Hi unknowm,
I looked into this and can point to Brave’s own official Shields policy for a precise (not guessed) explanation:
Per Brave’s published blocking policy (github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Blocking-goals-and-policy):
“In Standard blocking mode (the default), Brave does not apply network-level filter list blocking to first-party requests.” Aggressive mode blocks both third-party AND first-party requests. The same document states Brave does not intentionally target first-party advertising for blocking in Standard mode — this is deliberate default behavior, not a bug.
You reported the ad appears with default Shields, in Private windows, and on both Android and iOS. That pattern (same result regardless of platform or private mode) is consistent with the ad being served/injected as first-party content directly from nelomanga.net’s own domain, rather than from a separate third-party ad network — which is exactly the case Standard mode is documented to not touch.
Concrete step to try: on nelomanga.net specifically, open the Shields panel and change “Trackers & Ads Blocking” from Standard to Aggressive for that site, then reload the chapter page.
Two things that would help narrow this down further if you have a moment:
- You didn’t note the answer to “Does the site function as expected when Shields are turned off?” — if the ad also appears with Shields fully off, that further confirms it’s page-native content, not a Shields gap.
- After trying Aggressive mode, please report back whether the ad is gone. If Aggressive mode ALSO fails to stop it, that would point to a genuine filter-list gap for this specific ad script (not just a Standard-vs-Aggressive default-policy question), and would be worth flagging separately for Brave’s filter-list maintainers — similar to how staff addressed a comparable case here (different site, cited only as a precedent for how these are typically resolved, not as proof the same fix applies): Popup ads bypassing Shields even with Aggressive mode (Android)
Note on something I checked but could not confirm either way: there have been broader documented campaigns of compromised sites showing full-screen gambling-ad overlays via injected iframes (reported independently by security researchers, e.g. https://thehackernews.com/2025/03/150000-sites-compromised-by-javascript.html). I searched specifically for nelomanga.net and found no independent report tying it to that or any other known campaign — flagging this only as an open, unverified possibility, not a claim about the site.