Kindle is not a manga lover's best friend

Remember earlier this month when Pedro wrote about Mangle?

As the only Japanator editor with a Kindle, I've finally decided to test the program out. My verdict? Kindle can learn a thing or two from Mangle -- it's more convenient to read illegal manga than the stuff you pay for.

For this experiment, I bought some legitimate manga for Kindle and downloaded some scanlations for Mangle. Check out how it went after the jump.

The saddest thing about buying manga on Kindle is there is hardly any selection at all. If you're not looking for hardcore yaoi or yuri, you're mostly out of luck. Here's their bookstore. You'll notice you can't even find mainstream manga like Fairy Tail or even Bleach to read on the Kindle.

Therefore, I bought Vampire Hunter D volume 1, since I really like the novelizations. 

On the other hand, Fairy Tail scanlations are easy to read with Mangle. I simply downloaded Mangle to my MacBook Pro and hooked my Kindle 2 up to it via USB. Using this tutorial, it was an easy three step process. Not as easy as buying Vampire Hunter D in one click, but check out the images:

It doesn't take a good eye to realize that Fairy Tale is MUCH more legible than legally-purchased Vampire Hunter D. Sure, D is a darker manga, but the Kindle treats it like a book and does not let me zoom or adjust the pages in any way. On the other hand, Mangle files register as JPGs and are easy to enlarge.

It's sad since I'm more than willing to support manga artists and pay for my manga at the Amazon store. But until there is a larger selection of easier to read manga, I'm going to say Mangle is better.

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reviewed by Lauren Rae Orsini