Kindle Unlimited on Amazon Japan

I just finished my 2-month long kindle unlimited (KU) subscription and would like to share some of my experiences. I bought it on a promotional offer, 99 yens for 2 months (it would be 980 yen afterward, but I read it somewhere online that you can take those promotional offers again even just after a few days of canceling your subscription, but I don’t know if that works for Amazon Japan)

**Positive experience**

* It feels good that the more I read for free, the more authors and publishers get paid (they are paid per page you read. For KU novels, you need to spend at least a certain amount time for that page to count, but I don’t know how KU manga work though)
* Many KU books in a wide variety of categories including hobbies and cooking recipes
* I’m more willing to try out KU books if the synopsis seems interesting without spending time on checking their reviews, which I always do when I buy books
* If I don’t like what I read halfway through a KU book, I just dropped it. It’s much harder for me to justify dropping a book had I paid for it.
* I got to try out a lot of lesser-known manga and novels, and ended up liking majority of them, even ones that I normally wouldn’t otherwise read
* I got to read a few self-published manga. Some of them were extra stories to published manga by the commercial manga artists themselves. They are not available on any other digital platforms.
* I discovered quite a few good manga through reading manga magazines. All of the magazines include a few one-shot by new artists in each issue (more of them in ザ花とゆめ and LaLa Dx), some of them are even their debut works. Very often they are surprisingly good, and make me look forward to their future works
* I knew most KU manga were just first volume or so in a series before subscribing to it so I was kind of surprised by how many series that are fully available or all volumes except the latest one are available on KU
* A majority of BL manga on KU are one-shot volume so I wasn’t just sampling manga series or having to buy the latest volume all the time
* English KU books can also be read with a Japanese KU subscription (but not the other way around)

**Negative experience**

* No blockbuster bestselling books, besides the first volume or so at the most, unless it’s a very old series
* Occasionally, only the second or even later volumes in a series are on KU but the first one is not 🙄
* Books get pulled out of KU from time to time, and some books seem to be there forever. But there is no telling which one is which. (However, as long as you haven’t returned a borrowed book that got pulled out of KU, you can still read it)
* Reading novels on Kindle app sucks. It shifts the text layout from time to time and its built-in dictionary sucks even more
* I can’t fill out surveys from manga magazines, which depend on those surveys to decide whether to keep a new series going or turn a one-shot into a series because those surveys are restricted to print version only
* Too many manga to read and that’s eating into my time for reading novels
* While I was on KU subscription, I felt like I shouldn’t read anything that’s not KU while my backlog of books keep growing (60+ volumes of novels and 20+ volumes of manga that I have bought, and 5+ series on syosetu)

Overall, I’m very happy with the KU. I’ll definitely sign up again a couple months later.

**Recommended KU manga**

* 黒猫ろんと暮らしたら (General vol 1-3)
* 猫が教えてくれたこと (General )
* じじ猫くらし (General vol 1-2)
* よなきごや(josei vol 1)
* 女性に風俗って必要ですか?~アラサー独女の再 就職先が女性向け風俗店の裏方だった件~ (josei vol 1)
* 傾国の仕立て屋 ローズ・ベルタン (Seinen vol 1-2)
* 曙橋三叉路白鳳喫茶室にて (Shojo vol 1)
* 婚約者は溺愛のふり (Shojo vol 1)
* Petshop of Horrors 漂泊の箱舟編 (Shojo vol 1-3 end)
* Petshop of Horrors パサージュ編 (Shojo vol 1-5 end)
* 土かぶりのエレナ姫 (Shojo vol 1)
* 吸血鬼と愉快な仲間たち (Shojo vol 1)
* どうも、好きな人に惚れ薬を依頼された魔女で す。 (Shojo vol 1)
* 黄泉のツガイ (Shonen vol 1, No longer on KU)
* 彼と付き合う10のメリット (BL )
* 災厄にして惑わず (BL vol 1-3 end)
* 少年と神隠し (BL )
* 副音声はうるさい十分に (BL ch 1-5)
* きみが鍵をあけるまで (BL )
* ダウナー系上司を恋に落とす方法 (BL )
* 異世界の沙汰は社畜次第 (BL vol 1)
* 話せば長いふたりの話 (BL vol 1-2 end)
* 明日はどっちだ! (BL vol 1-3)
* 解ける箱庭 (BL vol 1-3 end)
* ましたの腐男子くん (BL )
* 幸福の値段 (BL )
* だらしねぇエルフと元兵士長 (BL vol 1-2)
* ずっと君のターン (BL extra story 1-2)
* 君にバレなきゃホントはもっと (BL )
* 絶対BLになる世界 VS 絶対BLになりたくない男 (BL vol 1-2)
* 攻め様検定管理局 (BL )
* 結び目をほどいたら (BL )
* 百草の裏庭 (BL, No longer on KU)
* 気まぐれなジャガー (BL vol 1-4 end + extra story)
* 善次くんお借りします (BL vol 1)

Some publishers, such as 白泉社’s shojo department, seem to participate more on KU than others. You can find 白泉社’s shojo manga by searching 花とゆめコミックス on Amazon Japan and filter to KU only. You can find some of their classics like Fruit Basket vol 1-7 or Gakuen Alice vol 1-5 on KU.

