ARIA Magazine to Cease Publication

by Sakana-san
Mar 28, 2018 11:37 AM | 24 Comments

Kodansha has announced that its monthly shoujo magazine ARIA will end its publication on April 28, which is also the date its June issue will ship.

Kodansha began publishing the magazine in June 2010. After almost eight years of publishing, the magazine gained an average circulation of approximately 12,000 copies. Pika☆Ichi, Kore wa Koi no Hanashi, and GDGD-DOGS are some of the first manga titles to be featured in the magazine. The magazine reached its peak in popularity when the prologue chapter for Shingeki no Kyojin: Kuinaki Sentaku was published, which entailed Kodansha to print approximately 80,000 copies of the October 2013 issue.

The magazine also featured manga that received anime adaptations, such as Hatsukoi Monster, which was adapted into a TV anime by Studio Deen, and Shingeki no Kyojin: Kuinaki Sentaku, which received an OVA adaptation by Wit Studio. There are also titles that are side-stories of anime series, including several for GoHands' original anime K. In addition, the magazine featured manga adaptations of novels which would later inspired anime series, such as No.6 and Subete ga F ni Naru.

Source: Comic Natalie

Magazines

20 of 24 Comments Recent Comments

Complete listing w. finished serializing series
https://natalie.mu/comic/news/280171

Apr 27, 2018 8:36 PM by tsubasalover

koto said:
http://aria-comic.jp/news/isekilist.html

Thank you, Aria. It's interesting how most works are going to Kodanshaxpixiv's new app, Palcy.

ohh... another one turn into webmanga/magazine... let see what next...

Apr 27, 2018 7:43 PM by Kuma

http://aria-comic.jp/news/isekilist.html

Thank you, Aria. It's interesting how most works are going to Kodanshaxpixiv's new app, Palcy.

Apr 27, 2018 8:54 AM by koto

Ridleys said:

God damn, that's pretty sad. I mean I would take a fantasy shoujo over a school life one anytime. Thanks for such a detailed answer!

Thank you for reading.

I'm no expert and these are things I've only made a note of but at least some of it seems to add up with magazines like Sylph going digital, Aria (also digital? I hope), Ichiraci going bi-monthly, Comic It (also from Kadokawa) dying some titles going digital and that one Akita Shoten magazine also going bi-monthly (forgotten its name) and the like.

Mar 31, 2018 6:33 PM by phoenixalia

phoenixalia said:

Ridleys said:

???? Why is this happening so often lately?

Wall of text incoming.

1. Print is dying. I've been wanting digital manga sales for so long now.
2. I've been noticing this for a while now since I've been following sales for some time, but fantasy shoujo and historical shoujo manga sales have been going down sloowwwwly while Cinderella school life shoujos have been selling more. Once again, I read school life shoujo too but it pains me to see even run of the mill stuff sell better than well written fantasy/historical shoujo.

This is one reason why we're seeing more fantasy stuff in female oriented light novels. I seriously hope Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi and the other shoujo LN anime coming out in summer do reasonably OK with boosting their source material.

3. Web manga is the way. Anime like Netoge no Susume or Miira no Kaikata or even the upcoming Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii all started as web manga. Another one which is doing well in Japan is Ojiisan to Neko. From what I've seen in shoujo mags like Margaret, Betsufure etc. these kind of manga very rarely survive there. I'm still crying about Kimi to Wonderland.

Kawabata Shiki who wrote manga like Hakoniwa no Soleil and Uchuu wo Kakeru Yodaka has moved to josei magazine and is so far seeing more success there. It seems like shoujo magazines except for some like Hana to Yume or LaLa in Japan are just becoming school life magazines which absolutely breaks my heart.

God damn, that's pretty sad. I mean I would take a fantasy shoujo over a school life one anytime. Thanks for such a detailed answer!

Mar 31, 2018 12:10 PM by removed-user

Ridleys said:

???? Why is this happening so often lately?

Mar 31, 2018 10:30 AM by phoenixalia

phoenixalia said:

Ridleys said:

Preach, I really liked some of the series this magazine was publishing so this is definitely sad news.

And just a few days later, more sad news:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-03-31/kadokawa-b-log-comic-magazine-ends-print-publication-moves-to-digital/.129775

???? Why is this happening so often lately?

Mar 31, 2018 6:20 AM by removed-user

Ridleys said:

phoenixalia said:

The loss is that western shoujo fans are losing a nice fantasy shoujo magazine and those are pretty rare in these times as it is.

