Hachi Report! November 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 death of a manga titan, the winners of Kodansha’s Mangaka Discovery Awards, and…the return of Naruto?!

Licensing Highlights

A Vase of Life

Writer/Artist: Mukoubi Aoi
Publisher: Glacier Bay Books
Debut: October 2026

Synopsis: “When I die, will you hear my story?” From the author of To the Sea comes a beautiful and disturbing selection of their early desolate sci-fi flavored short stories. A sparing glimpse of those shimmering, fragmented moments at the very end of the line…

The Pitch: I loved the author’s To the Sea, so I’m excited (and a little bit afraid) to read this new collection.

100 Meters

Writer: Uoto
Publisher: Nakama Press
Debut: February 2027

Synopsis: In 100 Meters, a gifted young sprinter meets the one rival he can’t outrun. As their paths continue to cross from childhood into adolescence, what begins as a simple race evolves into an intense, psychological rivalry. Driven by talent, obsession, and the desire to prove themselves, both runners are pushed to their limits both on and off the track.

The Pitch: Before crafting the historical drama Orb, Uoto drew this sports tale of runners pushing their limits. I’m curious to see how much of the source material from last year’s very good film adaptation was left on the cutting-room floor.

Umwelt and Other Stories

Writer/Artist: Daisuke Igarashi
Publisher: Kodansha Print Club
Debut: March 2027

Synopsis: Ten unforgettable short stories, spanning modern folklore to surreal science fiction, from Daisuke Igarashi, the award-winning artist behind Children of the Sea and Witches.

The Pitch: Look, I see Daisuke Igarashi’s name, I get excited. It’s not rocket science. Particularly since this is a collection of short comics, which is what he’s best at.

Georgie

Story: Mann Izawa
Art: Yumiko Igarashi
Publisher: Manga Mavericks Books (Print), Omoi (Digital)
Debut: Spring 2027

Synopsis: Experience the classic shojo story that captured the hearts of manga readers worldwide. Georgie is a lively young girl who lives with her mother and two older brothers in the countryside of Australia. One day, she meets a young English noble named Lowell, who changes her life forever and leads her on a quest to England to discover her roots. First serialized in Japan in 1982, Georgie is a must-read coming-of-age story from acclaimed manga creators Mann Izawa and Yumiko Igarashi.

The Pitch: Manga Mavericks Books are keeping us fed with shojo manga classics! If Yumiko Igarashi’s The Sword of Paros was too fantastical for you, this should be more down-to-earth.

Alice, All the Way to Outer Space

Writer/Artist: Kiko Urino
Publisher: Seven Seas
Debut: July 2027

Synopsis: Alice is a true space-case! She dreams of floating among the stars as the first Japanese female astronaut captain, but unfortunately, her grades may keep her grounded. But when she meets a lone genius named Inuboshi, he promises he can make her smarter if she studies with him. Can Alice shoot for the moon and stars, or will she be forever Earth-bound?

Winner of the 18th Manga Taisho Award—this series is out of this world!

The Pitch: That the series won the Manga Taisho Award is promising! If you’re a fan of space exploration, keep an eye out for this one.

Jyoshikohei

Writer/Artist: Jiro Matsumoto
Publisher: Peow2
Debut: 2027

Synopsis: Giant high school girl mechs rule the dimensional battlefield, but they drive their middle-aged male pilots insane. Takigawa’s job? Brutally hunt down the ones that go rogue.

The Pitch: I’m amazed it’s taken this long for somebody else to take a chance on licensing Matsumoto’s work after Velveteen & Mandala. Between this and Beautiful Place from Kodama Tales next year, though, we’re eating good.

Alien 9 -The Complete-

Writer/Artist: Hitoshi Tomizawa
Publisher: Peow2
Debut: 2027

Synopsis: Grimcute sci-fi?! A grade school Alien Defense Force risks their lives on a daily basis to dispatch aliens that are constantly trying to invade their school. It’s sticky, slimy, scary work, but somebody has gotta do it.

The Pitch: Alien 9 is a seminal work of the “cute girls doing weird things” genre that has shamefully remained out of print for years. If you watched (or were scarred by) the anime adaptation, beware: this version of the story has an ending!

The Dovecote Express

Writer/Artist: Ikuko Hatoyama
Publisher: Glacier Bay Books
Debut: To be Announced

Synopsis: The strange, luminous journey of a young boy aboard a mysterious train. A romantic vision of the voyage of the souls of wartime carrier pigeons.

