Manga Reader

Pros

• Minimalist-style UI
• Very fast
• Portable
• Scans in more than one direction

Cons

• May not read all comics formats
• Has no network function

Manga Reader is a simple comic book app that allows users to read through eBooks they have locally stored on a hard drive or USB stick. Since it doesn't connect to the Internet to retrieve comic books stored in the cloud, you can use it without Wi-Fi and you won't normally run into any problems related to DRM. The app is designed to work with manga that's localized as well as raw comics that are still written in kanji.

Traditionally, the Japanese language is written in columns that start at the right end of a page and move leftward. This can cause problems for those working with a regular PDF reader or web browser that's set up for left-to-right alphabetic languages. Manga Reader solves this problem by displaying pages vertically, which give readers the freedom to enjoy manga in its original orientation. Any eBooks that are translated into a local language, such as English, will still keep their Japanese orientation provided that the editors didn't decide to flip them around. That's great for those who read popular shounen manga titles since these are usually kept in the original format in order to prevent things from looking lopsided.

Chances are that most manga your average otaku will come across gets stored as a CBZ file, which is basically an archived collection of deflated picture files. Manga Reader will have no trouble with these files, and it should be able to read through PDF files as well. If an otaku makes an archive on a computer running macOS or GNU/Linux, then they might store it as a tape archive with the extension CBT. Usually, you'd have trouble reading this kind of manga on Microsoft Windows. However, Manga Reader will open CBT files the same as any other archive.

All comic book archives basically follow the same format, so it should make short work of CB7 files as well. As long as you have the right libraries installed, you may be able to read CBR manga tankouban as well. Users might run into problems with files that are password protected, but these issues are relatively easy to correct. Simply unzip the documents and then put them together in an unprotected archive. Manga Reader will then open them like they were never locked down.

This makes it an ideal solution for those who regularly download comics on one machine and then sideload them to some other device for reading. Despite the name, Manga Reader should work equally well for manwha that was originally published in Korean. The same goes for manhua that's published in Mandarin or Cantonese.

Since it supports the same basic mouse gestures and keyboard shortcuts that any other document reader would, any otaku should find that they more or less already know how to use the software the moment they unzip it too.

Pros

• Minimalist-style UI
• Very fast
• Portable
• Scans in more than one direction

Cons

• May not read all comics formats
• Has no network function