For a long time now, I've tried to champion the legal, digital distribution of Berserk. I think that could be a real game changer.
Well, I was surprised to learn that it already exists: http://www.hakusensha-e.net/
Right now, you can download the latest Young Animal (ヤングアニマル) through Hakusensha's website for about 300 yen, which equates to $3—far better than the $15 I've been paying since Gigantomakhia.
Why this is awesome: You legitimize your episodic Berserk consumption. For $3. Also, unlike just taking scans for free, your $3 investment will get you all the other stuff the magazine offers, including those elusive Miura comments which no one seems to care about except for us. And because it's not sourced on the toilet-paper quality material the magazine is traditionally printed on, it's the highest image quality we'll see until it's printed in the collected volume.
The site is clunky and confusing as hell, since all pages and the purchase details are in Japanese, but I managed it, and I don't have much proficiency with the language at all. The key is just to have a Google Translate tab open as you browse, and when you run into some text you don't recognize, just copy and paste it in there. Step by step, you'll get there.
I can help walk anyone through the process if they're having trouble. Here are the basic steps. Keep in mind the vast majority of these steps are for a _first time_ setup. After that, you'll just download each issue as you like.
1) Attempt to purchase the Young Animal. It will prompt you for a login.
2) Create a login using an email, nickname, password and secret question. The secret question answer has to be in hiragana, which can be tricky. For that, you can just browse Amazon.co.jp for a bit and grab some plain text. Paste that in there, and keep it safe somewhere on your hard drive.
3) Select the credit card option and input your credit card info.
4) After validating the purchase (I got an email from my bank saying they detected a foreign transaction at this point), you'll be prompted to download their reader, which I believe is called Book in box. After you've downloaded the client, unzip it and run the .msi file in the folder (if you're on Windows, not sure what the process is for Mac). That will install the program, which you can access through Program Files.
5) Within the app, you'll be prompted to login using the above details you've just created.
6) After about 10-20 seconds, it will automatically begin downloading your latest purchase. It took some time on my connection, about 5-10 minutes. After that you just double click the issue, and can begin reading. Keep in mind that in traditional Japanese fashion, it opens at the "end" and you will scroll to the left for each subsequent page.
The kicker is... Hakusensha waits a full week before putting the latest issue online, thereby kneecapping any competitive edge they might be fostering in the battle against piracy. But it's still the biggest leap forward we've had.
Well, I was surprised to learn that it already exists: http://www.hakusensha-e.net/
Right now, you can download the latest Young Animal (ヤングアニマル) through Hakusensha's website for about 300 yen, which equates to $3—far better than the $15 I've been paying since Gigantomakhia.
Why this is awesome: You legitimize your episodic Berserk consumption. For $3. Also, unlike just taking scans for free, your $3 investment will get you all the other stuff the magazine offers, including those elusive Miura comments which no one seems to care about except for us. And because it's not sourced on the toilet-paper quality material the magazine is traditionally printed on, it's the highest image quality we'll see until it's printed in the collected volume.
The site is clunky and confusing as hell, since all pages and the purchase details are in Japanese, but I managed it, and I don't have much proficiency with the language at all. The key is just to have a Google Translate tab open as you browse, and when you run into some text you don't recognize, just copy and paste it in there. Step by step, you'll get there.
I can help walk anyone through the process if they're having trouble. Here are the basic steps. Keep in mind the vast majority of these steps are for a _first time_ setup. After that, you'll just download each issue as you like.
1) Attempt to purchase the Young Animal. It will prompt you for a login.
2) Create a login using an email, nickname, password and secret question. The secret question answer has to be in hiragana, which can be tricky. For that, you can just browse Amazon.co.jp for a bit and grab some plain text. Paste that in there, and keep it safe somewhere on your hard drive.
3) Select the credit card option and input your credit card info.
4) After validating the purchase (I got an email from my bank saying they detected a foreign transaction at this point), you'll be prompted to download their reader, which I believe is called Book in box. After you've downloaded the client, unzip it and run the .msi file in the folder (if you're on Windows, not sure what the process is for Mac). That will install the program, which you can access through Program Files.
5) Within the app, you'll be prompted to login using the above details you've just created.
6) After about 10-20 seconds, it will automatically begin downloading your latest purchase. It took some time on my connection, about 5-10 minutes. After that you just double click the issue, and can begin reading. Keep in mind that in traditional Japanese fashion, it opens at the "end" and you will scroll to the left for each subsequent page.
The kicker is... Hakusensha waits a full week before putting the latest issue online, thereby kneecapping any competitive edge they might be fostering in the battle against piracy. But it's still the biggest leap forward we've had.