700+ Manga Wiped Overnight: Manga Industry Declares War on Piracy

If you checked MangaDex this week and noticed a ton of your favorite series missing, you’re not the only one.  In what is being referred to as the largest manga purge to date, more than 700 manga were suddenly removed. This was an immediate action taken by the manga industry to combat piracy, and it has already altered how manga can be read online.

On May 14th, 2025, MangaDex users started to see entire series removed from the site, with no warning.  This was because of a DMCA takedown that targeted more than 700 manga titles.  People on Reddit and manga forums were quick to notice that this was on a scale nobody had seen before on MangaDex.

Moderators on the site called the event “unprecedented.”  Fans immediately started keeping track of which manga disappeared and sharing lists online.  Even though this isn't true, some rumors have it that 25% of all MangaDex chapters were deleted.

What’s certain is that a huge number of series are now just gone. Many series are still listed on the site, but if you click, there’s nothing to read, just an empty page.

This takedown was not random. It was the result of a group of publishers, both from Japan and South Korea, working together. Major names involved included Square Enix, Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, Kakao, and Naver. On top of that, an anti-piracy company called Kameso helped organize the removals, using a more systematic, automated approach.

Other companies named include Legend, Webtoon, One Peace Books, Mag Garden, Manta Platform, and Toya’s Dream, among others. Nearly every big publisher was part of this. It’s the clearest sign yet that the manga and webtoon industry are getting serious about piracy.

Which Manga Got Removed?

Some of the most famous manga disappeared in this wave. Series like Akira, Bleach, Dragon Ball, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, InuYasha, The Apothecary Diaries, My Dress-Up Darling, Golden Kamuy, Claymore, 20th Century Boys, Blue Box, Black Lagoon, Solo Leveling, The Quintessential Quintuplets, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime are now missing from the site.

Even currently popular manga were hit, including ones that don’t have official English translations yet, like Kingdom, 100 Girlfriends, Grand Blue, and Skip and Loafer. The removals did not focus on just one kind of series or popularity, they hit almost everything.

Why Is This Happening Now? The global manga boom is the main reason. In the past, publishers sometimes ignored scanlation (fan translation) sites, but now that more people are buying manga digitally worldwide, publishers see unofficial reading as a threat. Groups like Japan’s CODA (Content Overseas Distribution Association) have been fighting piracy for a while, but this latest action is a big step up.

MangaDex always tried to avoid trouble by sticking to fan translations that weren’t available officially in English, but for publishers, that isn’t enough anymore. Recently, other sites focused on webtoons have been hit as well. It’s a sign that any site sharing unlicensed manga or manhwa is now a target.

MangaDex Has Dealt With Legal Threats Before. This isn’t the first time MangaDex has faced DMCA takedowns. In 2019, VIZ Media forced them to temporarily shut down and change domains. The site has also been blocked in countries like Indonesia, Italy, and Russia. But nothing has hit as hard as this 2025 crackdown.

Fans are disappointed, upset, and trying to figure out what to do next. On Reddit and other forums, people are sharing which series are missing, asking for help, and talking about how much they depended on MangaDex for reading manga that isn’t sold or translated in their country.

For some, there is now no legal way to read certain manga. People are looking for new sites, talking about ways to save and archive chapters, and discussing the bigger issue: how to preserve old or rare manga when it’s not available anywhere else.

Many fans worry about older and niche manga disappearing forever. Without unofficial sites, these titles could be lost for good. That’s why there’s more talk about the need for better legal access and ways to keep manga culture alive.

What’s Next? No one knows for sure. MangaDex might try to change how it works, but more takedowns or even a shutdown seem possible. The demand for manga is not going away, so readers and scanlation groups will likely move to other sites or find new ways to keep sharing.