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Kodansha to Launch New 'K Manga' Platform in U.S. (Updated)

Kodansha Ltd. announced on Tuesday that it will launch a new manga distribution service exclusively in the United States named "K MANGA" on May 10. The service will launch as a smartphone app on that day, and a full website will open at a later date. Kodansha launched a teaser website for the service. There will be approximately 400 manga titles at launch.

The service will include simulpub releases of 70 ongoing titles, with their chapters debuting on K MANGA before on other platforms. The manga include:

• EDENS ZERO
• Blue Lock
• Rent-A-Girlfriend
• The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse
• Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro

Other catalog titles on the service will include The Seven Deadly Sins, Fire Force, and Chihayafuru. Kodansha stated that its editorial team is managing the service.

Kodansha said the K MANGA service will offer a limited number of chapters for free, adding, "the amount of free manga that can be read per day is limited and varies from manga to manga." The company did not mention if it will offer a way of payment to read more chapters.

Update: ANN reached out to Kodansha Ltd. about possible future availability outside the U.S. and about a payment structure. Kodansha responded that because it has to "clear a variety of requirements for each country," such as laws and regulations, it is starting services in the U.S. However, the company stated it would like to expand to other countries.

Kodansha Ltd. added that it is fully responsible for the service's production and distribution, although it added it shares information and discusses the service with Kodansha USA Publishing "on a daily basis." Kodansha Ltd. added it will announce details about the service's pricing structure in its next press release.

Kodansha USA Publishing ended distribution of simulpub chapters of its manga titles on KiraKira Media Inc.'s digital manga service Azuki on January 16. The company removed previous simulpub chapters from Azuki on January 31. Early non-simulpub chapters of some of the series removed, as well as several of Kodansha's non-simulpub series remain unaffected on the platform.

The company then removed a number of its manga titles from Crunchyroll on January 31. Kodansha had issued a statement to Crunchyroll, saying that its suspension of simulub updates was due to "changes" in its simulpub distribution program.

Update on March 24: Added more details from Kodansha Ltd. Source: Email correspondence

Source: Press release