Manga Plus

Weekly Shōnen Jump reached a peak weekly circulation of 6.53 million copies in the 1990s, but the decline of print media has since been reducing readership. In response, publisher Shueisha turned towards digital distribution to attempt to reach out to a wider audience.[2]

Shuhei Hosono, the head editor for Shōnen Jump+ and Manga Plus, said that they were aware of the many manga readers overseas, and that they wanted to bring manga to more people around the world. They began talks about a possible global version of Shōnen Jump+ in 2017. Shueisha finally launched Manga Plus on January 28, 2019. The service was made available to every country except China, South Korea, and Japan, with the latter countries being excluded because they each already have their own separate services.[2] The Shōnen Jump+ editorial department manages overseas distribution through Manga Plus in-house. Yūta Momiyama, a Shueisha editor who manages the Shōnen Jump+ and Manga Plus online services, said this is with the intent of making the creation of hit manga on a global scale "a core part of Weekly Shōnen Jump's editorial approach".[3]

Until Manga Plus, Shueisha's titles were distributed throughout the world via local publishers or distribution lines. The launch was the first time that Shueisha had expanded direct service globally.[2] 50 manga titles were available at launch.[3] A portion of the revenue earned from advertisements goes directly to the original manga authors.[3]

At launch, English was the only language available on Manga Plus. The Spanish version launched on February 25, 2019, albeit with a different lineup of manga titles.[4] The Thai version launched in December 2019, only available in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.[5] In February 2021, some titles became available in Indonesian. The Portuguese version of the site launched in April 2021, only available in Brazil and Portugal. In August 2021, Manga Plus took away the region restrictions for all languages, and made it possible to switch to other languages from the series page. The Russian version of the website and app launched on August 9, 2021, with the French version following in September 2021.

In October 2020, Manga Plus started its own official Discord server.[6]

In February 2021, a redesigned web-app version of Manga Plus launched to commemorate its second anniversary.

At the end of June 2022, it was announced that starting in 2023, every new manga series launched on Shōnen Jump+ would receive a simultaneous English release on Manga Plus.[3]

In August 2022, Shueisha launched Manga Plus Creators, a website and app that publishes user-submitted manga from users inside and outside of Japan; the Shōnen Jump+ editorial department is running the service along with localization company MediBang.[7]

In October 2023, a subscription service called "Manga Plus MAX" was added to the app. The service comes with two plans; The Standard Plan which consists of 80 currently serialized works totaling over 6000 chapters and costs $1.99 ($0.99 in Indonesia, India, the Philippines and other regions), and The Deluxe Plan which consists of over 190 titles, including completed series, totaling over 16,000 chapters and costs $4.99 ($3.99 in Indonesia, India, the Philippines and other regions).[8] Alongside the new subscription plan, the website and app had an overhaul on its user interface and an introduction of content ratings ranging from all ages, teen and teen plus to refer to the manga in the app.[9][10][11][12]

Currently, in October 2023, the Manga Plus app has five sections:

• Updates: Shows all chapters released on the app in the past seven days.
• Featured: Includes features for new manga from the Jump line, comments from Weekly Shōnen Jump authors, and the most recently updated series separated by the magazine of publication.
• Browse: Compiles all manga posted on Manga Plus, as well as a tab showing the "hottest" series based on number of views. Of note is that due to its nature as a promotional app, certain series will only have their first and last three chapters freely available to read - this usually applies to any manga licensed by a party outside of Shueisha, including Viz Media, Yen Press, and Udon Entertainment, as the idea is to support the official release when available. This also applies to one-shots or completed series - if they are licensed elsewhere, several weeks after release one-shots will be removed and completed series will only include the first three chapters.
• Creators: The homepage for Manga Plus Creators. Users can read and comment on user-submitted manga - the top ten most read series are reviewed by Shueisha and Medibang, and every month they reward series they deem exceptional with a cash prize, as well as potential publication on Manga Plus proper.
• My Shelf: Compiles series that the user has favorited, as well as options to change their username or avatar for comments, change manga languages, and other news and notices.

• Shonen Jump digital vault

• Official website