Hachi Report! July 2026

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 nominees for the third annual American Manga Awards, a Princess Ai Kickstarter, and the Japanese government’s potential investment in generative AI translation.

Licensing Highlights

Onani Master Kurosawa

Writer: Katsura Ise
Artist: YOKO
Publisher: FAKKU!
Debut: September 17, 2026

Synopsis: “Onani” means masturbation, and Kurosawa treats it like a ritual; one he justifies with quiet contempt for everyone around him. He watches. He judges. He indulges…

The Pitch: What do you mean that they licensed this manga cult classic about masturbation!? I haven’t read this one in ages, but teenage me found some comfort in Kurosawa’s growth from teenage edgelord to well-adjusted human being.

Skip and Loafer Box Set

Writer/Artist: Misaki Takamatsu
Publisher: Seven Seas
Debut: December 2026

Synopsis: The award-winning romantic comedy manga that inspired the hit anime—now available in a stylish box set with 5 art cards included!

Iwakura Mitsumi has always dreamt about leaving her small town, going to a prestigious university, and making a positive change in the world. With her excellent grades and studious nature, she’s able to achieve part of that dream when she’s accepted into a high school in the big city! But she’s so focused on reaching her goals that she’s not prepared for what awaits her at a Tokyo high school. Luckily, she makes fast friends with Shima Sousuke, a handsome classmate who’s as laid-back as she is over-prepared. Can this naive country girl make it big in Tokyo with Sousuke by her side?

This exclusive box set includes the first 5 volumes of the manga series and a set of 5 art cards.

The Pitch: If for whatever reason you have yet to read one of my all-time favorite high school manga series, now’s as good a time as any!

New National Kid

Writer/Artist: Suehiro Maruo
Publisher: Bubbles Zine
Debut: Winter 2026-2027

The Pitch: Another work of horror by the infamous Suehiro Maruo (Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show). Translated by Ryan Holmberg, who said via Instagram that “the original Japanese edition from @seirinkogeisha in 1999 was one of the first alternative manga I bought.”

Beautiful Place

Writer/Artist: Jiro Matsumoto
Publisher: Kodama Tales
Debut: January 2027

Synopsis: In a near-future Japan shaped by civil war, high school students are organized into armed “volunteer” units to help maintain order.

Shimon Hanazawa decides to enroll at Seishin Girls’ Academy as a trooper, an unprecedented move for a prim and proper Advanced Placement student. But she ends up placed under the direction of Momoko Takasaka, the most unruly and unpredictable student around…

Does Shimon have what it takes to survive Momoko’s chaos…and the battlefield itself?

The Pitch: The first Jiro Matsumoto manga series to be localized since Velveteen & Mandala! Matsumoto’s an acquired taste, but I’m glad to see another publisher take a chance on his bizarre and unruly works.

Slam Dunk Deluxe Edition

Writer/Artist: Takehiko Inoue
Publisher: VIZ
Debut: Spring 2027

Synopsis: The greatest sports manga ever created, now in a new deluxe edition!

Winning isn’t everything in the game of basketball, but who wants to come in second? It takes dedication and discipline to be the best, and the Shohoku High hoops team wants to be just that. They have one last year to make their captain’s dream of reaching the finals come true—will they do it?

High school delinquent Hanamichi Sakuragi’s got no game with girls—none at all! It doesn’t help that he’s known for throwing down at a moment’s notice and always coming out on top. A hopeless bruiser, he’s been rejected by 50 girls in a row! All that changes when he meets Haruko, the girl of his dreams—and she’s actually not afraid of him! When she introduces him to the game of basketball, his life is changed forever…

The Pitch: “Greatest sports manga ever created” is a big claim, but as readers likely know, Slam Dunk deserves to be in the conversation. This new release includes color pages from the original serialization.

Takemitsu Zamurai

Writer: Issei Eifuku
Artist: Taiyo Matsumoto
Publisher: VIZ
Debut: Spring 2027

Synopsis: A ronin tries to escape his violent past, but in Edo Japan, the sword that made him a killer refuses to stay sheathed.

The Pitch: Taiyo Matsumoto collaborated on this great series with his friend Issei Eifuku starting twenty years ago, back in 2006. Never expected that it would be licensed, but happy that it was!

