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Shonen Jump Increases Subscription Price Starting January


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Credit: Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha

It seems that everything is raising prices recently, and even Viz Media’s popular manga subscription service isn’t safe. Recently, Viz Media announced that it is raising the price of the Shonen Jump subscription this January.

Specifically, the monthly subscription price will be raised from USD 1.99 to USD 2.99, effective in January 2023.

Along with the more expensive monthly fee, Viz Media also announced an update to its payment method.

Shonen Jump vs. Manga Plus

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Looking back a few years to a decade ago, most manga readers outside Japan had to rely on pirated fan translations to read the latest chapters.

This is because there were limited ways to read ongoing serializations weekly, especially online.

Viz Media did have an English Shonen Jump magazine for America, though its serialized titles were limited, not to mention that its physical release was discontinued in April 2012.

Though in December 2018, the magazine’s digital version was discontinued entirely.

In its place, Viz Media released the Shonen Jump digital vault which releases ongoing titles along with a collection of a back catalog of other series.

Just a month after, Shueisha released Manga Plus, the international version of its Shonen Jump+ online service that lets users read new Weekly Shonen Jump and Jump+ titles for free.

So, what’s the difference between Shonen Jump and Manga Plus?

Firstly, while both services offer the first and last three chapters of ongoing titles, Manga Plus doesn’t have a paid service to let readers backread past chapters.

Instead, Manga Plus has a promotion where all chapters of select titles are free to read once.

Meanwhile, Shonen Jump has a paid subscription tier that gives users access to a selection of past titles, including classics like Naruto and Bleach.

RELATED: Shonen Jump Adds All Hunter x Hunter Chapters in English Manga Service

Viz Media Raises Prices

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When it was first launched, the Shonen Jump paid service had a monthly price tag of USD 1.99.

Now though, subscribers will have to pay USD 2.99 to access the manga digital vault in order to read all chapters of select titles.

Of course, free users will remain unaffected. The last three chapters of ongoing manga will continue to be available for free.

Viz also announced that the service will no longer support website subscription payments through PayPal starting January 17, 2023.

This means subscribers using this method will have to choose a different payment option.

Shonen Jump is currently available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the Philippines, Singapore, and India.

As such, all countries mentioned will be affected by the updated pricing.

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Source: Anime News Network

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