Kodansha Ltd., one of the biggest publishers of Japanese manga (including Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Tokyo Revengers, etc.) has announced the launch of its own manga distribution service, K MANGA, for May 2023. The service will be exclusive to the United States.
According to Kodansha, their manga sales in the US tripled in 2022, setting a company record. They now aim to increase accessibility for US fans through K MANGA. The service will release new chapters of K MANGA original serialized manga, as well as manga from Kodansha’s weekly and monthly magazines. It’s worth noting that Kodansha recently pulled its titles from third-party manga services, such as Azuki, Bookwalker and Crunchyroll.
The K MANGA team is committed to continually creating content within the K MANGA platform, bringing many brand new stories to U.S. readers as they are simultaneously distributed in Japan. We hope that our audience will enjoy K MANGA through encountering many never-before-seen stories, becoming a fan of those stories, and then watching the journey of how those stories become popular.
Yuta Hiraoka, project leader
As Kodansha’s official serialization platform, K MANGA will launch with approximately 400 titles, including 70 titles of ongoing manga currently in serialization including many different genres. Users will have access to the library and will
be able to read limited chapters of manga for free as well (the amount of free manga that can be read per day is limited and varies from manga to manga). Features of the upcoming platform include:
- Earliest Exclusive Access to Latest Chapters
Chapters of popular manga in the U.S. currently ongoing in Japan, such as EDENS ZERO, Blue Lock, Rent-A-Girlfriend, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse, and Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro will be available on K MANGA before any other competing platform. - Access to Popular Manga in Kodansha’s Catalog
In addition to the latest manga, K MANGA will offer a myriad of beloved manga from Kodansha’s library such as The Seven Deadly Sins, Fire Force and Chihayafuru. - A Manga Service by the Editors and for the Fans
K MANGA is managed by Kodansha’s editorial team – the same team that has been present through the creation of new manga every day, continuously editing and producing numerous worldwide mega-hits. - Official Localization
K MANGA will deliver official translations by industry professionals familiar with each manga.
Source: Press release
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