Japanese companies start anime and manga download service for the Nintendo DS

Japanese interactive content providers am3 [JP] and DaiNippon Printing started DSvision [JP] today, a fee-based service bringing anime and manga to owners of the Nintendo DS. DSvision was announced last year but pushed back a couple of times since then.

DSvision requires a hardware package for $38, which includes a 512mb microSD card, a DSvision card adapter for connection to the DS and a USB reader/writer. Users can download content with a PC onto the microSD card, and watch or read that content on their DS later.

DaiNippon Printing and am3 sell manga, anime episodes and text novels for prices ranging from 94 cents to $9.40 per download. There are 9 novels, 34 manga and 8 anime available at the moment but new content is uploaded every hour. The site will eventually offer 1,000 different titles within a year. DaiNippon Printing and am3 are hoping to win 2 million customers in the same time frame.

Unfortunately, DS owners living outside Japan cannot use DSvision and the site doesn’t mention any plans regarding the possibility of an international version.