Preach, I really liked some of the series this magazine was publishing so this is definitely sad news.

And just a few days later, more sad news:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-03-31/kadokawa-b-log-comic-magazine-ends-print-publication-moves-to-digital/.129775

Mar 31, 2018 6:18 AM by phoenixalia

phoenixalia said:

Swagernator said:
Yeah it's sad, but i mean like ... it's not like it will be of any lose for the western customers.

The loss is that western shoujo fans are losing a nice fantasy shoujo magazine and those are pretty rare in these times as it is.

Preach, I really liked some of the series this magazine was publishing so this is definitely sad news.

Mar 31, 2018 2:13 AM by removed-user

Swagernator said:
Yeah it's sad, but i mean like ... it's not like it will be of any lose for the western customers.

The loss is that western shoujo fans are losing a nice fantasy shoujo magazine and those are pretty rare in these times as it is.

Mar 29, 2018 6:17 AM by phoenixalia

Yeah it's sad, but i mean like ... it's not like it will be of any lose for the western customers.

Mar 29, 2018 6:13 AM by Swagernator

phoenixalia said:

RobertBobert said:

I understand what you mean, but it's hard for me to associate titles about crossdressers like Ouran and Prinus Girl with Gender Bender. I'm more used to calling works where the MC gender is changing for real, for example Kashimashi.

Ah, I see. In shoujo manga, the more popular gender-benders in the west and to some extent in Japan are ones where the girl cross dresses.

For a standard "pseudo-homosexual\lesbian" romance, or including playing with gender roles as in Utena and Rose Versailles?

Mar 29, 2018 6:11 AM by RobertBobert

RobertBobert said:

Agelenawolf said:

Seriously? The most popular shoujo anime is Gender Bender (Ouran High School Host Club (that i mean how many people watched it in MAL tho haha)). I am not really sure which manga you are taking about to be more specific (like the titles) but I believe Gender Bender is very loved by Shoujo readers~

Ah, I see. In shoujo manga, the more popular gender-benders in the west and to some extent in Japan are ones where the girl cross dresses.

Mar 29, 2018 4:40 AM by phoenixalia

Agelenawolf said:

RobertBobert said:
Has anyone read the two Gender Bender titles specified here? Never seen this in the shoujo genre.

Mar 29, 2018 2:35 AM by RobertBobert

Fantasy and historical shoujo needs to stay alive and magazines like Sylph and Aria dying is not a good thing. There was also another shoujo magazine which recently died and it focused on unusual but good shoujo. Ichiraci also became bi-monthly about a year ago.

I always used to worry about how fantasy/historical shoujo usually sold one-fourth of slice of life/school life shoujo. School life shoujo are good too, but so is fantasy shoujo.

I seriously hope these do well in the web as I don't want to see shoujo magazines infested only with your usual "prince of school" stories.

Mar 28, 2018 9:27 PM by phoenixalia

with the rise of mangabox apps also by kodansha, this is unevitable...they also starting to launch shoujo too...

Mar 28, 2018 4:51 PM by Kuma

koto said:

shanimebib said:
Did they announce that? Well, that is kind of reassuring since I follow quite a few manga from there such as Ano Natsu.

Ano Natsu already ended with its 5th volume.

Oh! Time to start resume reading. Thanks for the information.

Mar 28, 2018 3:56 PM by shanimebib

shanimebib said:
Did they announce that? Well, that is kind of reassuring since I follow quite a few manga from there such as Ano Natsu.

Ano Natsu already ended with its 5th volume.

Mar 28, 2018 3:54 PM by koto

RobertBobert said:
Has anyone read the two Gender Bender titles specified here? Never seen this in the shoujo genre.

Mar 28, 2018 2:08 PM by Agelenawolf

caio_ken said:

shanimebib said:
Wow! What will happen to Koume? I mean Ouji ga Watashi wo Akiramenai! I haven't followed the manga for a while but it is such a fun manga (well most of Asada Nikki's manga are awesome).

At least we have Shonbori still running (no it's not over as listed in MAL) and Koi to Himitsu (absolutely love it!).

Those manga will probably be transfered to other magazine

Did they announce that? Well, that is kind of reassuring since I follow quite a few manga from there such as Ano Natsu.

Mar 28, 2018 1:30 PM by shanimebib

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