicator helps readers clearly distinguish between fan-made and legitimate content, and set expectations for readers to pay for content & support the creators.

MR Comics Membership

MR Comics will also have a membership feature, which will allow readers to pay for advanced features.

Someone on Mangarockapp subreddit has shared they’re working on a new alternative that will be first released a website or web app.

Manga Rock officially dead as reading scanlations are no longer possible. Details here.

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Alternatives for Manga Rock such as Mangazone and Mangadex rise. Head here for more details.

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