First Review of the [OFFICIAL] Manga Bang Channel

Last month, the Japanese company Amazia launched the [OFFICIAL] Manga Bang Channel on YouTube. This is the third English language service for the overseas market that Amazia has launched. I spent some time checking out the Channel so that I can give my honest review about it.

While the Manga Bang Channel launched only a month ago from the time of this writing, they’ve already posted over 20 videos! The videos are broken up by series, which I’ve listed here.

-I Was Invited to the Otherworldly Country As a Warrior, But I Refused and Decided to Start As a Soldier

I watched all the videos for the last three series listed, as those are all isekai manga, and that’s what I’m interested in.

While Amazia could have taken the easy route and simply shared screenshots of their manga pages to create a YouTube video, the company went the extra mile and created “motion manga” instead. Motion manga is a much more immersive style for progressing the pages of digital manga. This includes adding sound effects and background music to the video, as well as visual cues to onomatopoeia graphics that appear on screen.

Speaking of which, I was impressed by the wide range of sound effects at the Manga Bang Channel’s disposal. From the sound of a shower turning on, to the howl of a wolf, and even the roar of a dragon. These noises all added to the experience, making it feel almost like I was watching an episode of anime.

The BGM for each series also impressed me. Amazia could have kept it to just one music track per video, but instead, the music changes multiple times for each episode. Music changes to match the tone of what’s going on in the manga. If the manga is being comedic, the music gets light and carefree. But if the manga takes a suspenseful turn, the BGM will change to a more frenzied track. Again, experiencing these kinds of transitions felt more like watching anime than reading manga to me. Pretty sweet, in my opinion.

The process of reading was interesting, too. Instead of text for all speech bubbles being viewable at the appearance of a new panel, the text pops up inside the bubbles one at a time in chronological order. The bubbles tend to fill in from right to left, matching the original Japanese reading style of the manga.

Of the three series I viewed, my favorite was Milimoss Saga - War Records of the Reincarnated Youngest Prince. I’m a big action fan, and this series starts off with some epic battles between warring countries. You can watch the first video of the series below.

But I will say that all the videos on Manga Bang Channel, no matter what series, feature high resolution artwork. So I could enjoy going full screen on my laptop.

For those of you watching on mobile devices, you’ll be happy to learn that episodes usually only run about 5 minutes, give or take a few. That length of time makes it perfect to catch up on a series during school/work breaks, or bus rides.

You can watch three or four episodes back to back, and that equals about the same time as an episode of anime!

Maybe best of all is the fact that the [OFFICIAL] Manga Bang Channel is absolutely free to enjoy. As long as you can access YouTube, you can enjoy these motion manga without paying a dime. Or whatever coin you use in your country.