Manga Plus vs. VIZ: What's the Best Legal Manga App for India?

It's a moment every anime fan in India knows all too well. You finish the latest, mind-blowing episode of a show and rush to the internet to find out what happens next in the manga. For countless anime fans reading manga, raises a frustrating question: how to read manga in India without diving into the internet's wild, wild west?

That’s when the journey takes you to a frustrating landscape of pop-up ads, sketchy websites, clunky translations, and low-quality images. For years, the options to read manga legally in India have felt like a distant, expensive dream. The vast majority of us read on pirated sites, not by choice, but because the official market simply wasn't speaking our language.

That's finally starting to change. A new battle for the Indian manga reader has begun, and legitimate platforms are finally making a real play for our attention. But is it enough to win the war against piracy?

Where to Read Manga Officially in India

While the pirate sites are noisy, a growing number of official, high-quality, and surprisingly affordable online manga apps in India are now available. Here’s where you can throw your support behind your favourite creators without breaking the bank.

The Best Overall Value: Manga Plus

Shueisha, the publishing titan behind hits like One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia, has made the single most significant move in the Indian market with its Manga Plus app.

The Free Experience: Its model is genius. For almost every ongoing series, you can read the first three and the latest three chapters completely free. This means you can keep up with the latest releases at the same time as Japan without spending a single rupee. 

The All-Access Pass: For binge-readers, the "MANGA Plus MAX" subscription is a dream come true. Instead of a one-size-fits-all global price, they introduced regional pricing. The plans are incredibly affordable, with the Standard Plan (for ongoing series) priced at just ₹89 per month and the Deluxe Plan (which unlocks their entire back catalogue) available for ₹129 per month. 

That's less than a single cup of coffee for a month of unlimited access to their catalogue. It is, without a doubt, the best deal in digital manga today.

The Specialist Libraries: Other Publisher Apps

Beyond the all-star value of Manga Plus, several other major players have apps available in India, each with its own quirks.

VIZ Media (Shonen Jump & VIZ Manga): As the biggest manga publisher in North America, VIZ offers two fantastic apps. For $3.99/month (approx. ₹330), the Shonen Jump app is your key to a digital vault containing decades of classics like Naruto, Bleach, and Dragon Ball. 

The newer VIZ Manga app, at just $1.99/month (approx. ₹165), offers a broader selection of genres, including modern hits like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. While you're paying in USD, the sheer volume of content makes it a worthy investment.

Square Enix (Manga UP!): This app is home to beloved series like Fullmetal Alchemist and My Dress-Up Darling. However, be warned: it operates on a frustrating "freemium" model that uses different types of in-app coins and points that refresh daily. 

Trying to binge-read a series here can feel less like relaxing with a book and more like a frustrating mobile game where you're constantly waiting for your energy to refill.

Azuki Manga: A solid, up-and-coming service that offers a decent library, including some exclusive titles, for a flat $4.99/month (approx. ₹415). While its catalogue isn't as massive as VIZ's, it's a clean, user-friendly option.

The Old School Route: Pay-Per-Volume

For many, nothing beats the feeling of a physical book. Thanks to distributors, official English-language manga is easier to find than ever on Amazon, Flipkart, and in comic shops. But this joy comes at a steep price. 

A single volume of a popular series like Chainsaw Man or Jujutsu Kaisen can set you back anywhere from ₹700 to over ₹1,000. Digital volumes on Amazon Kindle aren't much cheaper, often costing ₹400-₹600 each; it’s an expensive choice for anyone reading more than a few chapters a week.

A Tale of Two Universes: The DC/Marvel Comparison

To understand how big a strategic advantage manga now has, we only need to look at its Western counterpart. India has one of the largest and most passionate fan bases for Marvel and DC movies. 

The Avengers: Endgame release was a cultural event, shattering box office records. Yet, the comic book giants have completely failed to convert that cinematic tidal wave into a readership.

Physical comics, like manga, are a premium hobby. A single collected paperback of a famous Batman story can easily cost ₹1,500 to ₹2,500 on Amazon India. But the real failure is digital. The two services that should be converting movie fans, DC Universe Infinite and Marvel Unlimited, are practically non-existent in India.

According to DC's own official support page, its all-you-can-read service is simply not available here. Marvel Unlimited is technically accessible, but it offers no regional pricing. This means an Indian fan is expected to pay the full US price of $9.99 a month (approx. ₹830). That’s more than a standard Netflix subscription.

It's a massive strategic blunder. 

While Shueisha is welcoming Indian fans with open arms and hyper-affordable plans, DC and Marvel are leaving their biggest potential audience with no legitimate, affordable way to dive into the comics, effectively pushing them toward piracy.

Piracy Still Dominates

Despite these legal options, piracy remains the default for a huge portion of the fanbase. According to the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) of Japan, which has been actively investigating the issue in India, the problem is a "growing trend." The reasons are a complex mix of economic and accessibility issues.

The Price Barrier: For a country with a predominantly young audience, the cost of legal manga is a major hurdle. When a single official physical volume costs ₹799, and a counterfeit version is available on the street for ₹199, the choice for a student on a budget becomes clear.

Fragmented Availability: The legal market can be confusing. A title might be on Manga Plus, another might be exclusive to the VIZ app, and some might not be officially available in India at all. Piracy sites, by their nature, aggregate everything in one place, offering a deceptively convenient, albeit illegal, one-stop shop.

The Cultural Lag: Unlike in Japan, where paying for manga is an ingrained cultural habit, it is still a relatively new medium in India. The culture of paying for digital entertainment content is evolving, but it is not yet as established as it is for streaming services like Netflix or Spotify.

The Game-Changer That Hasn't Arrived (Yet)

For a moment, it seemed like the final piece of the puzzle was about to fall into place. Crunchyroll, the world's anime streaming giant with over 13 million subscribers, is launching its own manga app on October 9, 2025. It promises to bundle manga from multiple publishers into one subscription.

A unified anime and manga platform, Crunchyroll, could have finally consolidated the market. However, the service is launching exclusively in the U.S. and Canada, with no mention of an Indian release.

Crunchyroll has made incredible progress in the Indian anime sector with cheap subscriptions and many regional dubs like Bengali, Tamil, and Hindi. By not giving manga the same treatment, it feels like a huge missed opportunity.

The future of reading manga in India is brighter and more legitimate than ever. We have real, affordable choices. But the final chapter in the war against piracy is still waiting to be written.