The Pitch: The art reminds me of 70s shojo manga greats like Moto Hagio and Keiko Takemiya. Plus I have to know: how do pigeons come into it?

All I Can Do

Writer/Artist: Ikebe Aoi
Publisher: Glacier Bay Books
Debut: To be Announced

Synopsis: A tender examination of what it means to be human. Especially poignant, looking headlong into a world rushing to remove that which is human, which can be human.

The Pitch: This will be the first time that a comic by Ikebe Aoi has been published in English. While I’m not too familiar with her, from her back catalog it looks like she’s an excellent artist with a diverse body of work.

Kino’s Journey

Writer: Keiichi Sigsawa
Publisher: Yen On
Debut: To be Announced

Synopsis: A young traveler named Kino and a talking motorcycle named Hermes are on the journey of a lifetime! They visit different countries one after another, experiencing human nature and society in its many forms. Kino wants to learn everything there is to know about how other people live. Join their introspective adventure and uncover what it is that makes the world beautiful.

The Pitch: While the manga and anime adaptations of Kino’s Journey have previously been licensed, the original light novels have never previously been officially translated, save for TOKYOPOP’s butchered release of the first volume.

Breaking News

Ashita no Joe Artist Tetsuya Chiba Passes Away at 87

Per The Associated Press, manga artist Tetsuya Chiba passed away on October 27th at a Tokyo hospital. He was 87 years old.

Chiba is best known as the artist behind the boxing manga Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow, which he co-created with writer Asao Takamori in 1968. Chiba’s soft expressions and realistic flourishes harmonized with Takamori’s hot-blooded scriptwriting to create a manga series that captured the desperation of Japan’s working class within the bounds of a sports drama. His other sports series include Ore wa Teppei (kendo) and Notari Matsutarou (sumo.)

Chiba was important not just as an artist but as a human being. Per The Mainichi, he “became chair of the Japan Cartoonists Association in 2012 and president in 2018,” while also teaching at Utsunomiya’s Bunsei University of Art. He was a lifelong advocate for manga, insisting the medium deserved the same consideration as any other. Chiba became the first manga artist to ever be awarded the Japan Order of Culture in 2024. (For reference, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was just honored with the Japan Order of Culture this year, the first time ever for a video game developer.)

Chiba’s childhood experiences in Fengtian (formerly Manchuria) in the aftermath of World War II shaped his output until his death. From his early work Shindenkai no Taka about a Japanese kamikaze pilot, to his recent memoir Hinemosu Notari Nikki, he continued to explore challenging themes within accessible manga, opening the door for others to do the same. While he lived a full life, the manga world will undoubtedly be a very different place without him.

For more information, I recommend (as always) Chiba’s appearance on Naoki Urasawa’s television series Manben.

Masashi Kishimoto Returns With Naruto: Shadow Rising

Per the official Naruto website, a new Naruto manga series by original artist Masashi Kishimoto titled Naruto: Shadow Rising was announced at New York Comic Con 2026. The trailer teases a fight between Naruto and his rival Sasuke. More information will be announced at the Jump Festa 2027 “Naruto” Jump Super Stage late this December.

A sequel manga series to Naruto, titled Boruto, has run starting in 2016 as a companion to the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. This series is drawn by Mikio Ikemoto and originally written by Ukyo Kodachi, until Kishimoto took over writing duties later in 2020. Kishimoto previously wrote the manga series Samurai 8 with artist Akira Okubo in 2019, although it was cancelled just one year later in 2020.

Why bring back Naruto, of all things, when Shonen Jump’s ability to turn out new hits has always been its greatest strength? Well, several of the magazine’s most popular series have ended, and not much has lasted long enough to fill that gap. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the publication has turned to Kishimoto for an encore act.

Kodansha Manga Academy Mangaka Discovery Award Announces Grand and Encouragement Prize Winners

Kodansha announced the seven Grand Prize winners and 21 Encouragement Prize winners of its Kodansha Manga Academy’s Mangaka Discovery Award. Grand Prize winners were spread among Kodansha’s editorial teams, including specialists in shonen, shojo, seinen and josei manga. Per its website, Kodansha received 1,822 submissions from 51 countries around the world. Grand Prize winners were awarded 300,000 yen, a two-year license for CLIP STUDIO PAINT EX, a Kodansha editor, and an invitation to an award ceremony at Kodansha’s Tokyo office. Encouragement Prize winners were also assigned Kodansha editors, although without any of the other above benefits.

