In celebration of a major milestone for one of Japan’s most popular manga magazines that spawned hits that defined genres, the magazine will make itself accessible to United States audiences soon, with multiple series to be serialised and a popularity poll for one of 16 manga. This new announcement is very exciting and shows the growing influence of the manga medium in North America and globally, and this move will hopefully increase the appeal of both manga and Kodansha‘s wide array of underrated gems to fans in one of the biggest manga markets in the world.
Kodansha has just announced that to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the popular Weekly Young Magazine, one of the publisher’s top seinen magazines, a special-issue U.S publication of the magazine is coming. Young Magazine’s U.S. special issue will release first for free at Anime NYC between August 21st and 25th, alongside a wider release across 17 Kinokuniya stores between August 21st and November 10th. It will contain 19 new manga geared to American audiences, with new series from big-name mangakas such as Shuzo Oshimi (Flowers of Evil, Blood on the Tracks), Masaaki Nakayama (PTSD RADIO) and even the anticipated Initial D and MF Ghost sequel, Subaru and Subaru, by Shuichi Shigeno, and the popular and currently serializing UNDER NINJA will also be included in the U.S magazine in addition to the Japanese one. This new move is extremely exciting, and not only does it open up more opportunities to Japanese mangaka, but it exposes American fans to more complex and nuanced stories outside of popular shonen titles.
Kodansha’s New Project Holds A Lot of Promise
Another exciting aspect of this magazine is that there will be a fan voting of 16 titles, from August 21st to November 10th, and the 5 winning entries will be serialized on K Manga, Kodansha’s manga reading platform. The entries are as follows:
- BOYS RUN THE RIOT – IN TRANSITION – Keito Gaku
- Fasciation – OUGA, Godmother – Rin Shimokawa
- GOUMA The Blade that Slaughters Gods – Hiroki Ishizawa
- Into the Dark – Anri Morikuma
- Is My Love Strange? – Hikari Azuma
- Freethought – Kyuri Yamada
- Pregnant – Denchi Matsumoto (Story) and Keita Nishijima (Art)
- PROJECT METALLIA – Yukito Iwai
- Protocol Ryugu – Daisaku Tsuru
- Still You – Kami Nishio
- The Graveyard Shift – Yoshimi Sato
- The Journey of a Dark Elf with Fading Powers – Daisuke Itabashi
- The Knight of Blasphemy – Ray Kindo
- THE LAST TERRAN – Hiroshi Takashige (Story) and Tatsumi Hitomoji (Art)
- To Dusk and Twilight – Robico.
The concept and vision of the U.S magazine is “UN-Filtered Manga”, with the main themes being cyberpunk and gritty stories that depict the complexities of human nature, and Young Magazine has some of the best collections of manga for these themes. The magazine started publishing on June 16, 1980, and spawned some of the most popular manga ever. Some hits are Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, Prison School By Kira Hiramoto, xxxHolic and Chobits by CLAMP, Initial D by Shuuichi Shigeno, Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji by Nobuyuki Fukumoto, and many other amazing titles. The magazine’s anthology has some extremely layered and brilliant stories that dive deep into the human psyche, and with amazing presentation and art, there is no doubt that one will find a story in there that is for them.
