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: A speech at the third annual American Manga Awards demands better pay for freelancers, Shueisha’s Manga Million website draws criticism, and HarperCollins launches KAZÉ in the United States.
Licensing Highlights
Amazoness Kiss
Writer/Artist: Natsuko Ishitsuyo
Publisher: Sendai Books
Debut: October 2026
Synopsis: A new exclusive club promises training and development of Extrasensory Perception for its special clients.
People sure look happy as they leave a session. Well, the ones who are allowed to leave….
Pop stardom, the occult, ambition, and unintended consequences.
Welcome to the world of Amazoness Kiss.
The Pitch: I’ve heard great things about the artist’s previous work Magician A. Jocelyne Allen says: “In this exploration of the intersection of economics, sexuality, and mysticism, [Ishitsuyo] gives us a scantily clad spiritual turf war over mini golf…” What?!
Riichi Mahjong 101
Writer/Artist: Uzaku G
Publisher: Mahjong Pros
Debut: January 2027
Synopsis: Riichi Mahjong 101 teaches the practical decision-making that turns knowing the rules into knowing how to play. Rather than presenting isolated puzzles, G Uzaku takes you through complete hands from the opening deal to the final winning tile, asking you to make the decisions a real player faces along the way.
Learn how to plan a hand from your starting tiles, adapt as new tiles arrive, build efficient shapes, decide when to keep a safe tile, recognize when a hand is worth pursuing, and choose whether or not to declare Riichi. Each hand introduces fundamental concepts naturally through play, with additional practice problems and concise strategy lessons to reinforce what you’ve learned.
The Pitch: “Help, I can’t understand Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s manga because I don’t know the rules of mahjong!” Never fear, Riichi Mahjong 101 will show you the way.
Ace of the Diamond
Writer/Artist: Yuji Terajima
Publisher: Nakama Press
Debut: March 3 2027
Synopsis: After a crushing middle school loss, Sawamura is recruited to attend Seidou High—one of Japan’s most competitive baseball programs. Surrounded by elite players, including a prodigy catcher and fierce rival pitchers, he must fight to prove himself worthy of the mound.
As intense training and high-stakes competition push him to his limits, Sawamura begins his journey to become the team’s ace.
The Pitch: Ace of the Diamond has long been a fan-favorite baseball comic, but until now it’s only been available digitally. That’s about to change!
The Kaiju Autopsy
Writer/Artist: Mado Saito
Publisher: Seven Seas
Debut: May 2027
Synopsis: Kaiju scientist Honda Akira has been called to the site of an autopsy of the corpse of a colossal kaiju known as Toukyo. The enormous monster was responsible for much death and disaster while alive, but now has met its own end…or has it?
Honda is determined to understand the unexplained activity around the corpse and help prevent future kaiju disasters, but to do her research, she has to fight both the scorn of her male peers and the team members who want to destroy the body for safety’s sake. Then, as feared, a new kaiju emerges from the corpse, and comes after Honda herself… Can she get to the bottom of the mystery before Toukyo is destroyed—or before it destroys her?
The Pitch: A series from the famously eclectic magazine Comic Beam, blurbed by the always excellent Yoko Kuno, and featuring a premise that should satisfy anyone who wanted Kaiju No. 8 to be about monster clean-up duty.
Children of the Afterlife
Writer/Artist: Yamakujira
Publisher: Kana
Debut: June 1, 2027
Synopsis: Mystery and Japanese folklore intersect in this touching historical fairy tale set during the Meiji era, following an errand-runner from the afterlife who collects the souls of humans whose lifespans have come to an end.
The Pitch: I have a soft spot for series about ghosts haunting the world of the living, and it looks like this beautiful work should fit the bill.
Arai-kun & Haruma-senpai
Writer/Artist: Akahachi
Publisher: Manga Mavericks Books
Debut: December 2026 (digital), June 2027 (print)
Synopsis: Haruma Ohara is the charming, athletic upperclassman. Ao Arai is the adorably shy, chubby underclassman. Simply a match made…in an elevator?
