If your iOS device is decidedly lacking in stories of girls dressing up as boys in order to charm other girls; fox ninjas with nine tails and frogs in tow; or unbelievably clumsy students who just really want to get into Tokyo University already, then you’ll want to download a copy of Manga Rock 2.
This universal app is like having an entire manga section of a (good) comic shop right on your device, for one ridiculously price. Actually, comparing Manga Rock 2 to a single comic section doesn’t quite do it justice, because you can take your pick from three online repositories, each with thousands of titles. You can consume the manga as you like: either stream as you read, or pick and choose issues to download for offline reading.
The whole experience is fast, fast, fast. I’ve streamed and downloaded issues over Wi-Fi and 3G and have been delighted with Manga Rock 2’s performance. The developers at Not A Basement were also smart enough to optimize the quality of the downloads based on device type – iPad 2s will download and display smaller artwork, while Retina iPads will enjoy the largest quality scans available. Titles can be filtered by category and organized by name or rank (based on reader ratings), and once you’ve chosen a title to read, you can begin reading the first page of an issue within seconds.
Manga Rock 2’s UI can take a little getting used to because of its icon-heavy design, but after a week with the app, I feel quite at home with it. There are quick ways to add titles to your favourites, it’s easy to check out all of the issues you’ve downloaded, and tapping on a title in your personal browsing history will take you right back to where you left off. Manga Rock 2 even keeps track of when new issues arrive, and can auto-highlight them for you, making it much easier to follow several storylines at once.
iPhone
Manga Rock 2 on the iPhone isn’t the ideal setup because the phone’s screen is smaller than most manga scans, but the excellent landscape mode that lets you scroll vertically through issues is surprisingly good. In landscape mode you can swipe through pages, and even issues, with just one thumb, allowing for terrific one-handed operation.
On a side note, the Retina display, even two years in, has not ceased to amaze me. Text bubbles that were simply too small to read on my 3GS are perfectly legible on my 4S. I thought I’d be doing most of my Manga Rock 2 testing on my iPad 2, but I’ve done quite a lot of reading on the iPhone in the last week, and that’s a testament to how good this app is.
iPad
It comes as no surprise that the iPad’s extra screen real estate really enhances the entire experience, and when given the choice, I’ll always use Manga Rock 2 on the iPad over the iPhone. I prefer to read most issues in portrait mode and use single taps to move to the next page, but landscape mode (with vertical scrolling activated) is also a lot of fun, as long as a given manga’s panels aren’t too tall. Even the main menus benefit from extra space, displaying more information by default, and allowing you to browse and select manga from the same screen.
Picking at Straws
Frankly, I’m really impressed with Manga Rock 2. I was given a free UDID copy for review, but I ended up buying the app anyway, simply because I liked it so much. However, if I had to find something to wish for in a next version, it would likely come down to streamlining the user experience even more. It would be lovely if the app could auto-download the latest issues of my favourite manga, and the favourites list would be even more useful if it synced across devices via iCloud. These issues really aren’t deal-breakers for me though, and at just $4 to unlock the full version (as an in-app purchase), it’s easy to recommend Manga Rock 2 to anyone with even the slightest inclination toward manga.
Manga Rock 2 was provided by Not A Basement for review on iSource. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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TAGS: manga reader, manga rock