The announcement also came with a message for those who did not place as Grand or Encouragement Prize winners. “Many of the MANGAKA at the top of the industry today were passed over by award after award but kept drawing anyway,” it says. “What you gained from this experience will make your next work stronger. As long as you keep drawing, new chances will keep coming.” In this spirit, the top 100 works (including those outside of the winning bracket) received editorial feedback for future improvement.

Kadokawa Launches Kadokawa World Manga Platform

Kadokawa has launched Kadokawa World Manga via its online Kado-Comi platform. The site features free English-translated chapters of six works: A Peach Offering for the Imperial Court, Spica and Voice of Books, BRAIN ALIVE, Kung Fu Kung Fool, ELDEN RING The Road to Erdtree, and SUIKODEN Star Leap. The artists behind Kung Fu Kung Fool previously won the Silver Prize at Kadokawa’s Wordless Manga Contest in 2025. Rafal Jaki, the writer on BRAIN ALIVE, is also the showrunner for Trigger’s Cyberpunk Edgerunners animated series.

Kadokawa World Manga shares a name with Kadokawa World Manga Atelier, a Kadokawa initiative to recruit manga artists from around the world. This year’s Kadokawa World Manga Contest launched in 2026. It’s possible that Kadokawa World Manga will be the home of future series penned by winners of Kadokawa-affiliated foreign talent scouting contests. That said, the page on Kado-Comi is currently only available in Japanese.

Marvel Announces Asia Originals Slate at New York Comic Con

According to Comics Beat, Marvel announced its initial slate of Asia Originals via New York Comic Con 2026. These works, which will be published in collaboration with Kadokawa, include Deadpool: Millionaire With a Mouth, I Am Iron Man, Spider-Gwen: Her Big Debut, Venom Lethal Protector: The Manga, and Spider-Man: Shibuya Crossline. The Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man series were previously announced at San Diego Comic Con this year.

The Asia Originals line is headed by former Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski, who previously wrote comics under the pseudonym Akira Yoshida. It follows the end of Marvel’s partnership with Shueisha, with which it previously published works like Deadpool: Samurai and Spider-Man: Octo-Girl.

Another Issue of Young Magazine USA is On the Way

According to Anime News Network, Weekly Young Magazine is producing a second issue of Young Magazine USA. The staff requested “stories themed around an outcast who is overlooked by society and has issues fitting in.” Participants must submit a chapter storyboard as well as three sample manuscript pages by December 13th.

Weekly Young Magazine began biweekly publication in 1980 before going weekly in 1989. Notable works include Akira, Dragon Head, and xxxHolic. The publication distributed free English-language copies of Young Magazine USA in 2025 alongside an online poll to determine which one-shots within the magazine would receive online serializations. Still You, Godmother, The Knight of Blasphemy, The Journey of a Dark Elf With Fading Powers, and Fascination were so recognized, plus bonus titles To Dusk in Twilight, Boys Run the Riot -In Transition-, Protocol Ryugu, and THE LAST TERRAN.

NIUHI Rebranded as KOMODO Manga & Comics

KOMODO announced via its website that it has renamed NIUHI as KOMODO Manga & Comics, the manga branch of KOMODO STATION. “KOMODO Manga & Comics gives creators new opportunities to reach audiences across the broader KOMODO community,” the site says, “while making manga and comics from creators around the world available to readers in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan for the first time, alongside Japan and the United States.”

NIUHI was first announced in 2024, and went live in 2025 after a beta period. Despite an aggressive promotional push at Anime NYC last year, I was left skeptical by the organization’s promise to pull from the online manga fan translator community without providing information as to how much those translators would be paid. KOMODO itself is a video game publisher and hardware distributor in Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan, with offices in Hawai’i, South Korea and Japan.

Hachi Snacks

For Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman wrote about past adaptations of The Little Mermaid in anime and manga.

Also for Anime News Network, Sylvia Jones interviewed Scenes From Awajima artist Takako Shimura.

For scrmbl, Justin Parker-Dalton covered the origins of ghostly hero Graveyard Kitaro.

For Tier Review, leanne rahel analyzed the career of Saga Frontier co-writer Miwa Shoda.

For Anime Herald, Seth Burn interviewed the team at KAZÉ about their upcoming publication plans.

ICMI (In Case You Missed It)

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

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