A chance encounter in an elevator between a rushed introvert and a charismatic jock grows into a fluffy, slow-burn love story. The introverted Arai is swept up in the charm of the extroverted Haruma, and before he knows it, they’ve exchanged contact information and keep running into each other all over campus. It’s clear to everyone that Haruma’s crush is immediate, but how long will it take for Arai to notice his own feelings?
The Pitch: Manga Mavericks leaps into the wonderful world of Boys’ Love! I enjoy these kinds of “odd couple” manga series.
Why We Fall in Love
Writer/Artist: ma2
Publisher: Kana
Debut: September 7, 2027
Synopsis: A cozy and heartwarming workplace romance following the relationships, crushes, and unexpected connections that emerge among a group of coworkers.
The Pitch: For fans of josei workplace dramas out there, this series will make your heart race. It also placed third in eBookJapan’s Manga Award for 2023.
Hajime no Ippo: Fighting Spirit! Omnibus
Writer/Artist: Joji Morikawa
Publisher: Kodansha
Debut: Fall 2027
Synopsis: What does it feel like to be strong? That’s the question on the mind of Ippo Makunouchi, a clumsy high school kid who gets bullied a lot. But when he runs into pro boxer Mamoru Takamura, it isn’t long before the dynamite in his fists is unleashed! Dreaming of the pro ranks, Ippo joins Mamoru at the Kamogawa Boxing Gym—and there his quest for true strength begins, in and out of the ring!
For the first time in print in English, experience the beginning of the epic sports manga that defined a generation and has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, inspiring multiple hit anime series! Each premium paperback will include the content of 3 Japanese volumes.
The Pitch: Another legendary sports manga makes the leap to print in English. If Ashita no Joe is a working class tragedy, Hajime no Ippo is pure adrenaline.
Garagarapon
Writer: Yousuke Takahashi
Artist: Mimori
Publisher: TOKYOPOP
Debut: 2027
Synopsis: A story set in a world where people’s imaginations can be given shape and form, and centers on two government officials named Daichi Hongou and Hisui Tenma. Together, they strive to resolve and correct the conflicts between the real world and the fictional worlds and objects emerging from imaginations, daydreams, and idle thoughts.
The Pitch: As far as I can tell, this is the very first manga series featuring horror maestro Yousuke Takahashi to be published in English. He’s not drawing this one, but it’s still a milestone!
Whale Star: The Gyeongseong Mermaid
Writer/Artist: Yoonhee Na
Publisher: Ize Press
Debut: To be Announced
Synopsis: The year is 1926 in this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”, and Joseon (present-day Korea), is under colonial Japanese rule. Su-a Heo is a handmaiden who spends her days working and swimming in the sea. Her work is her whole life, until one day, when she discovers a wounded independence fighter named Uihyeon Kang washed up on the shore. She nurses him back to health, only to lose her ability to speak in a botched murder attempt by Uihyeon’s comrade, Haesu Song. As she travels to the capital, Gyeongseong (present-day Seoul), to get revenge, she finds herself growing more and more intertwined with a strange, brave new world and the people within it.
The Pitch: While webtoon print adaptations can be hit or miss, Whale Star is an all-time classic webtoon, so I’m excited to see it find a new audience.
Breaking News
Third Annual American Manga Awards Celebrate Publishers, Freelancers
The American Manga Awards this year was held on August 28 at the Japan Society on the first day of Anime NYC. Professional winners include Wendy Chan, who was awarded Best Publication Design for Fruits Basket: The Complete Box Set; Madeleine Jose, who was awarded Best Lettering for Maid to Skate; and Jan Mitsuko Cash, who was awarded Best Translation for Magica Vol. 1. Series winners include Billy Bat for Best New Manga, The Summer Hikaru Died Vol. 6 for Best Continuing Manga, cocoon for Best One-Shot Manga, and Mushishi Collector’s Edition Vol. 1-2 for Best Classic Manga. VIZ and Yen Press tied for the most wins of the night at two apiece, while Kana, Kodansha and Kodama Tales also scored victories.
