This Manga App Makes Me Want to Drop Shonen Jump

If you’re into Japanese manga like I am, you probably have a subscription to the Shonen Jump app. It is only $3 a month and offers hundreds of titles. But recently I’ve been looking at the Viz Media app and thinking it might be the better choice.

What Is the Viz Manga App?

Viz is a manga company that offers hundreds of different titles in print and digital, from Dragon Ball to Death Note. Its most popular offerings are those under the Shonen Jump banner, which are mostly action titles aimed at adolescent boys, including One Piece and Naruto.

But Viz’s offerings are so much more diverse than that. Viz also publishes horror, romance, fantasy, and comedy, all aimed at a more diverse readership in gender and age. And you can find these titles on the Viz Media app. It’s a completely different listing of titles that may appeal to those who might not be interested in manga because the only series they know are things like Bleach and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

How Does Viz Manga Differ From Shonen Jump?

At first glance, it really doesn’t. If you’ve used the Shonen Jump app, you should know how to use the Viz Media app. It’s the exact same interface, down to the menu options and browsing features. The home page looks exactly the same in layout, with the latest chapters at the top and various themed sections below. You can learn how to download and use Viz Manga here.

The major difference lies in content. Viz Media offers a completely different selection of titles from Shonen Jump, with no overlap. There’s an extensive selection of Junji Ito’s works – he’s the horror master responsible for titles like Tomie, Black Paradox, and a version of Frankenstein that’s incredibly true to the original novel.

Viz Media includes classic series like Case Closed (aka Detective Conan), Fushigi Yugi, Golgo 13, Inuyasha, Maison Ikkoku, and Ranma ½. According to Crunchyroll, Ranma ½ is receiving a whole new anime series on Netflix in Fall 2024, so the app is a great way to read up before the premiere.

There’s even Wolverine and Deadpool manga on Viz Media, so you can check out Japanese spins on some of your favorite American comic characters.

And the cost for all of these titles? $2 a month, a full dollar cheaper than Shonen Jump, and one of the best deals in comics. If you still don’t want to shell out the cash, I suggest signing up for Google Opinion Rewards, which drops money into your Google Pay account. I’ve written about the app before, and it’s how I pay for my Shonen Jump subscription.

Who Should Subscribe to Viz Manga?

As I said, Shonen Jump offers some of the most popular franchises, but they aren’t necessarily to everyone’s taste. Shonen Jump titles are akin to the big superhero franchises in the United States, like Batman, Superman, the Avengers, and the X-Men.

If you like action or young adult stories, Shonen Jump is the app for you. In addition to the titles I’ve already mentioned, you’ll also find Demon Slayer, Haikyu!, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia—basically, any title the teens in your life are probably obsessed with. The Shonen Jump app is a great way to try many popular series and catch up with them quickly.

If your tastes tend to run a bit more mature, you should definitely use the Viz Media app. Any title Viz publishes aimed at a more feminine audience will be there, too, making the app ideal for women looking to try out comics. Where else will you find quirky titles like Cats of the Louvre?

Shonen Jump is $3 a month, while Viz Media is $2 a month. So, purely on cost, Viz Media is the better deal, but Shonen Jump offers the more popular titles, so the extra dollar isn’t a big deal. If you must choose between the two, you should pick the app with the titles you want to read.

Right now, I’m in the middle of reading JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure on Shonen Jump, so that’s the app I will keep for now. But once I finish that and catch up on My Hero Academia, I’ll probably jump to the Viz Media app because I want to read more about Junji Ito.

If you can’t decide between the two, remember that the two apps are $5 a month together—cheaper than pretty much every streaming or comics service, with tons of great content to keep you busy—so if you can, just subscribe to both.