The first volume of Chi’s Sweet Home is currently free - that gets mentioned fairly frequently as easy manga for beginners, and it was read here for the absolute beginners book club.
Otherwise the query I like to use hasn’t felt super active the last few days, but there’s a promotion about “エネルギッシュ” manga today (and it seems like coins are up again)
Thanks, Id love to grab that!
I need to come back and look through the new free books sometime this week too.
In addition to Chi’s Sweet Home, this week also includes a volume of reading club stalwart Flying Witch.
Sweat and Soap (2018) - 8.04 - Comedy, Ecchi, Mature, Romance, Seinen, Slice of Life
Initial D (1995) - 7.87 - Action, Drama, Seinen, Slice of Life, Sports
Space Brothers (2007) - 8.69 - Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Sci-fi, Seinen, Slice of Life
Knight of the Area (2006) - 7.99 - Comedy, Drama, School Life, Shounen, Sports
Ohayo! Spank (1978) - 6.52 - Comedy, Shoujo
Tale of the Sea King (1998) - 7.93 - Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Sci-fi, Shounen
Kakushigoto: My Dad’s Secret Ambition (2015) - 7.53 - Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Slice of Life
Parasyte (1988) - 8.56 - Action, Drama, Horror, Mature, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, School Life, Sci-fi, Seinen, Tragedy
In/Specter (2015) - 8.52 - Action, Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural
Kindaichi Casefiles (1992) - 8.27 - Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, Shounen
Godhand Teru (2001) - 7.63 - Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Shounen
Mariko at 80 (2016) - 7.3 - Comedy, Drama, Josei, Slice of Life
The Fable (2014) - 7.76 - Action, Comedy, Drama, Mature, Romance, Seinen
Your Lie in April (2011) - 8.5 - Comedy, Drama, Psychological, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life, Tragedy
The Gate of Carnage (1987) - 7.66 - Action, Drama, Martial Arts, Shounen
Attack on Titan (2009) - 8.38 - Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mature, Mystery, Psychological, Shounen, Supernatural, Tragedy
Student Council Staff Members (2007) - 8.24 - Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
Chi's Sweet Home (2004) - 8.61 - Comedy, Seinen, Slice of Life
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2015) - 8.3 - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen
Tokyo Revengers (2017) - 7.6 - Action, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural
Magus of the Library (2017) - 7.51 - Adventure, Fantasy, Seinen
What are you doing here, Sensei!? (2016) - 7.77 - Adult, Comedy, Ecchi, Romance, School Life, Seinen
Stray Gods (2010) - 8.6 - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural
First Steps (1989) - 8.44 - Action, Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Slice of Life, Sports
Historie (2003) - 8.83 - Adventure, Drama, Historical, Mature, Psychological, Seinen
Flying Witch (2012) - 8.25 - Comedy, Fantasy, Shounen, Slice of Life, Supernatural
Blue Period. (2017) - 8.42 - Drama, School Life, Seinen, Slice of Life
Hell's Kitchen (2010) - 7.9 - Comedy, Shounen, Supernatural
Baby Steps (2007) - 8.61 - Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life, Sports
Land of the Lustrous (2012) - 8.41 - Action, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Psychological, Sci-fi, Seinen, Slice of Life, Tragedy
xxxHoLic (2003) - 8.56 - Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Psychological, School Life, Seinen, Supernatural
Maga Tsuki (2011) - 8.02 - Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Mature, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Supernatural
Those Snow-White Notes (2010) - 7.5 - Comedy, Drama, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
Marginal Operation (2013) - 7.84 - Action, Drama, Mature, Psychological, Romance, Seinen
Minami-ke (2004) - 7.89 - Comedy, School Life, Seinen, Slice of Life
Yamaguchi-kun isn’t so bad (2019) - 7.64 - Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shoujo
Night Patrol Cat (2016) - 0.0 - Drama, Seinen, Slice of Life
Love Hina (1998) - 8.17 - Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
This is excellent, thank you so much for making these lists.
Thank you so much for making these lists and sharing!
I have a question for those who have used other manga reading sites? Are there others you prefer over bookwalker? And if not, why do you prefer bookwalker?
It just seems like there are so many of these sites, I wonder if there are big differences between any of them or if they are all generally the same?