Jan Mitsuko Cash earned a standing ovation for demanding that publishers “double your rates” for freelancers in her acceptance speech, while organizers drew criticism for obvious mistakes (like a slide mix-up that incorrectly credited Peow2 designer Patrick Crotty for the Square-Enix series A Cat is A Cat in Any Life). For additional details, I recommend our piece on the American Manga Awards.
Manga Million Makes Big Promises But Draws Controversy
In honor of its centennial anniversary, Shueisha announced Manga Million, a new website that lets readers from around the world read (for free!) one million pages of manga that have been translated into over 100 languages. This includes popular series like One Piece, long-running classics like Koichikame, and even some previously untranslated deep cuts like Papa told me. The website also hosts interviews with famous artists like Sui Ishida (Tokyo Ghoul) and Hirohiko Araki (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure), as well as up-and-coming talent.
Unfortunately, Manga Million has also led to controversy among fans and manga publishing staff alike. Many translators that worked on previously untranslated titles have been assigned pseudonyms. Comics Beat quotes an anonymous translator who says that “there are human translators who worked on these that are not being credited…they are for the most part told they cannot go public with saying they worked on manga being launched in this initiative…” Additionally, some series are credited to organizations like Flitto Japan Inc. that are “explicitly collecting data for ‘high-quality LLM translation.’” According to Anime Corner, “Shueisha confirmed” to the site “that no AI was used in the translation.” Nevertheless, Comics Beat’s reporting suggests that some non-English languages like Georgian and Armenian “appear to have been handled by AI,” and that the English rather than Japanese script was used as a base.
HarperCollins Announces Plans for KAZÉ US Imprint
According to Publisher’s Weekly, HarperCollins is launching a new manga imprint, KAZÉ US. This will be based on the KAZÉ brand, which was founded by the eponymous anime and manga publisher in 1994 France before being acquired by Viz Media Europe, sold to Otter Media and then absorbed by Crunchyroll, before being picked up by HarperCollins last year. Crunchyroll’s former French and German manga publishing branches were included alongside the name. Kazé founder Cedric Littardi, though, left back in 2012; the new imprint is run by Andrew Arnold, with the help of editors Emilia Sowersby and Josh Sipple, art director Christina Quintero, and assistant designer Mikhail Fernandes.
At its presentation at Anime NYC, KAZÉ US announced that it plans to work with publishers including Shueisha, Shogakukan, Kodansha and others to launch with 3-5 titles. It then plans to scale to 5-8 titles by 2027, 20-25 titles by 2028, and finally 25-30 titles by 2029. Along with works from Japanese publishers, KAZÉ US also plans to publish manga-inspired comics from the United States and elsewhere. “The emerging original manga space,” reads one slide, “is an exciting frontier that KAZÉ is eagerly exploring to find exceptional manga-style storytelling in America and beyond.” The first such title will be Saxton Moore and Phillip Johnson’s SOL Sistah, described as “Ultraman meets Power Rangers in this pan-African, kaiju-crushing, teen slice-of-life manga…”
LeftField Media Launches KPEX in 2027
LeftField Media announced via press release that it is launching a new convention, Korean Pop Culture Expo (KPEX) that will run next year in the Javits Center from May 29th to May 31st. Its sponsors will include the Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) as well as Yen Press imprint Ize Press. The press release promises “over 100 hours of special events” highlighting Korean culture including music, dramas, comics, food and beauty trends. Additionally, “each night will be anchored by a showstopping concert spotlighting artists coming from Seoul to New York City.”
Past conventions hosted by LeftField Media, including New York Comic Con and Anime NYC, have previously hosted Korean comics talent including King’s Maker creators Haga and Kang Jiyoung. This parallels other conventions like Otakon in Washington DC, which for the past several years have featured Korean artists, musicians and producers alongside manga and anime talent. Launching a convention solely devoted to Korean culture, though, sees LeftField compete with other Korean culture conventions like KCON and K-EXPO.
