Comic Friends: Turning Reading Into A Digital Party

NTT Solmare reinvents the book club with their new service

This ain't your pappy's book club! Osaka-based NTT Solmare quite possibly has the most exciting development in digital manga - its new Facebook app Comic Friends. The social reading service will allow users to comment on individual pages and share them with friends. Finally, you can have a manga discussion group without all the hassle of getting everyone in the same room and making copious amounts of finger sandwiches. Seriously, who eats those anyway?

Using digital currency similar to Facebook credits called "Comic Powers," users can select from an impressive library of over 300 Japanese titles and 60 English titles, such as Salaryman Kintaro and Ah! It's Moe Cellphone Girl Mel!. At last weekend's Katsucon panel, manga creator Izumi Matsumoto announced that Hivelinx will release his seminal shōnen rom-com Kimagure Orange Road in English on the service in April. At last, we can share our ideas about the true nature of Kyōsuke's telekinetic powers with other like-minded conspiracy theorists!

Sure, nothing beats the feeling of holding a manga volume in one's hot little hands, but digital distribution is here to stay, especially as major players like Viz and Comixology continue to fire up their apps. What sets Comic Friends apart from its competition is the social aspect; similar to Soundcloud's commenting system, the app looks to create a shared reading experience like we have never seen before. Wherever you stand on the digital-vs.-paper debate, you have to admit that this technology is pretty cool. Now if scientists could just turn Pokemon into reality, all of our dreams really will come true.

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