Welcome to Hachi Report, a monthly newsletter breaking down recent developments in the manga and manhwa world! Thanks to the efforts of our hardworking delivery fox Hachi, we have all the information you need about upcoming comics, new and notable events, and backstage publisher maneuvering. This month: the death of a manga master, a new BookWalker struggles to be born, and Chainsaw Man is crazy good one last time.
Licensing Highlights
Secondhand Sisters
Writer/Artist: Battan
Publisher: Kodansha
Debut: Spring 2026
Synopsis: Jun’s sister Ran has a lifelong habit of “borrowing” her things. After being reunited at their mother’s funeral, she’s stuck living with Ran and her husband – AKA the ex Ran stole from her!
The Pitch: Battan’s name is all I need to hear; Run Away With Me, Girl is one of my all-time favorite manga.
What Six Survivors Told
Writer/Artist: Kazune Yamamoto
Publisher: Yen Press
Debut: September 2026
Synopsis: It all started with a plane landing at Narita Airport. A single passenger carried a mysterious virus, and before anybody knew it, this infection had spread widely! Responding to this crisis, the national government decided to blockade the borders of Chiba Prefecture. Within a town overrun by zombies, six people take refuge in a shopping mall in Makuhari. Having obtained food and safety, these survivors…hopelessly fall in love?!
The Pitch: While I can take or leave zombies, I’m always up for more manga serialized in the magazine Harta (Delicious in Dungeon, Hinamatsuri). The series is also already complete at seven volumes.
Servant Beast
Writer/Artist: Suzuka Morino
Publisher: Yen Press
Debut: September 2026
Synopsis: Deceived and then put up for sale at a black-market auction, therianthrope Hal is bought by the sinister and widely feared Bone Witch. Hal, forced to become the witch’s familiar, is ordered to do everything from housework to shady dealings — such is his plight. However, as they spend more time together, Hal’s earnest and amiable nature gradually begins to thaw the witch’s icy heart. Touched by the witch’s clumsy kindness, a familiar’s loyalty begins to sprout in Hal… The first serialized manga from the masterful up-and-coming artist of On the Boundary’s Road!
The Pitch: Looks like a combination of Beastars and The Ancient Magus Bride. To which I say, why not? I quite like both.
The Elf Husband & Dwarf Wife
Writer/Artist: Yoshika Komatsu
Publisher: Red String
Debut: March 2026
Synopsis: Introducing a heartwarming story about the relationship between one talkative male elf, and one buff female dwarf! Written and illustrated by acclaimed Japanese children’s author, Yoshika Komatsu, this manga first debuted on Jump Rookie and later, Jump+ Indies.
The Pitch: I’m happy to see Red String stretch their wings, especially with a series by an “acclaimed Japanese children’s author.” The first chapter is already up via Omoi, so give it a read.
Your Meteor, Hidden in Flowers
Writer/Artist: Betty Tamamori
Publisher: Seven Seas
Debut: January 2027
Synopsis: Every hundred years, the Monster’s Bride is chosen — a sacrifice given to the demonic creature confined somewhere within the country. When Stella’s sister is chosen, she volunteers to go in her place. Stella is soon sent to be the bride of the blood-soaked vampire Lavi. But behind the blood and fangs, Stella finds this monster harbors a deep loneliness. Will her affections pull him out of his deadly despair, or is their love cursed from the start?
The Pitch: Romance is huge right now, so it’s no surprise that manga publishers are seeking out popular works in that genre. Who doesn’t love vampires?
I Say
Writer/Artist: Nemui Asada
Publisher: Seven Seas
Debut: January 2027
Synopsis: Sei, a 36-year-old office worker, has convinced himself that he’s no good at love. That’s why he sticks to purely physical relationships, satisfied with one-night stands and no-strings-attached sex. However, his life is quickly turned upside down when he meets a handsome younger man named Ai via a dating app and falls head over heels. At first, they both agree to keep feelings out of their arrangement, but how long will it be before one of them finally says, “I love you”?