MANGA MIRAI Ends Service in December
MANGA MIRAI announced via its website that it is shutting down on December 15th, 2026. User information will be transferred to MangaPlaza, a service run by NTT Group company NTT Solmare Corporation. To keep previously purchased comics, users must “open or maintain a MangaPlaza account using the same email address as your MANGA MIRAI account” by September 30 this year, then keep that email the same until October 31. Previously purchased comics will then become available on MangaPlaza starting December 15th. The site also suggests that “MangaPlaza may not have the necessary license rights to continue to make certain comics available to you,” although “you may be eligible for a refund.” (Yahoo! Finance clarifies that “titles obtained for free and some paid titles will be ineligible for migration.”) Additionally, users may choose to opt out of the transfer, losing access to their purchased comics completely.
Per a press release, MANGA MIRAI was founded in March 2025 by Media Do, NTT Docomo, Akatsuki Group and MyAnimeList. NTT Docomo (“one of Japan’s leading telecommunications companies”) was the site’s service provider, while MyAnimeList tapped its “vast data resources to support the platform’s marketing efforts.” MangaPlaza by comparison was founded in 2022.
Scholastic Reimagines Five Classic Manga With Tezuka Productions
According to Crunchyroll News, Scholastic is partnering with Tezuka Productions to reimagine five classic series by Osamu Tezuka for the Graphix imprint: Atom Cat, Princess Knight, The Three-Eyed One, Triton of the Sea and Zero Man. Samuel Sattin, the writer of the ongoing series UNICO AWAKENING, “will be involved in all projects,” says Scholastic SVP David Saylor (as quoted by ICv2.) Astro Cat will be the first of these titles to be released; Scholastic will announce the names of affiliated Japanese artists at a later date.
Tezuka Productions has long given other artists the chance to reinterpret Tezuka’s work. Previous examples include this year’s anime film The Ribbon Hero, Naoki Urasawa’s suspense manga Pluto, and Atsushi Kaneko’s gritty sci-fi series Search and Destroy. Many of these though target an older audience, while Scholastic’s new initiative is a direct play for the hearts of a young audience that grew up during the children’s graphic novel boom in the United States.
Manga Mavericks Books Declares Hunt for Missing Sword of Paros Color Pages
Readers of Hachi Report may remember Manga Mavericks Books’ announcement of an upcoming Sword of Paros translation in April 2027. Now they are launching a hunt for color pages from the original run to include in this release. The collected print volumes removed some of these pages and repurposed others into covers. Therefore, Manga Mavericks is buying up past issues of Monthly Asuka, where Sword of Paros was initially published, in the hope of finding these original color pages. Currently they still need issues of Monthly Asuka from June, August and November of 1986, as well as January and February of 1987. The blog Manga Properties also published a thorough breakdown of every color page in the series as well as those that are still missing. Could you be the one to find one of these missing issues and make manga history?
Hachi Snacks
- Three picks from The Comics Journal this time: Shaenon Garrity on an early shojo manga release in the United States; Kaoru Kumi on Shogakukan’s sexual misconduct scandal; and Austin Price’s obituary commemorating Ioannis Mentzas, co-founder of Vertical.
- The Mainichi interviews Ashita no Joe artist Tetsuya Chiba about his family’s repatriation from Shenyang (formerly Manchuria) when he was a child.
- Aftermath reviews Half is More, a new manga series about being mixed-race in Japan.
- Manga artists (and former assistants to Kazuo Umezz) Rumiko Takahashi and Junji Ito chat over VIZ Teatime.
ICYMI (In Case You Missed It)
Meanwhile, don’t forget to check out these Yatta-Tachi articles:
- American Manga Awards 2026: A Call for Change
- September 2026 Manga, Manhwa, Light Novel, & Book Releases
- September 2026 BL / Yaoi Manga, Manhwa, Manhua, Danmei, & Light Novel Releases in Print
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