Another Japanese publisher enters the English language market directly — and fans soon won’t have to wait to read the latest chapters.
You may remember way back in April, Japanese publisher KADOKAWA purchased J-Novel Club. The Yen Press co-owner now had both BOOK☆WALKER and J-Novel Club under its umbrella, which is a large portion of the light novel market. The arrangement promised to bring in new titles and a digital-first strategy.
In late July, BOOK☆WALKER started advertising a “KADOKAWA Chapter Debut” promotion for seven new manga series:
- A Boy Raised by Gods Will Be The Strongest
- I’m Quitting Heroing
- Magic Stone Gourmet: Eating Magical Power Made Me The Strongest
- My Little Sister Stole My Fiancé: The Strongest Dragon Favors Me And Plans To Take Over The Kingdom?
- The 31st Consort
- The Insipid Prince’s Furtive Grab for The Throne
- The Lotus Eaters, Drunk and Sober
The first three chapters of these series are free until September 1st, and others cost $1.91 each. The page advertising the promo also said, ” We will be adding more chapters during the campaign period, so please check back every now and then.”
They also launched social media accounts with the name of “KADOKAWA digi-pub NEWS”.
At the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo on August 7th, KADOKAWA officially announced they would be releasing manga and light novels in English directly.
The previously revealed manga were confirmed to be a part of their new simulpub efforts, and three new light novels were announced to join the lineup:
- Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway
- I’m Quitting Heroing
- The Insipid Prince’s Furtive Grab for The Throne
KADOKAWA aims to have 100 titles simulpubbed over the next three years. Chapters will be available on BOOK☆WALKER and other outlets, and they will eventually release full volumes. For now, the company is focused on catching up by using the published versions before starting simulpubbing these works.
More KADOKAWA titles — and simulpubbed KADOKAWA titles — isn’t too much of a surprise considering the company’s moves earlier in the year. The manga and light novel market is booming, and one of the best ways for publishers to fight piracy is to beat the fan translations to the market. And with BOOK☆WALKER, they have a perfect venue to do promote their manga and light novels.
Perhaps the only real surprise is that KADOKAWA is releasing these series directly instead of going through their other connections. J-Novel Club does well with their subscription-based model, and Yen Press also does simulpubs. But both of these publishers can publish manga and light novels in physical format, and KADOKAWA hasn’t announced any intentions to have print versions. Of course it makes sense for KADOKAWA to push their releases on BOOK☆WALKER over the other eBook sellers, but I and many others prefer print versions. Perhaps though they will concentrate on their simulpubs and sublicense the print rights to Yen Press for more popular series. And there are benefits to keeping a subsidiary like J-Novel Club operating at least partially separately versus bringing it into the fold or taking it over.
KADOKAWA’s lineup is fantasy-heavy, but at least they aren’t all isekai titles. Plus, there are a few targeted at the female demographic, so it is good KADOKAWA isn’t automatically pigeonholing themselves as a one-genre publisher. Having a light novel and its manga adaptation under the same publishing roof, as in the case of I’m Quitting Heroing and The Insipid Prince’s Furtive Grab for The Throne, is always a plus, especially for translation and localization purposes. Pricing is in line with other publishers’ simulpubs, so that isn’t a barrier for fans who like to follow along with the Japanese releases.
Still, though, we are seeing a rise of subscription-based and freemium services, and boosting J-Novel Club with KADOKAWA’s releases might have been a way to match some of these new services. Not having chapters right away on Kindle, Nook, and other formats also means that a significant portion of shoppers won’t even realize these series are licensed or will pass simply because it’s convenient to keep all their digital purchases at one place. I know I am pretty much a Kindle gal even though BOOK☆WALKER’s reader is rather nice.
But KADOKAWA is already planning out their strategy for the next couple of years, which in these fast-moving times, is a long ways off. There’s plenty of time to figure out how KADOKAWA’s own publishing division is going to operate with BOOK☆WALKER, J-Novel Club, and Yen Press. For now, this news is just another case of the Japanese publishers knowing the value of the international market and taking more control over protecting their IPs. With KADOKAWA having so many brands, I’m sure releasing simulpubbed manga and light novels directly won’t be the last move they’ll make.