Chuck and the Girl

Writer/Artist: Yusuke Saitoh
Publisher: Scholastic Graphix
Debut: August 3 2027

Synopsis: A Japanese-American girl moves to Japan for the first time and finds friendship, family, and a really cute cat in this heartwarming (and tear-jerking!) slice-of-life manga, perfect for readers of Skip & Loafer and Yotsuba&!.

Amy’s life in Los Angeles is uprooted when she’s packed off to Yokohama, Japan, to live with the grandmother she’s never met. She’s ready for adventure in a country she’s only seen in movies and anime, but the reality is even better than she’d imagined: Her grandmother is a painter and teacher whose home is filled with art and music, and she encourages Amy to embrace the unexpected — whether it’s riding her skateboard, jamming on the guitar with her uncle, or befriending an adorable Siamese kitten named Chuck. Amy’s spirit of creative expression brings a classmate, Kenta, into her family’s orbit — and inspires the shy Japanese boy to express himself more freely.

But all isn’t sunshine and cherry blossoms in Amy’s world as she adjusts to her new home and learns the real reason why her mother sent her off to Japan… and whether this is just a temporary move, or her new home for good.

The Pitch: A neat looking web comic from Two Rivers that just so happens to fit into the trend of slice of life kids comics that launched the US’s graphic novel explosion, chosen for publication by titan Scholastic Graphix.

Sins

Writer/Artist: Shuzo Oshimi
Publisher: VIZ
Debut: Fall 2027

Synopsis: Through four deeply personal vignettes, a legendary mangaka confronts guilt, shame, pride, and loneliness in unfiltered reflections on his younger years.

The Pitch: Shuzo Oshimi continues his memoir arc. I’m not complaining.

Breaking News

3rd American Manga Awards Nominees Announced

Anime NYC announced the third American Manga Awards, taking place on August 20th at Japan Society in New York City. The categories are the same as last year, with nominees for Best New Manga, Best Continuing Manga Series, Best One-Shot Manga, Best New Edition of Classic Manga, Best Translation, Best Lettering and Best Publication Design. Books nominated hail from a wide spread of publishers including regulars suspects like VIZ, Yen Press and Glacier Bay, plus new challengers like Peow2, Kodama Tales and New York Review Books.

There’s also a new set of judges. Taylor Esposito (who owns Ghost Glyph Studios) and Pat Brosseau (Eisner nominated) are handling Best Lettering. Andres Juarez (Creative Director of Editorial at Skybound Entertainment) and Amanda Chung (co-founder of lucky risograph in Brooklyn) are tackling Best Publication Design. Andrea Horbinski (the author of Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989) and Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere (Deputy Director of the MOA Museum of Art) are judging Best Translation. The manga judges include comics artist Gigi Murakami (RESENTER), interviewer and curator Frederico Anzalone, lines in motion creator Dani Kingston, manga critic and archivist Helen Chazan, and Crunchyroll News Editor-in-Chief Kyle Cardine.

Eligible professionals may register to vote so long as they work in the manga industry. If you don’t work in the manga industry, or can’t solicit an invite to the ceremony, the list of nominees at least is a good place to start if you’re looking for something new to read. The Best One-Shot Manga category is particularly stacked this year, with two Glacier Bay titles going up against Machiko Kyo’s excellent cocoon, a memoir by the anime director Rintaro, and (unexpectedly) a reprint of Suehiro Maruo’s The Strange Tale of Panorama Island.

Princess Ai Kickstarter Gets Ready to Rock

247 Comics will launch a Kickstarter for a 20th anniversary edition of Princess Ai, the TOKYOPOP series co-created by musician Courtney Love and company founder Stu Levy, and drawn by manga artist Misaho Kujiradou (with some original character design contributions by NANA artist Ai Yazawa.) “Whether you grew up with Ai’s story or are discovering her for the first time,” says the Kickstarter page, “this deluxe collector’s edition from TOKYOPOP, featuring the original trilogy, rare vault material, and new extras, is the ultimate way to experience the beloved manga phenomenon.” No information is yet provided regarding when the Kickstarter will begin or how much it will cost.

