Quick guide to the Bilibili Manhua app (translated Japanese manga in simplified characters)

[lordsuso]

It's very cheap (~3 chapters per yuan), the resolution is very high (except for a few exceptions where it's just good, but still better than scans), and as far as I know the translation is also good.

 

The app is not in western stores, so download it here: https://manga.bilibili.com/app-download

 

The app changes quite often, with new offers, deals, bundles, challenges and rewards. It can be a bit overwhelming, so I will explain the main concepts. Let's say you managed to create an account and open a manga chapter, now comes the dreaded moment of payment. Look at this image, I can pay 49漫币 or 1漫读券 for this chapter.

The coins 漫币 and blue tickets 漫读券 are the main currency. Currently you can buy 5000漫币 + 50漫读券 for 50 yuan, so basically 150 chapters for 50 yuan.

The golden tickets 畅读卡 have the same value as the blue tickets (1 chapter per ticket), but they are suscription based. If I remember correctly the most basic suscription plan gets you 40 tickets/month for 15 yuan/month.

Here are the available payment methods:

 

WHAT MANGA IS AVAILABLE?

 

You can go to the website and look around: https://manga.bilibili.com/

The shonen selection is very good (all the usual suspects including doraemon, fma, dragon ball, one piece, mob psycho...). The seinen selection is thinner but decent (jojo, vinland saga, golden kamuy, mushishi, gunnm, land of the lustrous...). I don't know about other demographics.

 

What about Chinese manhua? The only ones I've bought (but haven't read yet) are 镖人 and 乌龙院. I am sure there are other good ones, but it's hard to find them among all the crap for horny teenagers.

 

DOWNLOADING THE MANGA

 

There are many reasons why one would want to download the manga rather than reading in the app, I personnally do it because I prefer to read in my ereader.
You need to download and install the Hakuneko program in your computer from here: https://github.com/manga-download/hakuneko?tab=readme-ov-file#download

This program is used for piracy, but here we will be downloading the manga we purchased, so it's ok?

 

- Setup Hakuneko (only needs to be done once)
Open Hakuneko > click on bookmarks > click on the Bilibili Manhua arrow (see image) > A browser window will open, you simply need to log in inside that window, and then close everything

- Download from Hakuneko
You can simply search for the manga you want, but here is an easier way:
Open your browser, find and copy the link of the manga you want (e.g. Chainsaw Man https://manga.bilibili.com/detail/mc28376) > Open Hakuneko > Click on the clipboard icon in Hakuneko (see image) > Click on the chapters you want to download

The first few chapters of every manga are free, so you can download them from Hakuneko to try them out without even installing the Bilibili app.

 

Manga was the first native content I was able to read, and I still read it because it's very fun, so hopefully this will help others!

[lordsuso]

Here is another worth-reading post with similar information https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/60732-first-impressions-of-the-bilibili-manhua-app/