Looking for manga raw sites? Here's where Japanese manga raws officially come out, from the publishers' own apps to the big manga apps and e-book stores. It also covers how free and paid chapters work, and how to read any of it in English so you can keep up with the Japanese release instead of waiting on a translation.
Quick answer: where do manga raws come out?
If you just want the list, these are the main official sources:
- Shonen Jump+. Shueisha's free manga app and site, with Jump+ originals and the digital Weekly Shonen Jump.
- Magazine Pocket. Kodansha's app and site for Weekly Shonen Magazine series and its own originals.
- Comic Days. Kodansha's site for its seinen magazines.
- Manga One and Sunday Webry. Shogakukan's apps.
- ComicWalker. Kadokawa's free manga site.
- Pixiv Comic. Publisher serializations plus pixiv's own manga.
- LINE Manga and Piccoma. Japan's big general manga apps.
- Japanese e-book stores. BookWalker, Amazon Japan (Kindle), ebookjapan and Cmoa for tankobon volumes.
All of these are run by the publishers or licensed stores. Below: what each one is good for, how access works, how to spot an unofficial site, and how to read the raws in English.
Reading Korean manhwa instead? That's a different set of platforms, covered in our manhwa raw sites guide.
Table of contents
- What are manga raws?
- Is there an official English release already?
- Which publisher apps and sites carry manga raws?
- Which Japanese manga apps carry raws from many publishers?
- Where do you buy manga raw volumes?
- How does access work on official manga raw sites?
- How do you tell if a manga raw site is official?
- How do you read manga raws in English?
- FAQ
What are manga raws?
A raw is the chapter as it was originally published, in Japanese, with no translation. Most manga run chapter by chapter in a magazine first, weekly or monthly, and a lot of those magazines now publish digitally on the same day as print. Some series skip print entirely and run only on a publisher's app. Later, chapters get collected into volumes (tankobon), which are sold as print books and e-books.
So there are two kinds of official raw source:
- Magazine apps and sites, where new chapters appear first.
- E-book stores, where you buy the collected volumes.
You probably care about the first kind. You've caught up on the English release and the Japanese chapters are already further along.
Is there an official English release already?
Check this first. Shueisha runs MANGA Plus, which publishes many Weekly Shonen Jump and Jump+ series in English and several other languages at the same time as Japan. There's a free tier plus a paid subscription called MANGA Plus MAX.
If your series is simulpubbed there, you don't need the raw. If it isn't, or your series comes from a different publisher, keep reading.
Which publisher apps and sites carry manga raws?
Each big Japanese publisher runs its own reading apps. New chapters appear here, often with some of them free.
Shonen Jump+ (Shueisha)
Shonen Jump+ is Shueisha's free manga app and site. It runs its own original series, and big hits like SPY×FAMILY, Kaiju No. 8 and Dandadan started there. It also sells the digital edition of Weekly Shonen Jump, so Jump magazine chapters are available in Japanese on release day.
Many Jump+ originals keep recent chapters free to read, with older chapters unlocked by points or purchase.
Shueisha also runs Tonari no Young Jump for Weekly Young Jump series.
Magazine Pocket and Comic Days (Kodansha)
Magazine Pocket (Magapoke) is Kodansha's app and site for Weekly Shonen Magazine series and its own app originals. Comic Days is Kodansha's reader for its seinen magazines, like Morning and Afternoon. Both mix free chapters with paid ones.
Manga One and Sunday Webry (Shogakukan)
Shogakukan has two main apps. Manga One carries Ura Sunday and other Shogakukan series, and Sunday Webry carries Weekly Shonen Sunday titles. Both use free chapters plus paid unlocks.
ComicWalker (Kadokawa)
ComicWalker (comic-walker.com) is Kadokawa's free manga site. It's big on light novel adaptations and isekai, so it's a good raw source if you read those genres. It also works in the OpenToon importer: paste a ComicWalker chapter URL directly.
Pixiv Comic
Pixiv Comic hosts serializations from a range of publishers, plus pixiv's own. It's free to browse, and the OpenToon importer supports it too. For indie and doujin work that never gets a formal release, the main pixiv site is where artists post.
Which Japanese manga apps carry raws from many publishers?
Two general apps dominate manga reading in Japan:
- LINE Manga carries series from many publishers plus its own originals.
- Piccoma (from Kakao's Japanese arm) is big on both manga and Korean webtoons in Japanese.
Both lean on free-with-waiting unlocks, where one chapter frees up on a timer and you can pay to skip the wait. These apps are built for the Japanese market, so the app versions may not be listed in your country's App Store or Google Play.
Where do you buy manga raw volumes?
If your series is finished, or you want to own it, buy the collected volumes from an e-book store:
- BookWalker (bookwalker.jp). Kadokawa's Japanese e-book store. There's a separate global BookWalker for English releases.
- Amazon Japan (Kindle). Huge catalog of Japanese manga e-books.
- ebookjapan. A manga-focused e-book store.
- Cmoa (Comic Cmoa). A big Japanese manga e-book store.