I’m not really the target of your question since I’ve really just used bookwalker (and I’d also be curious to hear from anybody who’s used multiple), but I do get the impression that the various ebook sites (and bookwalker is an ebook sales platform, larger than just manga) are largely similar and it’s just a matter of which you’re introduced to and develop a library on first.
Once you start buying books on one site, it’s easy to want to keep buying them there, after all… so comparison shopping for platforms is harder.
Especially since I don’t think there’s going to be too much difference in actual available content. In my experience, not finding something on Bookwalker is pretty rare in the first place, and when something’s not on my impression is it’s because there’s no ebook edition at all (like as far as I know, there’s no other site hoarding Yotsuba&! ebook exclusivity for example). (It’s possible I’m overlooking some categories without realizing it though)
The main reason I ended up with Bookwalker is really just that people on this forum seem to tend to use it (like this thread exists) so I heard about it, and also that I could sign up outside of Japan with no issues at all. My impression from hearing about amazon/kindle, for example, is that you would potentially have to go through some rigmarole to get it working properly with Japanese books outside of Japan (but I don’t know the exact details).
From a learner’s perspective, just knowing that other learners have used it and could be asked if you have problems can be a major benefit in and of itself, since I would be hesitant to try a tempting-looking site if I wasn’t sure it wasn’t region-locked in some unexpected way. And in my experience at least, there isn’t anything like that with Bookwalker except the occasional smattering of listings that are Japan-only for some reason (but those are few and far between).
Beyond things like that, I think it’s mostly going to be slight differences in rewards programs, selection, and app preferences.
I found this extensive article (in Japanese) comparing lots of sites, though:
The first one they listed, Booklive, is recommended for
and recommend it especially to people new to ebook sites.
If you want to look into multiple before committing, seems like that would definitely be one to check out (that coupon gatcha sounds fun but kinda dangerous…). Although it seems like (one of?) the rewards, “T points” are some kind of general reward system that ties into other things, which might be a downside if you aren’t in Japan.
In contrast, they give Bookwalker a 4-star recommendation instead of 5, and recommend it for people who:
like light novels
want special bonuses with the books you like
Buy more than 5000 yen worth of books a month
That pretty much jibes with my experience. It makes sense that people on this forum would tend to use Bookwalker if it’s especially good for light novels, (also, I think it’s affiliated with Bookmeter, which is another site people in the extensive reading thread use for tracking books) and Bookwalker’s coinback ranking system seems a lot more generous in bulk than say, Booklive’s from what I can tell. I… have fallen prey to that in the months since I’ve found out about it… They’re good at incentivizing buying a lot of books.
But again I think it really just depends on slight preferences or circumstances on your part. And you’re right, it seems like there’s a lot of options! When points in one site’s favor over Bookwalker are stuff like “has a lot of books, coupons and free stuff; good for manga” it goes to show that they’re contrasting things based on what’s the Very Best at something, since in my experience Bookwalker also has tons of books, coupons and free stuff and is very good for manga. So I think if you just want 1 platform to enjoy buying and reading Japanese ebooks on you can surely be happy with any of these.
Hope all that helps a little at least!
Thank you!!
The article you shared is so informative!!
While I’m sure they are all pretty similar, I’ll have to consider some of the other ones! (I am in Japan and do use T points and rakuten points, so they could be useful!)
I thought it was a manga about Gordon Ramsay, and I never clicked something faster…
I’ve been experimenting a little bit with other options since that post, and BookLive does seem to have a wider selection and be just as or more flexible and accessible.
The biggest selection difference I’ve noticed seems to be adult stuff… Bookwalker doesn’t not have racy things, but it seems like it’s not really something they emphasize. 囀る鳥は羽ばたかない, for example had (has?) a book club on this forum, and isn’t on Bookwalker but is in Booklive. And Booklive has a whole アダルト section that uh, yeah looks a lot more adult than anything I’ve seen on bookwalker.
One other selection difference that @fallynleaf might be interested in, is I noticed Booklive has digital editions of 週刊プロレス! That might save me some money later on…
I feel like I definitely shouldn’t start looking for free stuff on booklive when after all this I don’t really even know what’s in my bookwalker library at this point, but it is tempting.
I do still prefer Bookwalker’s shop interface though. It fills your screen with book covers and highlights important information relatively well. Also, if Booklive has the extensive preview feature on everything that Bookwalker has, I’m not seeing it.
