[Skuu]

If you're putting as much thought into it as Ozukaki seems to be, then you're probably not doing anything wrong.

I agree it's a touchy topic as it's not easy to say to someone "that thing you really love doing, you can't do it anymore". Objectively manga is ofc. different from food, but subjectively people can become obsessed with it so it's very important to their happiness. However this is an extra difficulty, it doesn't change the value of not stealing something.

People who d/l manga/anime liberally, without serious consideration of the author, need to do just this. They are only picturing their need. As MMM has made clear, manga and other similar things are a different ethical issue to copying music from the music industry. If you're a high-profile performer, performing for millions then the amount of people who naturally will want your music but can't/won't afford it won't be affecting your income. However if you're an independent manga writer or publisher, your sales base is much smaller and so you'll definitely feel the effects of people getting your product for free when many of them could have bought it.

I can't tell you how to spend your money or tell you the exact balance on this ethical issue, but most people are probably not even considering it beyond the moral nonequivalence stated above. You have a moral obligation to consider how the producer of the work you are pirating will get by without sales.