Volumes come out after the magazine chapters, so a store won't get you ahead of the weekly release. For completed or older series, though, they're often the only clean source.
Heads up: Japanese stores can restrict purchases by account region or payment method. Check before you top up any balance.
How does access work on official manga raw sites?
Most sources mix a few of these:
- Free chapters. The first chapters of a series, recent chapters of app originals, or limited-time free campaigns.
- Wait-until-free. A timed free unlock. Wait, or pay to skip.
- Points or coins. You buy the app's currency and spend it on chapters.
- Magazine issues. Buy the digital issue of a weekly or monthly magazine and read every series in it.
- Volumes. Buy the collected e-book on a store and it stays in your library.
Readers outside Japan run into two hurdles a lot:
- Region. Some apps are only listed in the Japanese app stores, and some stores limit purchases by region. The web versions are often easier to get into.
- Account and payment. Paid chapters need an account, and some sites only take Japanese payment methods.
Details change often, so treat the site's own help pages as the final word.
How do you tell if a manga raw site is official?
Search results for manga raws are full of unofficial mirrors. A few quick checks cover most cases:
- A publisher or company runs it. Shueisha, Kodansha, Shogakukan, Kadokawa and so on, with terms of service and an About page.
- There's a business model. Free chapters, points, subscriptions or purchases. If every chapter is free with no account and the ads push downloads, the site is making its money some other way.
- The domain stays put. Unofficial raw sites hop domains and point you to "mirrors". Official sites don't.
- Chapters appear on release day. If a chapter shows up days early, it's a leak.
Unofficial sites don't pay the mangaka, and they're where the malware ads live. They also vanish overnight, and your reading history goes with them.
How do you read manga raws in English?
The Google Translate camera works one bubble at a time. It's slow on a full chapter and often misreads vertical text.
The faster route is to translate the whole chapter in place:
- Open the chapter on the official site. Read the free chapter, or buy the paid one there.
- Copy the chapter URL and paste it into the OpenToon app on iOS or Android. ComicWalker and Pixiv Comic work in the importer directly. If a site's reader won't import, you can import page images instead.
- Pick your language. English or any of 50+ others.
Here's what OpenToon does with the chapter:
- It reads Japanese off the page. GPU-accelerated OCR handles vertical text, furigana and stylised fonts.
- It translates in context. A comic-tuned LLM reads each bubble as one thought, so names, honorifics and jokes land closer than word-by-word machine translation.
- It redraws a clean page. Inpainting removes the Japanese text and fills in the art, so the translation sits on a clean panel.
- Tap any bubble to see the original. Handy for checking a name or a term.
- Nothing is re-hosted. It's a translation layer on a chapter you already have access to, and the publisher still gets paid where you read it.
- Unlimited translations. One subscription, no per-chapter fees.
The full walkthrough is in how to translate manga to English. Comparing tools? See the best manga translator app guide. Here's the full list of supported sites. If the series gets an official English release later, buying it is what pays the mangaka.
FAQ
What are the best manga raw sites? The main official manga raw sites are the publisher apps: Shonen Jump+ (Shueisha), Magazine Pocket and Comic Days (Kodansha), Manga One and Sunday Webry (Shogakukan) and ComicWalker (Kadokawa). Pixiv Comic, LINE Manga and Piccoma carry series from many publishers, and BookWalker, Amazon Japan, ebookjapan and Cmoa sell volumes.
Are manga raw sites legal? Official manga raw sites run by publishers and licensed stores are legal. Unofficial raw mirrors host chapters without the publisher's permission, don't pay the creators, and tend to disappear, which is why this guide sticks to official sources.
Where can I read manga raws for free? Publisher apps like Shonen Jump+, Magazine Pocket and ComicWalker have free chapters, and apps with wait-until-free unlocks let you read more if you're patient. The newest chapters of many series are paid, and the rules differ per app.
How do I read manga raws in English? Check MANGA Plus first, in case the series already has an official English simulpub. If not, open the Japanese chapter on an official site, copy the URL, and paste it into OpenToon. It runs OCR, context-aware AI translation and inpainting, and gives you the chapter in English or 50+ other languages.
Where do I find Korean raws? Korean manhwa come out on different platforms, like Naver Webtoon, KakaoPage and Ridibooks. See the manhwa raw sites guide.
To summarize
- Shonen Jump+ (Shueisha). Jump+ originals and the digital Weekly Shonen Jump.
- Magazine Pocket and Comic Days (Kodansha). Shonen Magazine series, app originals and seinen magazines.
- Manga One and Sunday Webry (Shogakukan). Ura Sunday and Shonen Sunday series.
- ComicWalker (Kadokawa). Free, big on isekai and light novel adaptations. Works in the importer.
- Pixiv Comic. Multi-publisher serializations. Works in the importer.
- LINE Manga and Piccoma. Japan's big general manga apps, wait-until-free.
- BookWalker, Amazon Japan, ebookjapan, Cmoa. Buy the volumes.
- MANGA Plus. Check here first for an official English simulpub.
Translate any chapter you can open with OpenToon when the English release is behind or doesn't exist.