This weekend, KissAnime and KissManga got shut down without any warnings after being active for almost a decade, providing one-stop source for all anime and manga respectively.

So you and everyone are probably asking… how are you suppose to watch anime and read manga legally?

Well, if you know Japanese, there are several choices:

Manga:

• cmoa.jp  Free preview/chapters/books available but they don’t accept foreign credit cards to purchase additional chapters.
• Renta  I feel like this has slightly smaller collection than cmoa, but this accepts foreign credit cards, so you can read all you want. Also Renta has multiple version of manga, so if you’re reading on your phone, you can choose “vertical style” where each cell is drawn bigger so it’s easier to read on the phone.
• Mee Manga  This is app-only but it has a unique feature that lets you read one chapter every 24 hours, if you don’t want to pay. It also runs specials every month where they release multiple books for free for a limited time. For example, right now until Aug 20th, they are releasing 37 chapters of “Omoi Omoware, Furi, Furare” for free.
  • One additional tip for Android users outside of Japan: install QooApp store and use that to download this app. QooApp will make updating the app easier.

None of these options require Japanese VPN.

Anime:

• TVer  This website requires Japan VPN, but it has a lot of broadcasted mainstream anime.

Unfortunately I don’t know any other anime source (because I don’t watch that much anime) but there’s a rumor that Japanese anime industry is trying to publish some content into Youtube.

Japanese VPN options:

• (Paid) ExpressVPN is very fast and works for most streaming sites.
• (Free) VPN Gate is free, provided by Tsukuba University. It’s not very fast, but you can get “residential” IPs so you can access streams that block commercial VPN IPs.

But what if you don’t know Japanese?

This is where I unfortunately, don’t have an answer, and I feel really bad for our international fans. There’s no easy answer because I understand from the publisher side, it’s not always financially possible to pay for official English translators. On the other hand, you have fans excited to work on it for free, but they have no way to distribute it for easy consumption without infringing on copyrights. 

I think the only “gray zone” that make sense here is for the publishers to shut down pure distributors via DMCA, but to turn a blind on the content creators. One could argue that in this Internet age, English-content creators can reach their consumers directly without going through any middle man. KissAsian and KissManga were middle man providing a convenience and collecting ad revenue, but at the end of the day, individuals could reach out to scanlation groups and fansub groups directly to get their English-translated content.

What does this mean for drama?

Well, no one knows for sure.

However, I’ve always felt that the reason why Japanese drama don’t get English subs is a different reason altogether than why Japanese anime don’t get subs. Anime and manga is running on laser-thin profit margins driven by creativity. On the other hand, drama is backed by broadcasting companies, and their budget for the drama comes from advertisements. In others, drama is a vehicle for ad revenue.  So if translating the drama to English doesn’t lead to more ad consumption, then there’s no business reason to invest in English subs.

The other theory I’ve heard is, Japanese drama often addresses emerging social issues–LGBTQ, bullying, suicides, unemployment, etc– and it’s used as a vehicle to educate the public, to spread awareness. These issues maybe Japanese-specific, or told in a way that’s tailored to the Japanese mentality, and thus it doesn’t really make sense for the international audience. 

Of course there are other reasons why international fans would watch drama–for the actor/actresses, for the entertainment, etc–but this is secondary to ad revenue and social education, and thus to the Japanese media, it doesn’t make sense to invest in English subs.

So long term… I don’t think we’ll ever see Japanese drama subbed and distributed legally like we see for Chinese and Korean drama. I don’t think they’ll invest the time or resources to go after fansubbers directly, but we as fansubbers should still do our due diligence and stay out of the limelight.