User blog:Uknownada/Rest in Peace, Mangastream

If you're not depressed right now, it's probably because you haven't visited Mangastream recently.

The fastest scanlators we know of, the ones who we always go to when a new chapter is released...is gone.

I don't mean the forums, I mean THIS!

''Dear MangaStream supporter,

It's with a heavy heart that I make the following announcement. MangaStream will no longer be releasing the following series:

- Naruto - Bleach - One Piece - Hunter x Hunter - Katekyo Hitman Reborn - Claymore - D.Gray-man

VIZ Media has demanded that we end our scanlation work for all of the above. This comes despite our best efforts to pursuade fans into supporting official distributors by being the only group to actively prevent an archive from forming on their website through the removal of chapters that are older than a couple weeks. They've succeeded in little more than invoking inconvenience to the community as their digital magazine missed the mark; it runs several issues behind and only features 3 of the above series. So long as their product continues to be slow, awkward and inferior to something a ragtag group of nobodies can churn out in a few hours - fans will continue to look to scanlation groups and aggregators for their weekly fix.

The aggressive and escalating nature of their threats have forced our hand into removing the content. MangaStream will no longer be posting full scanlations for any of the aforementioned series, we will instead focus our efforts onto the series we do that are not licensed by VIZ Media (you can assume everything currently on our directory will be continued).

Our final message to our loyal JUMP audience will be this: Thank you for supporting us over the past two years and making Mangastream your home away from home. It was a pleasure sharing our time with fans who were just as passionate and dedicated as we were.

Although MangaStream will no longer be hosting any of the Jump series, if it's something our fanbase is interested in, we're considering leveraging our connections to bring you accurate spoiler summaries for the Jump chapters as early as possible. We know this isn't much, but hope it can whet your appetite until the dozens of aggregators release the official Jump chapters on Wednesday.''

So now...they're gone. If you love Naruto, or Bleach, and I know we all love One Piece.....It's gone. Our best scanlators are now dropping the series. This must be because Viz wants people to turn to their "Shonen JUMP Alpha", a new digital service for their chapters of the manga. Except for the fact that they only do the big 3 and, while they're almost completely caught up with Japan in "ALPHA", a week early does seem like a long time. Especially since Viz is awful at this.

So now it's all gone. We either have to find a new scanlating group, or follow SJA, which makes us a week late from Japan.

R.I.P. Mangastream