The Pitch: Another book by acclaimed artist Nemui Asada, this time a short story collection.
Black Witch Mirror
Writer/Artist: Togawa Yonan
Publisher: Titan Manga
Debut: September 22
Synopsis: A haunting dark fantasy debut from Harta’s acclaimed catalogue… witchcraft, mirrors, and memory intertwine in a supernatural mystery where every reflection hides a truth waiting to be uncovered.
The Pitch: While the provided synopsis doesn’t make this clear, this is reportedly a series about a Korean shamaness who teams up with a visiting Japanese horror novelist. Art looks great, too!
Breaking News
Groundbreaking Manga Artist Yoshiharu Tsuge Passes Away at 88
Yoshiharu Tsuge, the manga artist behind Nejishiki and The Man Without Talent, passed away on March 3rd at the age of 88. In a short obituary published via the Drawn & Quarterly website, Tom Devlin praised Tsuge’s “brutal honesty about his own internal demons” that “served as the template for so many manga-ka who came after him and helped spawn manga criticism in Japan.” Chris Mautner at The Comics Journal took the opportunity to link reviews of Tsuge’s work by Joe McCulloch and Helen Chazan among others.
Tsuge began his career drawing gekiga comics in the 1950s. After a bout of depression that nearly killed him, he was scooped up by the alternative manga magazine Garo in 1965. Tsuge repaid them with the 1968 one-shot Nejishiki (“Screw Style”), a bizarre work that redefined for readers at the time what manga could be. After leaving Garo in 1970, he struggled against editorial constraints until he quit comics in 1987 to live with his family.
Tsuge was a difficult artist who often failed to live up to his own self-imposed standards. His comics have almost nothing in common with the editor-driven action blockbusters that have become the face of manga abroad. Yet those who see comics as a means of expression rather than a delivery mechanism for story or product revere Tsuge as a master. Not just because his manga was weird (although it could be) but because it was personal.
Chainsaw Man Ends Eight-Year Run
Eight years after its debut, the manga series Chainsaw Man came to an end with Chapter 231. No continuation has been announced. Reactions online were split between fans, naysayers and those (like myself) in the middle. Fujimoto himself chimed in (via his X/Twitter account where he roleplays as his imaginary little sister) to thank readers for sticking with the series up to that point.
Chainsaw Man began serialization in the magazine Shonen Jump starting in 2018. After the completion of its first part in 2020, the series switched to Shonen Jump+ for its second part in 2022. During this period, Chainsaw Man won multiple awards in Japan as well as the United States. Many other artists across mediums have been influenced by Fujimoto’s work. Despite this, Fujimoto said in a 2023 Shueisha interview (per Kotaku) that he wouldn’t mind switching from being a manga artist to handling story only. Fans and publishers will watch his next actions closely.
Bookwalker Launches Site, App Redesign
After being merged with Kadokawa Connected under Dwango (per Anime News Network) in February 2025, BookWalker Global announced in December of that year that its English store would be spun off into its own website and app starting in February 2026. That redesign finally went live on March 27th 2026, after a three-day maintenance period originally promised to be between 12-24 hours. BookWalker has put out a request for feedback from site and app users.
At the time of writing, the current version of BookWalker is missing features from the earlier version, such as offline reading or the ability to sort your books by series. There are also problems with tags; Erica Friedman noted on Bluesky that as of site launch on March 27th, all yuri manga was filed under the “mature” tab. (BookWalker’s social media said that this occurred “due to an automated script.”) Other folks, like translator Zack Davisson, are frustrated that BookWalker split its English and Japanese sites to begin with.
On BookWalker’s blog, which as far as I can tell is only available via the blog URL itself and not the BookWalker website, M12 Media CEO Sam Pinsky discussed some of the problems that came with rebooting the site, such as having to “emergency switch transactional email providers after our original one decided to block us from sending emails due to suspicious activity.” He also says that BookWalker has partnered with the community tagging site MangaBaka, which may explain BookWalker’s current tagging woes.
