Kodansha has announced they will launch its own manga distribution service, K MANGA, exclusively for US readers starting May 10. K MANGA will have approximately 400 titles to kick off the service, which will include 70 titles, some that are original K MANGA serialized works and various manga titles currently serialized in Kodansha magazines in Japan, such as:
- EDENS ZERO
- Blue Lock
- Rent-A-Girlfriend
- The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse
- Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro
Catalog titles, from Chihayafuru to Fire Force, will also be available to read for users of the service. Users will have access to K MANGA’s library and will be able to read limited chapters of manga for free.
“The K MANGA team is committed to continually creating content within the K MANGA platform, bringing many brand new stories to US readers as they are simultaneously distributed in Japan,” said K MANGA project leader Yuta Hiraoka on the forthcoming service. “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.”
K MANGA will be managed by Kodansha’s editorial team, with official translations by industry professionals. The official Twitter and website has launched today. The official app will launch May 10 while the full website launch will be announced by Kodansha later.
This isn’t necessarily Kodansha’s first foray into its own service for the US. Back in 2011 they launched the Kodansha Comics app with Penguin Random House, and while it revolved around one franchise, in 2016 they partnered with Madefire to launch an Attack on Titan app. Kodansha then for the past couple years partnered with multiple digital subscription services to simulpub the latest chapters or an individual chapter of select manga on digital platforms (Amazon and Bookwalker to name a few).
However, last summer a number of Kodansha titles were withheld from simulpub platforms and services for roughly a month. Most of Kodansha’s titles did return, with the exception of The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse, Shangri-La Frontier, and The Heroic Legend of Arslan. Then to begin 2023, Kodansha announced the end of its simulpub program, with a statement provided to Crunchyroll News:
“Due to forthcoming changes in Kodansha’ simulpub distribution program, we are suspending simulpub updates until further notice. For now, the best way to keep up with your favorite series will be by following the collected volumes. We at Kodansha are deeply sorry to those of you who have kept up-to-date through the simulpub format, and while we can’t divulge any details at the moment, we have exciting announcements to make about simulpubs in the coming months.”
With the launch of K MANGA, US readers will now again be able to read Kodansha manga officially.