Hi guys!

I just got a new iPod touch and I'm really enjoying using it to kind of consolidate a lot of my Japanese learning tools/resources. One thing I can't quite seem to figure out, though, is a good way to find RAW Manga and read it. There are a lot of apps for comics, and even one to let you browse sites like onemanga.com, but I can't seem to find anything that has native Japanese scans (legally *or* illegally) or RAWs.

Anyone have any info about this? I'd love to have some manga on my iPod Touch for convenient reading.

Thanks!

So your problem isn't with the applications, but that you can't find any raws?

Maybe I'm being dumb here. I'm looking for an application that provides links to RAWs as opposed to already translated scans.

I don't understand.
Onemanga has tons of raw Japanese manga.

chamcham Wrote:I don't understand.
Onemanga has tons of raw Japanese manga.

Do you mean Manga Helpers? Last I checked One Manga doesn't host raws.

sethg there is no app which allows direct download of lots of raws. Some japanese apps offer a few (<10) non-famous manga. In general the best way to read raws on the iPhone is to download from mangahelpers on PC and transfer to a comic reader.

If I may ask, as it's slightly related- where do people get their latest raw manga scans from?

Every week I have a few series I follow where I like to always read the latest releases (still in English) but I'm having difficulty finding the originals.
Things like Bakuman, Naruto and Bleach.

Mangahelpers is pretty much useless now though. They don't carry scans for the two biggest publishers anymore, and you can't download anything (not even scanlations) if you have a Japanese IP. I used to use it to check out new manga and then buy the ones I liked, but not anymore.

To be honest this was the main reason I got my iPhone last year and was disappointed at the hoops one had to jump through just to look at a silly comic or even a simple text file. This was made more difficult as I was in Africa with a 2 kb/s connection. Try getting a 30 meg file uploaded on dropbox and download to the iTouch at that speed. Plus, I couldn't jailbreak my iPod (no knowledge on the subject at the time) to use the usb connection.

Ok, enough bitching. Try this: Download/install iComic on your iPhone and Dropbox on your computer (set up an account also). Download a raw from Mangahelpers in zip format. Put the raw file into your public dropbox folder. Get the http link for the file, and use that to download the file to your iTouch/iPhone via iComic.

Now, I'm pretty sure if you jailbreak your iPhone that somewhere in the root file there's a folder you can just directly copy the .zip, .cbz or .txt (all the file that iComic seems to accept), I haven't found it through searching yet. Anyone know what the folders are for the latest version of iComic are located for storage?

**Edit: Didn't read the note by Jarvik. Umm, if you know how there may be a way around the ip block by going through a proxy. I'm only assuming this.

Christ, is there any subject or tactic we don't discuss here?

dunno but you can use this program to easily look at all your folders:
http://iphonefolders.com/

iComic includes an FTP server so you can connect to it from your pc and drag and drop files in an FTP client.

In case you want to SSH in, you can put files here:
/var/mobile/Applications/7D1FEA5A-419D-46DD-BA2E-D4DF0B1C945F/Documents

Blahah Wrote:iComic includes an FTP server so you can connect to it from your pc and drag and drop files in an FTP client.

In case you want to SSH in, you can put files here:
/var/mobile/Applications/7D1FEA5A-419D-46DD-BA2E-D4DF0B1C945F/Documents

Thanks, well that simplifies things (though the application file hex address was different). To the op, if you Jailbreak you iPhone, you can install iComic then directly copy any zip file into the above location (again, the hex address portion will be different).

Man, to think I could have been browsing manga on my iTouch all this time. Amazing what answers you find on this forum.

PS: Thanks to your tip, I was able to test out using text file with Aozura Bunko app on iTouch. Here's the steps

1. Download and install Aozura Bunko (iBunko) app.

2. Using i-FunBox (or even an ssh app), access the following folder on a iTouch: var/mobile/applications/random hex address (with an iBunko folder in it)/library/Cache/cache

3. In that folder, you can store folders or text files to read later. I've not tested all fonts and file types, but UTF-8 .txt file worked with Hana Yori Dango.

4. In the Aozura app, at the bottom click on "ファルダ". On the screen click on "ファルダ" again. Click on "cache" and you should see the files and folders you copied to the iPod. Pick one

5. Enjoy reading Harry Potter, Dramanote Scripts, Nest0r's totally innocent thread about Japanese novels, etc. in a nice Black font on Yellow background with Vertical text.

If anyone knows steps to load text files to read on iBunko please post them.

I can't wait to get my iPad - there are a few apps that read cbr/cbz files, and you can import them through iTunes directly to the app. Remains to be seen if it'll beat an actual book though.

nicksan Wrote:I can't wait to get my iPad - there are a few apps that read cbr/cbz files, and you can import them through iTunes directly to the app. Remains to be seen if it'll beat an actual book though.

My brain keeps throwing out lame Japanese-study oriented uses for the iPad in an effort to undermine my decision to not buy one. I'm all like, shut up brain, we both know that's a load of bullshit, and if I was really going to do any of that, I'd already be doing it with my iPhone. But then my brain points out that it's both new and shiny, and goddammit if it isn't right. The only thing keeping my wallet safe right now is the fact that it isn't out in Japan yet.

Can someone confirm for me whether or not the Japanese dictionaries from OSX are accesible on the iPad?

According to the feature list for Iphone OS 3.2, the Japanese-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries are now included.

I just don't see any Dictionary applications anywhere on the iPad.

iPhoneOS 3.2 features:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/29/confi...-file-dow/

It's a deal breaker for me if it's not available, since I wanted to use it while reading
raw manga on the iPad.

Thanks.

I don't think they are. I think you can look up words within books and Pages files, but not as a separate app.

I wish more publishers would release more series in the Appstore. Pinching and swiping through entire pages really gets on my nerves, so it's nice to be able to just tap for the next コマ. I can't understand why they all have such low res images though. Apple Seed was a joke.

I just gave iBunko a try and it's wonderful. Loading text files was easy:
1) Upload your UTF-8 formatted text file to a webspace. I used a Yahoo Small Business account, but your ISP likely offers some place to put up a webpage that would allow the uploading of small files.
2) Choose フォルダ on bottom
3) Choose 指定ダウンロード
4) Enter the book name in the first box, the author in the second, and the URL in the third.
5) Press ダウンロード開始. If it worked, you'll see ダウンロード完了. Press OK.
6) Press データ登録. Press OK.
7) Go back to フォルダ. Your file will be in the third area, 指定ダウンロード済ファイル.
8) If you care to put the text file on your 本棚 for easy reading, select the file (touch the text), press the blue arrow next to the filename, and press 本棚へ登録.

You can also download a ZIP file with the text file and any images that accompany it and it should display the images. For whatever reason your text file might have images.