Please DM me for a list of BL manga and novels with nsfw titles 😆😆

Manga that I am planning to read in my next subscription

* 螺旋じかけの海 (Shonen vol 1-5)
* きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード1巻(Classic Shonen from the 80s, vol 1-10 end)
* 賢者の石 (Shojo vol 1-16 end)
* 真空融接 (BL vol 1-2)
* 灰かぶりコンプレックス(BL vol 1-2)

**Recommended KU novels**

* 夜市 (Urban Fantasy, Quick Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/178r9nr/comment/k53812x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
* 天使の囀り (Sci-fi thriller, Quick Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/17e5jp5/comment/k62t7ma/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
* 四畳半タイムマシンブルース (Sci-fi comedy, only vol 2 on KU, Quick Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/17jg25n/comment/k7c3veb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
* 華は褥に咲き狂う(BL vol 1-2, Quick Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/boyslove/comments/1672y2s/comment/jz7d1pv/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
* 白い虎侯爵と子狼の親愛なるガーデナー (BL, Quick Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/17jg25n/comment/k7c3veb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
* 獅子王アルファと秘密のいとし子 (BL, Quick Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/173ca9v/comment/k4bavgn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
* チェンジリン グ (BL vol 1-3 , Quick Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/16rb92n/comment/k2852c4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
* 竜の棲み処 君が僕の永遠なる希望 (BL, Quick Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/16xfh9d/comment/k38ee6e/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

**Manga Magazines and the manga on them that I like:**

花とゆめ (shojo, bi-weekly, the 4 most recent back issues are on KU)

* 神さま学校の落ちこぼれ
* 元殺し屋メイドは坊ちゃんを守りたい (just started in 2023 vol 20 issue)

ザ花とゆめ (shojo, quarterly, the 3 most recent back issues are on KU)

* ドラひよ~異世界の竜は私のなでなでに弱いみたいです (started in the 2023 March issue)
* シンデレラの義理姉に転生したけどふたりの王子に溺愛されています(started in the 2023 March issue)

LaLa (shojo, monthly, the 3 most recent back issues are on KU)

* 夏目友人帳
* 婚約者は溺愛のふり
* ぬいに恋していいですか？ (just started in the 2023 October issue)

LaLa Dx (shojo, bi-monthly, the 2 most recent back issues are on KU)

* 土かぶりのエレナ姫
* 狼とリボルバー (just started in the 2023 July issue)

Melody (shojo, bi-monthly, the 2 most recent back issues are on KU)

* 曙橋三叉路白鳳喫茶室にて
* 吸血鬼と愉快な仲間たち
* 翠の社の龍神さま

Wings (shojo, bi-monthly, the 3 most recent issues are on KU)

* 百姓貴族
* 極彩の家
* 奸臣スムバト

JOUR (josei, monthly, the most recent 12 issues are on KU)

* 殿さまとわたし (started in the 2023 October issue)

月刊コミックバンチ (seinen, monthly, the 12 most recent issues are on KU)

* 手のひらねこ
* 傾国の仕立て屋 ローズ・ベルタン
* ポンコツ魔王の田舎暮らし

ihr HertZ (BL, bi-monthly, one back issue on KU)

* 明日はどっちだ
* 囀る鳥は羽ばたかない
* 雷々来世
* お伽話は地獄の果て、

CRAFT (BL, bi-monthly, one back issue on KU)

* 京極家series
* 人生はバラ色か
* 105号室の犬

iHertZ (BL, bi-monthly, one back issue on KU)

* 前世より愛して

GUSH (BL, monthly, 5 month-old back issue only )

* はじめて、はじめました。
* ニュースにならない恋ですが

**Other Magazines**

* ダ・ヴィンチ (Monthly, about books and manga, most recent 2 issues on KU)
* 3分クッキング (Monthly, cooking recipes, most recent 11 issues on KU)
* 週刊ファミ通 (Weekly, about video games, most recent 14 issues on KU)
* Animage (Monthly, about anime, most recent 6 issues on KU)
* アニメディア(Monthly, about anime, most recent 12 issues on KU)