For Attack on Titan fans, the arduous wait for the long-delayed second season of the anime is starting to feel a bit Godot-esque. Thankfully, fans champing at the bit for more 3-D Maneuver Gear-filled action could read the manga to sate their appetites, but even that required a certain amount of patience as new chapters released first in Japanese and were translated to English much later. Well, today that waiting period to read new manga is a thing of the past, because Kodansha Comics has partnered with comiXology and Amazon to provide simultaneous, same-day international release of some of its most popular titles, including Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, and Space Brothers.
The global publishing initiative kicks off today with a brand new chapter of the post-apocalyptic manga mega-hit Attack on Titan, which goes on sale today on comiXology and Amazon’s Kindle Store in English the same day that it appears in Bessatsu in Japanese. In addition to chapter 80 of Attack on Titan, all previous chapters from the series are available too. You can read the first chapter of the Attack on Titan manga chapter in our gallery below.
Including Attack on Titan, there are 17 Kodansha series that will be debuting with simultaneous publication internationally. To help fans get caught up, Kodansha has added a library of more than 1,900 chapters on the online stores for new fans and longtime fans that want to catch up on their favorite stories before the collected volumes digitally debut in English. Interestingly enough, though, these English translations will not be available in Japan.
Honestly, as a longtime manga and anime fan, this is an incredibly heartening announcement because one of the worst parts of being a part of that fandom was the relative inaccessibility of translated versions of shows and comics that one wanted to read. You could either wait an interminably long time for manga and anime to get translated and ported over to the U.S., or you could venture into the murky, legally gray waters of scanslations and fansubs. Now, thanks to initiatives like this, manga fans can support their favorite creators and series legally.
Here is the complete list of Kodansha manga titles receiving same-day simultaneous release:
Weekly:
- As the Gods Will: The Second Series
- Fairy Tail
- Fuuka
- GTO Paradise Lost
- The Seven Deadly Sins
- UQ Holder
- Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches
Bi-Weekly:
- Inuyashiki
- Space Brothers
Monthly:
- Ajin: Demi-Human
- Attack on Titan
- Kiss Him, Not Me
- The Heroic Legend of Arslan
- Magatsuki
- Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Side: P4
- Sweetness and Lightning
Semi-regularly:
- Princess Jellyfish
Honestly, who knows what “semi-regularly” means, but when that semi-regular day comes, it’ll be the same semi-regular day both here and in Japan. And that is a good thing for manga fans. Here’s hoping that other publishers will come to similar arrangements so we can enter into a new golden age of even more instant gratification, especially where manga is concerned.
What do you think of this announcement? What other titles need simultaneous publishing? Let us know in the comments below.
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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter and ask him about all things manga (@Osteoferocious).