Booklive’s coupons seem fun but I don’t love that it makes me feel “use it or lose it” on like, a 10% off coupon. And I would hope that my purchasing decisions would never seriously be influenced by a “coupon gatcha”… and reading the conditions on all of them may be more exhausting for a learner than just “^^^ coins.” Booklive’s browser reader seems snappier in general and doesn’t seem to have the sometimes annoying condition of only letting you have one instance open though. But on the other hand, it seems like it might only have one (additional) level of zoom? (Bookwalker’s has 7)
Anyway, that’s my rambling thoughts so far from dabbling in in it. I would bring it back on topic with free bookwalker stuff but I didn’t notice any new ones!
Ooh, nice! Another option for digital shupro is that it’s apparently available on kindle unlimited on Japanese Amazon. Though, I’m not exactly sure how easy it is to use kindle unlimited if you don’t live in Japan. I have a Japanese address through Tenso that I’ve used to buy physical products from Amazon, but I don’t know if they region-lock any of the digital content. But if it is possible to access it outside of the country, if I ever get to a point where reading is fairly easy for me, I might try getting a subscription for a month and then binge-reading articles from a bunch of old issues.
Part of my problem with shupro, though, is that I am a little attached to owning physical issues. I like them as tangible artifacts of these narratives and stories. Not a great strategy for conserving shelf space, though 
Fortress of the Apocalypse (2011) - 7.82 - Action, Adventure, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-fi, Shounen
Initial D (1995) - 7.87 - Action, Drama, Seinen, Slice of Life, Sports
Bleach (2001) - 7.59 - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Supernatural
Ohayo! Spank (1978) - 6.52 - Comedy, Shoujo
Kakushigoto (2015) - 7.53 - Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Slice of Life
Parasyte (1988) - 8.56 - Action, Drama, Horror, Mature, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, School Life, Sci-fi, Seinen, Tragedy
Is Kichijoji the only place you want to live? (2015) - 6.73 - seinen, slice of life 
suggested by @rodan!!
The Fable (2014) - 7.76 - Action, Comedy, Drama, Mature, Romance, Seinen
My Dearest Self, With Malice Aforethought (2018) - 7.59 - Adult, Drama, Horror, Mature, Mystery, Psychological, Seinen
Student Council Staff Members (2007) - 8.24 - Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
Chi's Sweet Home (2004) - 8.61 - Comedy, Seinen, Slice of Life
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2015) (spinoff?) - 8.3 - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen
What are you doing here, Sensei!? (2016) - 7.77 - Adult, Comedy, Ecchi, Romance, School Life, Seinen
First Steps (1989) - 8.44 - Action, Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Slice of Life, Sports
Flying Witch (2012) - 8.25 - Comedy, Fantasy, Shounen, Slice of Life, Supernatural
Hell's Kitchen (2010) - 7.9 - Comedy, Shounen, Supernatural
Old Knight of the Frontier - Bard Loen (2016) - 7.84 - Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Seinen
xxxHoLic (2003) - 8.56 - Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Psychological, School Life, Seinen, Supernatural
The Story of The Useless Prefect and the High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length (2019) - 7.56 - Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
My Home Hero (2017) - 8.09 - Action, Drama, Mature, Seinen
Maga Tsuki (2011) - 8.02 - Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Mature, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Supernatural
Minami-ke (2004) - 7.89 - Comedy, School Life, Seinen, Slice of Life
Night Patrol Cat (2016) - 0.0 - Drama, Seinen, Slice of Life
Love Hina (1998) - 8.17 - Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
@rodan - perhaps it’s time to build something more general that works across multiple sites, but I don’t think my current approach is going to scale very well. Perhaps it’s also finally time to make that jump to a shared google sheet or similar.
Since I don’t have a study log thread of my own, hopefully the regulars will indulge me if I make a few small notes on
So, times have been tough more or less everywhere and for everyone for the last year. Some of you might remember me mentioning upthread that I was seconded to work in my state’s COVID response. That’s still going, and it’s rewarding work, but it also means long days and weekends in front of a screen, and a feeling that I don’t have time to study beyond a bit of light reading when I balance it against all my other necessaries or the urge to turn my brain off and play Destiny with my friends. (Travel plans also obviously took a hit.)
Recently, I have decided to try and regroup a bit. First was to restart contributing to this thread. Then I got my reviews under control. Today I have started re-adding five lessons a day. Reintegrating grammar will be next. Five lessons a day isn’t a lot, but my reasoning is that it’s better than none. Wish me luck.
