Earlier today Kodansha announced the launch of their own manga distribution service in K MANGA. With a new official service, however, means many questions about how it ultimately functions. With assistance from STORIES INTERNATIONAL, TheOASG was able to pass along a number of questions to Yuta Hiraoka, Deputy Editor of Weekly Shonen Magazine and K MANGA Project leader, and received answers for a couple of them, while noting more information will be forthcoming in the near future.
TheOASG: After prior simulpub titles were available to readers in multiple countries on different digital English platforms, what led to the decision to make K MANGA only exclusive to the US?
Yuta Hiraoka: To produce many simulpub titles, we had to be able to control the entirety of the process directly in-house. We also thought that by having all the titles available on the same service, we would be able to provide the same comfortable reading experience as we do in Japan.
In the press release it states K MANGA will endeavor to release the latest chapters of K MANGA original serialized manga and Kodansha manga serialized in weekly/monthly magazines earlier than any other competing US services — can this be elaborated on, since it’s hard to imagine how much more same day as Japan a company can get.
The strength of K MANGA is that you can read serialized titles and K MANGA originals at the same time as readers in Japan. The details of the titles will be in the next press release.
So the app will launch May 10 — was there discussion on both app and full website launching on the same day or there’s still development to be done on the website?
We are still working on the release date of the completed website. We will also send out the latest information on our official Twitter account.
How long has K MANGA been in the works?
It was about two years ago that we began to develop the idea in concrete terms.
Did seeing other publishers launch their own service influence Kodansha’s decision to release their own?
We have received some influence but not completely.
Can you discuss how limited a chapter of a manga will be to read for free? An example would be EDENS ZERO’s latest chapter would be free for a week or 48 hours?
Details will be announced at the time of the next press release.
Is K MANGA largely intended to be an all you can read type of service or geared more towards buying one-off purchases type of service?
Details will be announced at the time of the next press release.
Will readers be able to download certain manga on their phones/tablets or is an internet connection always required?
Details will be announced at the time of the next press release.
At the start of the year simulpub service ended on other English digital platforms, leading to a void of readers being unable to officially read the latest chapters of Kodansha manga. Was there a reason service had to end while K MANGA was still in development?
[Declined to comment on this question]
Will K MANGA remain a US exclusive service?
We do not have any concrete plans at this time. However, we hope to eventually expand our services to more countries.
How did Kodansha settle on the design for the K MANGA logo featuring one of Hiro Mashima’s characters?
The team members discussed and decided from among many candidates.
Will we know for each K MANGA title who’s localizing each one, since Kodansha is working with industry professionals on this service?
The translator’s credit will be listed in the details section of each title.
It’s certainly reasonable to assume more recent Kodansha titles will be published in some form on K MANGA — but will older titles in Kodansha’s catalog, say from the 1990s to the 2000s, have a chance to be released on the platform?
Yes, they are planned to be released. We will announce the 400 titles to be distributed at the launch of the service in the next press release.