Now, however, you have the strangeness that is Jamanga.com. I can't stress enough how worrying it is to hear that the biggest names in North American manga publishing had almost no idea what they could expect from the new website. Are they competitors, will they eventually partner up, and what will separate one version from the other? Even though information like this is largely compartmentalized, I'd feel a lot more secure knowing that Jmanga was putting tried and true publishers to good use.

 It won't be possible to curb all piracy and I don't think any of these companies are trying to do that, but providing digital distribution does make manga cheaper and more easily accessible. Even though the prices on Viz Manga are cut down to about half or a third of the print versions, I'd argue that being able to access your virtual library anywhere at any time is a better deal than shelling out  ten or more dollars for something you can't touch unless you lug around pounds of paper in a large bag.

 The next step that Japanese producers and American publishers need to consider, providing that they get digital distribution running as smoothly as possible, is providing localized versions of manga at roughly the same time as the Japanese release. Viz has tried this with Rin-Ne and seems to be keeping pace, but scuttlebutt says the Japanese publishers claim so much oversight on the project, things get messy and frustrating in translation. This doesn't mean the possibility of future simul-publishing isn't possible, but it makes the prospect a great deal less savory for the companies involved.

 Ultimately, these two websites are a shaky, somewhat optimistic sign for the future. With e-readers on the rise and Borders officially closing its doors, the entire print industry is enduring major growing pains. For the fans who crave the quality of professional localization: keep the faith. We're not out of the forest yet, but we're slowly getting there.