Appreciate the update and have done 5 lessons a day or even less during this year a lot. I’m now doing 10 for vocab and 5 when kanji arrive. You’ll still progress if you keep at it. Good luck with your studies and as always thanks for the posts.
I don’t think there’s any obligation to be comprehensive! It’s just letting people know about free stuff after all 
and frankly, just what’s on Bookwalker is more than plenty.
My own sophisticated method of “just noticing stuff” has a bit of a half life since it’s harder to notice stuff I already have… If I happen to notice anything specific to Booklive or another site I’ll probably mention it here even though it’s technically off-topic.
It looks like Booklive lets you exclude limited time-period free things, separate volumes, combined volumes, and adult books in the top left of this query page though (in the link version they are all excluded), if anyone finds that useful. I definitely see quite a bit of overlap with what’s free on Bookwalker right now (e.g. spotted Flying Witch and Chi’s Sweet Home in there), but there’s at least a few things free there that aren’t free on Bookwalker at this particular moment in time, anyway.
Good luck with the studies, it sounds like you’ve had a rough time. For what it’s worth, I’ve found this thread incredibly useful, so I’m glad you’re back.
Free manga e-books … My mind is blown. Thank you for this thread!!! 
Not bookwalker, but more volumes of JoJo are free (limited time?) to celebrate the completion of Part 8.
Fortress of the Apocalypse (2011) - 7.82 - Action, Adventure, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-fi, Shounen
Air Gear (2003) - 7.39 - Action, Comedy, Drama, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Romance, School Life, Sci-fi, Shounen, Sports
The Memorandum of Kyouko Okitegami (2015) - 7.55 - Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Shounen
Tale of the Sea King (1998) - 7.93 - Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Sci-fi, Shounen
Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie (2018) - 7.59 - Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen
Boarding School Juliet (2015) - 7.81 - Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Romance, School Life, Shounen
Parasyte (1988) - 8.56 - Action, Drama, Horror, Mature, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, School Life, Sci-fi, Seinen, Tragedy
Is Kichijoji the only place you want to live? (2015) - 6.73 - seinen, slice of life suggested by @rodan!!
Cooking Papa (1984) - 7.72 - Comedy, Seinen, Slice of Life
The Quintessential Quintuplets (2017) - 7.72 - Comedy, Drama, Harem, Mystery, Romance, School Life, Shounen
Shaman King (1998) - 7.76 - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Supernatural
Love Hina (1998) - 8.17 - Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
Zipang (2000) - 7.61 - Action, Adventure, Drama, Historical, Mystery, Seinen 
The Silent Service (1988) - 6.9 - Action, Drama, Mature, Seinen
Ironfist Chinmi (1983) - 7.83 - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Martial Arts, Shounen
Ironfist Chinmi Legends (2007) - 8.22 - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Martial Arts, Shounen
The Life of the Ingenious Dr. Yanagisawa (1988) - 7.06 - Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life, Seinen
Tokyo Revengers (2017) - 7.6 - Action, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural
The Seven Deadly Sins (2012) - 7.76 - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen, Supernatural
First Steps (1989) - 8.44 - Action, Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Slice of Life, Sports
Bakemonogatari (2018) - 7.72 - Action, Comedy, Drama, Ecchi, Harem, Mystery, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Supernatural
The Story of The Useless Prefect and the High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length (2019) - 7.56 - Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
Maga Tsuki (2011) - 8.02 - Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Mature, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Supernatural
Those Snow White Notes (2010) - 7.5 - Comedy, Drama, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
Minami-ke (2004) - 7.89 - Comedy, School Life, Seinen, Slice of Life
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (2012) - 8.26 - Comedy, Drama, Ecchi, Gender Bender, Mystery, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life, Supernatural
Flunk Punk Rumble (2006) - 8.26 - Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Slice of Life
Land (2014) - 7.18 - Drama, Historical, Mystery, Sci-fi, Seinen, Supernatural
Ryuurouden (1993) (spinoff?) - 8.15 - Action, Adventure, Drama, Historical, Martial Arts, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural
Vinland Saga (2005) - 8.96 - Action, Adventure, Drama, Historical, Mature, Psychological, Seinen, Tragedy
To be clear, I know absolutely nothing about it except that professional wrestler Kenny Omega shows up in the series for some reason
