Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga, the latter under their Kodansha Manga imprint (formerly Kodansha Comics). In 2020, Kodansha announced that it had consolidated Kodansha Advanced Media and

Vertical Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down * Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting s ...

into Kodansha USA Publishing, with Kodansha Advanced Media general manager Alvin Lu becoming the President and CEO of Kodansha USA Publishing. On March 9, 2021, Kodansha USA Publishing announced it had rebranded and relaunched its website, and unified Kodansha Comics, Kodansha USA International, and Vertical under the Kodansha name, and Kodansha Comics being renamed Kodansha Manga.

Kodansha Comics

Kodansha Comics is an imprint of Kodansha USA Publishing who are responsible for the localization and publication of Kodansha manga. Established in 2009, the imprint was established to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Kodansha. The imprint's launching titles were ''

Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of ''The Ghost in the Shell'' ...

'' by

Masamune Shirow , better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. Shirow is best known for the manga '' Ghost in the Shell'', which has since been turned into three theatrical anime films, two anime television series, an anime television movie, an a ...

and '' Akira'' by Katsuhiro Otomo, both of which were previously published in English by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...

. Kodansha Comics later began to acquire series that were previously published by

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed ...

, after their licenses were made to expire by Kodansha. Although bearing the Kodansha name, Kodansha Comics was not intended to be the sole distributor of Kodansha titles, with

Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing relation ...

publishing many of Kodansha's titles until the company was shut down in 2010. After the shut down of Del Rey Manga on October 4, 2010, Kodansha Comics gradually began to publish some Del Rey Manga titles, with

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

acting as the distributor for the imprint.

Kodansha Advanced Media

Kodansha Advanced Media LLC was an American distribution company, based in San Francisco, and established in December 4, 2014. The company was a subsidiary of Kodansha, and a sister company of Kodansha USA Publishing. Kodansha Advanced Media handled the digital distribution of Kodansha Comics manga, as well as digital distribution of select

titles. Kodansha Advanced Media also maintained the Kodansha Comics website. Kodansha Advanced Media was established in 2014 with funding from Kodansha USA Publishing in order to handle the digital distribution of Kodansha Comics' manga titles in English. In February 2015, Kodansha and Digital Garage announced a joint venture to distribute manga digitally in North America, establishing a Japanese-based joint venture company to invest in digital distribution services, and using Kodansha Advanced Media to distribute manga via websites and smartphone apps. Kodansha Advanced Media is also responsible for handling film releases and events, and in 2015, were responsible for releasing an app for ''

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Miki Yoshikawa. The series was published by Kodansha in their '' Weekly Shonen Magazine'' from February 22, 2012 to February 22, 2017. The series has been licensed in Chinese by the Ta ...

'' for English-speaking audiences. In response to piracy, Kodansha Advanced Media simul-translated and simul-published Kodansha Comics titles, as well as released certain titles on digital platforms prior to physical printing. In December 2015, Kodansha Advanced Media announced that they had made Kodansha Comics titles available in North American public libraries digitally through OverDrive.

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External links

* * {{Comic book publishers in North America navbox American subsidiaries of foreign companies Publishing companies established in 2008 Kodansha Manga distributors Publishing companies of the United States American companies established in 2008