In the first three months of 2021 manga sales are doing tremendously well in the United States. According to NPD BookScan, print manga titles sold 3.6 million units. Meanwhile, a recent study by ICV2, stated that manga has helped graphic novel sales in North America skyrocket by 80% in 2021, with 4 million units being sold at the beginning of this year. This was the highest … [Read more...] about Manga sales off to a strong start in 2021
Digital Manga and Anime News
Yen Press is converting Sword Art Online Lite Novels to Audiobooks
Yen Press is going to be taking some of their hottest manga properties and converting them to audiobooks. A number of Sword Art Online novels are going to be released in August. The company has started a new imprint called Yen Audio and have teamed up with Hachette Audio, who will produce the audiobooks and do all of the narration. The finished products will be distributed to … [Read more...] about Yen Press is converting Sword Art Online Lite Novels to Audiobooks
Department of Justice investigating Funimation and Crunchyroll merger
Sony are the owners of Funimation and they offered AT&T over one billion dollars to buy Crunchyroll in December. The US Justice department has launched a probe to see if the merger would limit the options of Japanese studios looking to license shows in the US. This probe will delay the closing of the deal by a couple of months. Viewer demand for anime has surged during the … [Read more...] about Department of Justice investigating Funimation and Crunchyroll merger
Funimation purchases Crunchyroll for $1.2 Billion
Funimation and Crunchyroll are two of the largest subscription based anime and manga streaming platforms. They tend to post anime the day it airs in Japan, allowing people access to material and helping curb piracy. Last Week, Sony Pictures announced that AT&T and Warner Media agreed to sell Crunchyroll to Funimation. The deal was in the works for the past couple of months … [Read more...] about Funimation purchases Crunchyroll for $1.2 Billion
The best e-readers and E INK devices to read digital manga
Many e-readers and large screen E INK devices are primarily marketed to read ebooks, but manga is increasing in popularity. Many of the biggest brands now support CBZ/CBR files, out of the box. These are chiefly file types that have a bunch of images inside of them. Brands like Pocketbook and Kobo have the best support for this format. There are also a bunch of Android readers … [Read more...] about The best e-readers and E INK devices to read digital manga
Kodansha to release same-day manga on ComiXology Unlimited
Kodansha has announced that they are going to be releasing digital manga, the same day, on ComiXology Unlimited. Anyone with a subscription plan will be able to read new releases of manga including Attack on Titan, EDENS ZERO, The Ghost in the Shell: The Human Algorithm, and more.Manga fans can now read even more Kodansha Comics series at no additional cost with comiXology … [Read more...] about Kodansha to release same-day manga on ComiXology Unlimited
Viz partners with Funimation for streaming anime
Viz Media is one of the largest distributors of manga and anime. The company has just partnered with Funimation, the second largest streaming platform, next to Crunchyroll. The new deal will include 2018 sci-fi boxing anime Megalo Box and Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. They'll join existing titles from the VIZ Media catalog, such as Hunter x Hunter, on September 22nd, and a … [Read more...] about Viz partners with Funimation for streaming anime
Manga Sales are booming due to COVID
Viz Media is one of the largest manga distributors in the United States and due to COVID, sales are booming. Kevin Hamric, the vice president of publishing sales at Viz Media recently gave an interview to ICV2 and stated "VIZ has been doing extraordinarily well during the pandemic period. Our sales are beyond expectations. For VIZ, it's extremely good, but the manga market is … [Read more...] about Manga Sales are booming due to COVID
Japan Passes New Copyright Law to Criminalize Manga Piracy
Japan has just passed a new law that criminalizes manga piracy and also to the websites that link to it. The parliament passed new copyright amendments last Friday that ban the unlicensed downloading of manga, magazines and academic texts from the Internet. The new law will take effect on January 1, 2021.The law revision came as the country saw a rising number of piracy and … [Read more...] about Japan Passes New Copyright Law to Criminalize Manga Piracy
Mangamo is a new unlimited subscription service for Manga
Mangamo is new unlimited subscription service for iOS that gives you a free two month trial and after that it is $4.99 per month. The main selling point is that all of their manga is in English and they have partnered with 11 manga publishers and expects to roll out more than 300 titles in upward of 1,000 volumes over the next three months, with new chapters added … [Read more...] about Mangamo is a new unlimited subscription service for Manga
J-Novel Club and Bookwalker giving away hundreds of free light novels
J-Novel Club is a publisher that puts an emphasis on light novels, which are a form of young adult fiction. Many of the most popular animes are based on them, such as the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Overlord, Log Horizon, and Sword Art Online. J-Novel and Bookwalker are running a free promotion where you can download over 55 light novels, without paying anything. You simply … [Read more...] about J-Novel Club and Bookwalker giving away hundreds of free light novels
