The Manga Market Gets a Little More Square

So about a month ago, we learned that there was a new manga publisher on the horizon.

But who was the company in question? Penguin Random House made me think back to the days when Random House was releasing manga under the Del Rey imprint, which eventually became Kodansha Comics USA. The “first time” part of the job description made me eliminate a sort of new connected to Kodansha company like Vertical, Inc. But my guess was Futabasha, with Akita Shoten as my second choice. Both have titles that have been farmed out to many US publishers like VIZ Media, Yen Press, Seven Seas, and Pantheon Books and are large enough that they might want to be a full physical/digital manga publisher. They’ve tested the waters with digital-only releases, so neither fit the description perfectly.

Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t bet on either of those. Instead, it’s the home of chocobos and slimes that is becoming the newest English manga publisher.

Square Enix’s Publication History

Like a lot of video game companies, Square Enix loves to release merchandise, and they’ve been releasing books related to their titles well before the Squaresoft and Enix merger. But back then, Enix also had a manga imprint called Gangan, which continues to this day. Among its magazines are Monthly Shounen Gangan (home to Fullmetal Alchemist), Monthly GFantasy (which is publishing Black Butler), and Gangan Joker (which serializes Happy Sugar Life). In addition, Square Enix continues to publish game-related content like manga adaptations of the Kingdom Hearts series, Final Fantasy light novels, and game artbooks.

Kingdom Hearts II Volume 4

Outside of Japan, as you may know, even as Square Enix has merged with Western companies like Eidos, their Japanese books haven’t been a high priority. Square Enix North America did launch a digital manga store in late 2010, but it closed a little over three years later. The reason? A new partnership with Hachette Book Group — which is one of the two parent companies of Yen Press. It’s why most Square Enix titles have been released by them for the past few years. There have been a few oddities, like Viz Media retaining physical release rights to Fullmetal Alchemist and Dark Horse releasing the Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive books.

Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Sample
Excerpt from Dark Horse’s release of Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume 1

However, as we now know, Square Enix is going to start releasing their own titles and have Penguin Random House distribute them.

Yen Press has changed since that original deal with Square Enix, becoming 51% owned by KADOKAWA Corporation and 49% by Hachette Book Group in 2016. Perhaps this is just a delayed effect of that. Or perhaps Square Enix want the full profits from their books instead of partial profits from another company licensing from them. Of course, this also means that they take on the full risk, so hopefully nothing happens that causes them to drop series midway or anything.

The Lineup

Square Enix’s imprint is going to launch with the following titles starting this fall:

  • FINAL FANTASY XV: The Dawn of the Future
  • Hi Score Girl
  • A Man and His Cat
  • Soul Eater

Right away, we can see there’s a mix here. We get confirmation that Square Enix is going to be releasing both manga and light novels. That isn’t too much of a surprise since Yen Press release both types as well, but it’s good to know for sure. Soul Eater is a rerelease, almost assuredly based upon the upcoming deluxe version that’s going to be published in Japan soon.

So not only is Square Enix confident enough to release a manga that’s still easily available (digitally and in print) in English, but they’re also making plans for books that haven’t even been published yet. That gives me hope that English releases aren’t always going to have to lag far behind the Japanese. A Man and His Cat is a new manga with only two volumes while Hi Score Girl is finished. Again, hopefully this means that both new and older titles are up for grabs, although Hi Score Girl having an anime available on Netflix certainly helps.

Of course, my fangirl self is really dreaming of even abridged versions of Ultimania guidebooks get an English release. Releasing the full books is probably a tall order as they feature a lot of screenshots and are in the realm of 500 to 800 pages, but there are some very critical interviews and explanations in each one. Even highlights from the Ultimanias could replace the game guide vacuum caused by Prima Games’ shutdown, as they cover everything from plot points to breaking down damage calculations to being mini-artbooks.

Impact Going Forward

However, there’s no way to sugarcoat it: this is a huge blow to Yen Press. They’re almost certainly not going to lose the rights to series they already have, but Square Enix titles make up a huge portion of their catalog: Kingdom Hearts, Dimension W, No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, Val × Love, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, and many more. Maybe it will be like the Crunchyroll-Funimation deal where it will last longer than what we initially thought, but Yen Press is going to need a lot more from other publishers to help fill in the gaps in their licensing plans. As an example, one-third of their May 2019 releases are from Square Enix.

Yen Press' Square Enix titles for May 2019

There’s also the question of how Square Enix’s releases are going to be. I imagine their titles are going to use the same translation agency that their simulpubs have been using, and they’ve been good from what I can tell. A lot better than the over-localization and inconsistency their video game divisions have at least. But we’ll see how they price their titles and how big their books are. Will they be closer to Seven Seas and Vertical releases, or maybe the larger trim that Kodansha Comics has recently become fond of? Or will that size be more for deluxe releases like Soul Eater? Along those same lines, if Square Enix is going to take over Kingdom Hearts books, I hope that they won’t look out of place with Yen Press’ releases.

It’ll also be interesting if Square Enix’s Gangan division starts soliciting series with plans for global releases in mind. Maybe manga adaptations of some of their Western subsidiaries like Tomb Raider? I talked about Ultimania volumes earlier. Square Enix has released a bilingual information book before (Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Reunion Files), so they could design future Ultimanias to be more English-friendly.

So, for now, it’s a wait and see. But considering it’s already the second half of May, fall isn’t too far off. Let’s just hope it sticks around for a lot longer than their digital manga store. If Square Enix invest time in their releases and choose good titles like Yen Press has, they shouldn’t have to worry about shuttering.

Do you read any Square Enix manga or light novels? What do you think about them entering the manga market? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.