Kodansha Launches K Manga Distribution Platform in the US

by Vindstot
Mar 22, 2023 12:50 AM | 12 Comments

Publishing company Kodansha announced the launch of K Manga—a new manga distribution service—on Tuesday. The platform will be available exclusively as a smartphone app in the United States on May 10, with a website version to follow at a later date.

K Manga will launch with approximately 400 titles, including 70 ongoing series such as Edens Zero, Blue Lock, Kanojo, Okarishimasu (Rent-A-Girlfriend), Mokushiroku no Yonkishi (The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse), and Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san (Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro).

The catalog will also offer popular titles like Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins), Enen no Shouboutai (Fire Force), and Chihayafuru. The service will provide free manga chapters, with the amount of free manga that can be read per day being limited and varying by manga.

"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," says project leader Yuta Hiroaka. "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."

Official site: https://teaser.kmanga.kodansha.com/
Official Twitter: @KMANGA_KODANSHA

Source: Press Release

(C) 2023 KODANSHA LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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12 Comments Recent Comments

it's not like they have licensing issue since Kmanga wholly owned by kodansha. why US only? we may never know.

Mar 22, 2023 6:29 PM by Kuma

Hopefully this'll turn into something even close to mangaplus someday.

Mar 22, 2023 2:33 PM by MegamiRem

Finally giving Viz some competition.

Mar 22, 2023 12:11 PM by malvarez1

The advantage of living in the US is that you basically get access to all services in the world, be movies, games, anime, or manga.

Mar 22, 2023 10:42 AM by MadanielFL

> The platform will be available exclusively as a smartphone app in the United States

Good thing the company itself is telling me they won't give the option of an official release and I should go pirate their stuff.

Mar 22, 2023 10:16 AM by Ionliosite2

I'm curious about what the price will be. Shueisha's app is only $2.99/month and it's pretty worth it considering how much manga you get access to. Hopefully this will be around the same price.

Mar 22, 2023 9:38 AM by thebrentinator24

I just hope that the official scans will reflect the volume translations because if I have to be reading Ego saying Lock Off I'll be upset lol

But other than that, I'll support this just like how I support Shueisha's app

P.S. To all the people that are upset in this thread, just get a VPN and your problem is solved....How are we in 2023 and people don't have VPN's for this very same purpose lol

Mar 22, 2023 6:22 AM by Tokoya

This might be a new method for them to judge which manga is worth releasing physically. If series like Space Brothers, Chihayafuru and Mushishi get read often enough, it could push them to make English releases.

Mar 22, 2023 5:33 AM by Abeedo

I swear to god if they go to a coin system I will make a profanity laced rant that will be illegal in 20 states

Mar 22, 2023 4:00 AM by yamiyugi101

Kodansha: "We don't care about people worldwide, so please keep pirating our stuff".

Mar 22, 2023 3:10 AM by SidVicious

I hope it does not stay limited to US for a long time or worse yet, never come in other countries.

Mar 22, 2023 1:38 AM by king_knight_19

cool that the official scans for Edens Zero is back and now Blue Lock too will have an official scans

but ye im a pirate anyway so it does not bother me either way but glad that people who want to financially support the industry can do so now there in the US at least

Mar 22, 2023 12:53 AM by deg