Top 3 Free Manga Reader Apps for iOS

Today’s review is about one of my most loved hobbies, and that’s none other than reading Manga. I’ve been an avid fan of Japanese comics and animation (anime) for more years than I can remember, and it had a huge influence in my life (it still does). I have been thinking of doing this review for quite some time now, but I always had to postpone it due to something that would come up, which would then make me focus on articles regarding new games instead. I don’t know how many of you enjoy reading manga, or how many of you prefer them from, let’s say comics from the western culture, but I hope that those of you interested in this form of art will find this review useful.

While it’s fairly easy to read translated manga online through a variety of sites, it’s not easy to find an app that will cover all your preferences and make the experience easy and fun. In the past I have been reading manga only on my pc and that experience wasn’t very pleasant because the static images would hurt my eyes very quickly. Although portable devices’ screens also tire our eyes eventually, they’re far more “reading-friendly” than PCs so when I finally acquired a smartphone I looked for the best manga reader I could find. A few years passed since then and things have improved quite a lot, so I can confidently give you today the top 3 FREE manga readers you can find.

1. Manga Rock, by Not A Basement Studio JSC, Free

As my number one manga reader I chose Manga Rock. It’s the reader that I use the most, and it never disappointed me. When you first download and open the application you are asked to choose your manga sources. More specifically, you are given a variety of manga reader sites from which you can choose the ones you want to receive your manga updates. The sources offered are: MangaReader, MangaHere, MangaFox, MangaEden, and Batoto. Be aware that these are the sources with English translations. The app has another 6 languages with their own sources although I’ve never tried them so I can’t say how good they are.

After you’ve picked your source you are given a manga catalog that lists the source’s available manga material sorted by popularity. To find the one you want to read you use the search tab to write the title, or part of it if you don’t remember it, and the app will provide you with a list of manga that have the words you search for. If you’re not looking for a particular title, but for a genre instead, there is an arrow button on top that offers you genre categories to choose from, as well as status.

The next feature after having picked a title of your choice is to add it to favorites list, where you can find it anytime with updates when new chapters are out. Also, when you click on a chapter, the chapter’s name turns from white to blue so you know where you stopped when you return. Of course, the app allows you download chapters as well, in case you want to read them when you won’t have internet or for other reasons. To have unlimited downloads you can purchase the full app. That’s basically the only thing that’s different from the free version as well as the ads remove. Ads are not really a bother because they mostly appear at the bottom of the screen.

Other services include the “recent” button where you can see your recent activity and “Manga Rock Cloud” to back up and restore your data in all devices that have the app. It also allows you to read both vertically or horizontally, adjust the brightness, change reading direction, and zoom in and out.  All in all, Manga Rock is in my humble opinion the best manga reader app you can find.

It’s also available for Android devices. Download Manga Reader for Android here.

2. iManga Reader by James Penguin, Free

And we move on to the 2^nd amazing manga reader, which comes in two versions, the Lite and the Pro version. Allow me to say beforehand that you don’t miss anything from having the lite version. All manga are available to you with no exceptions. What separates the Lite version from the Pro is that the last removes all ads and has unlimited downloads. Every time you use the app it updates all the available manga so if you haven’t used it for a long time it will take a lot to finish update. That can be frustrating as it also crushes during updates sometimes. iManga offers a very detailed list of manga with various categories on the main page. That makes it extremely easy to find the kind of manga you want to read without trying. You can download manga chapters to read while offline, see statistics and read reviews, and get recommendations based on what you read. Of course you can add manga to favorites and even bookmark pages to always keep a track of where you stopped reading last. iManga is a very good manga reader but its downside is that it crushes a lot and it’s frustrating. But its manga collection and detailed categories definitely make it worth having.

3. Manga Book by OHCHOI Team, Free

The 3^rd and last manga reader app with which we will conclude our article is Manga Book. This one, just like the previous titles, is a manga reader app in which you can find manga scanlations, read them for free and download them. Let’s take a look on its features more closely. Manga Book offers automatic updates to titles/series/catalogs and also provides filters for each genre in order to have easy and fast access to the types of manga you enjoy reading more. It also offers background downloads so you won’t have to put your reading on hold until you finish downloading. You can also browse manga on the search with either title or author’s name which is very convenient. What I really enjoy though is the fact that it has an auto bookmark feature so you don’t have to even move your finger. It’s a shame though that it doesn’t offer a favorite list to keep your loved manga like the other two manga readers do. There is however, a recent list so that makes things easier. Hopefully, a favorite section will be added in future updates. Nonetheless, it is a manga reader that you should try out.

And this concludes the top 3 manga readers apps review. I hope you found it helpful and gave you enough information about each app to decide for yourselves which one suits you better. Reading manga after all is a lot more fun and enjoyable when you do it in a tablet or smartphone rather than a laptop or pc. And those of you who haven’t read manga in the past, you could try it out and who knows, maybe you’ll become addicted to it just like I did!