Despite the mess, it’s clear to see that the BookWalker crew is working hard behind the scenes to fix things. Those who wish the site remained as it was may or may not be consoled by Pinsky’s closing message: “Without this change, BookWalker Global would likely not be able to survive…”
WEBTOON Announces Unified International CANVAS Platform, AI Translation Tools
A press release from WEBTOON announced that the company is launching a newly unified global CANVAS platform this spring. This new version of CANVAS will support comics in “English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Thai, Traditional Chinese, and German — making it easier than ever for Creators to share their stories, grow their fandoms, and monetize their work all over the world.” In order to facilitate this, WEBTOON will test an AI-powered Translation Program this spring for English language users before rolling it out to additional markets. The Program is solely opt-in.
WEBTOON has experimented with AI in the past via programs like Webtoon AI Painter and ToonFilter. The Translation Program is the newest step in that process. Of course, translation powered by generative AI is currently inferior to human translation. While WEBTOON insists that its goal is to give artists “full control over their creative and how their work is distributed,” it is also impossible for an artist who does not know French (for example) to machine translate their work from English to French and know if their original message made the transition intact.
Previously WEBTOON ran a fan translation service for comics on its platform. While the quality of these translations could be (as is the nature of fan translations) uneven, it was still a means of ensuring human translations. WEBTOON shuttered that program in 2025. Now the company is offering its independent CANVAS artists generative AI translation software, and letting them make the decision of whether or not to use it. It’s a thorny situation that we’ll be watching closely as it unfurls over the next few months.
New Casshan Manga Series from Nakama Press
Per Anime News Network, Nakama Press (an imprint of the comics publisher Mad Cave Studios) is launching a new Casshan manga series in partnership with Tatsunoko Production. The series will be written by Mario B. Long, who previously worked on the Nakama Press title God Tier, and drawn by artist YouTuber Kusanagi.
Tatsunoko Productions introduced Casshan with the anime series Neo-Human Casshan in 1973. Since then it has been revived as a 1993 OVA and in 2004 as a fascinating live-action “digital backlot” film. My personal favorite version is Casshern Sins, the visually stunning 2008 anime series directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi. Now the character is set to change yet again under new stewardship.
Silent Hill F Manga Adaptation Announced
Per its X/Twitter account, Konami announced that its hit survival horror game Silent Hill f will be adapted into a manga series. It will be drawn by Gokin Ame and feature a new ending by the game’s writer, Ryukishi07. The manga series will be published in the online manga magazine Young Ace UP, alongside Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family and The Summer Hikaru Died.
Silent Hill f was published last year in September by Konami. Its writer, Ryukishi07, previously made the classic doujin sound novels Higurashi: When They Cry and Umineko: When They Cry. While those earlier works caught people’s attention thanks to their shocking violence and convoluted mysteries, they also demonstrated his interest in institutional inequality, particularly misogyny and child abuse. It is this quality that made Silent Hill f the modern classic that it is, and that I hope to see done justice in the manga adaptation.
Hachi Snacks
- For The Land of Obscusion, George J. Horvath profiled the series published in Monthly Shonen Gangan from 1991-1996 and 1997-2001.
- For The Comics Journal, Tiffany Babb wrote about attending the Forever, City Hunter! Exhibition at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo.
- For The Asashi Shinbun, Shoko Mifune spoke with Ghost in the Shell manga artist Masamune Shirow.
- For Anime Feminist, Tony Sun Prickett analyzed the work of novelist Haruki Murakami to see what is worth salvaging.
- For Aftermath, Isaiah Colbert wrote about the end of Chainsaw Man.
ICYMI (In Case You Missed It)
Meanwhile, don’t forget to check out these Yatta-Tachi’s articles:
- Yatta-Tachi’s Choices of 2025 Best New Manga
- April 2026 Manga/hwa/hua, Light Novel, & Book Releases
- April 2026 BL / Yaoi Manga, Manhwa, Manhua, Danmei, & Light Novel Releases in Print
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