Shinbun Saturday: Japanese Publisher Kadokawa Moves into the North American Market

Hi everyone! Welcome to another edition of Shinbun Saturday, your weekly round-up of the latest news in the manga world. I could talk about the biggest headlines, which deal with the most recent round of Hollywood whitewashing but ugh, speaking as an Asian woman, I’m so tired of talking about it. It happens again and again, which means I keep expressing my frustration over and over again. Where does that leave me and other people who look like me? Why do we have to keep repeating ourselves?! Can’t Hollywood just stop doing this already!

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s talk about manga news.

Japanese publisher Kadokawa is making some serious moves into the North American market. Earlier this week, they announced a partnership with online anime streaming site, Crunchyroll. The alliance gives Crunchyroll exclusive worldwide rights to distribute Kadokawa anime titles for the next year. As if that weren’t enough, Kadokawa obtained a 51% stake of US manga publisher Yen Press. Yen Press is currently an imprint of Hachette. Under the deal, Yen Press will spin off as its own venture, co-owned by Kadokawa and Hachette.

In more U.S. manga publisher news, several big titles (and some slightly smaller ones) from Kodansha are now available as simulpubs on comiXology. That’s right. New chapters of series like Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, and Heroic Legend of Arslan can be read on the comiXology and Kindle platforms the same day they’re published in Japan. Many of these titles are already a part of Crunchyroll’s simulpub’s service, but the new deal expands Kodansha’s digital reach.

And, finally, VIZ has licensed some titles from some very familiar properties. First up are more Naruto light novels, this time about the Uchiha brothers. I’ll be honest. I’ve started watching Naruto Shippuden because the current story arc is an anime adaptation of the Itachi light novel. Real talk right here: Naruto is the fandom you can never leave. Never. Next up are light novels based in the Tokyo Ghoul world. I didn’t even know these novels existed, so I’m pretty excited about their US publication. I’m a big fan of Tokyo Ghoul and Ken’s evolution as a character. And finally, they licensed the spinoff series of my most favorite manga, Gangsta. That’s right. We’re getting Gangsta.: Cursed, a prequel series about Marco Adriano and his time with the Second Destroyers. (If you read Gangsta., then you’re probably familiar with the Third Destroyers.) Gangsta. mangaka Kohske is still recuperating, so the main series remains on hiatus, but hopefully, we’ll be getting new material soon!

That’s it for this week. See you next time!

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Vernieda Vergara

Vernieda Vergara

Writer. Manga and webtoon aficionado. I hail from Washington D.C. where I consume too much media and cause only a little trouble. Tweet me @incitata.

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