Princess Ai is undeniably one of TOKYOPOP’s defining works, for better or worse. Published in 2004 with the hopes of launching a film franchise, the series made its debut alongside a prequel comic strip, music videos, and an art book/poetry collection called Roses and Tattoos. Unfortunately Stu Levy’s hopes for the character were crushed by the 2008 recession as well as the temporary closure of TOKYOPOP’s US operations in 2011. For further information, I recommend the Anime Herald piece “Heart-shaped Box of Memories” by our foremost TOKYOPOP chronicler Megan D.

World Webtoon Awards Launches Reader Nominations for 2026

The World Webtoon Awards has launched its reader nominations page for this year. Between June 15th and July 24th KST, anybody around the world can vote for three titles per person, as long as these titles were serialized online between January 1st 2025 and May 31st 2026. The final count will be decided by both judges and readers. Main award winners will be given 10 million won and a trophy.

The World Webtoon Awards were created in 2024 as part of the World Webtoon Festival, co-founded by (per Cartoonist Cooperative) the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), and the Seoul Business Agency. Past winners include such popular works as Solo Leveling, Omniscient Reader and The Remarried Empress. Many other winners have not yet been translated into English, including the basketball series Garbage Time, the 2025 Grand Prize-winning Mirae’s Antique Shop, and my beloved No Home.

Japanese Government Announces Subsidies for Generative AI Translation

Per The Japan News (by The Yomori Shinbun), the Japanese government is “considering providing a total of ¥11.5 billion in subsidies to 15 companies with an aim to triple overseas sales to ¥20 trillion by 2033…” This includes the publisher Shueisha Inc. as well as Crunchyroll, LLC. For Shueisha, The Japan News says that funding is intended to benefit its popular Shonen Jump+ app. Citing piracy as a threat to manga’s success, due to the sheer number of untranslated manga compared to what has been translated, “the government aims to encourage the recipients to translate works into foreign languages much faster by utilizing generative artificial intelligence.”

We have seen this language before. Previously Mantra published translations of The Ancient Magus Bride made via generative AI, which were of significantly lower quality than Seven Seas’s volume releases. The official Ancient Magus Bride X account claimed that the series had “continuously suffered” from the circulation of unofficial translations, which “cause serious harm to the manga culture and industry both domestically and internationally.” Other companies like Orange, Inc. that specialize in generative AI translations have partnered with Shueisha in the past for what are likely similar reasons.

As usual, though, manga translators themselves are not sold on this move. “Why do none of these doofuses realize,” said Jocylene Allen on Bluesky last April, that “a) there are *plenty* of translators, they just have to actually pay us, and b) the manga market outside Japan is very different and you can’t release every manga ever made without cratering sales and destroying reader trust??”

She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat Returns From Hiatus

Per Anime News Network, Sakaomi Yuzaki’s wonderful manga series She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat resumed serialization with chapter 53 via ComicWalker on June 12th after a two-year hiatus for health reasons. The sixth collected volume was finally published this year on June 15th; the most recent English release was the fifth volume, published in January 2025. Here’s hoping that an English translation for the sixth volume is imminent!

Hachi Snacks

• For Comics Journal, Helen Chazan reviewed the American Manga Award-nominated The Horrors of Noroi Michiru.
• For Aftermath, Isaiah Colbert wrote about Osamu Tezuka’s wacky adult manga Apollo’s Song.
• Giant Robot FM and Zimmerit bring you a translated interview between Yoshitaka Amano and Kow Yokoyama about their contributions to the mecha game Front Mission.
• For scrmbl, Jacob Parker-Dalton summarized a Zebrack interview with Rokudenashi Blues artist Masanori Morita.
  For Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Shy wrote about “synth-pop genius” Mioko Yamaguchi.
• Should you invest in TOKYOPOP? Megan D has the answers.

ICYMI (In Case You Missed It)

Meanwhile, don’t forget to check out these Yatta-Tachi articles:

• Summer 2026 Anime & Where to Watch Them Online Legally
• July 2026 Manga, Manhwa, Light Novel, & Book Releases
• June 2026 BL / Yaoi Manga, Manhwa, Manhua, Danmei, & Light Novel Releases in Print
• MINTERVIEW: Battan & Sumire Nobuto
• MINTERVIEW: Keita Katsushika & Kirin Inoue
• MINTERVIEW: Moka Onmae & Tsubasa Kosaka