is a Japanese

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

company. It is headquartered in

Chiyoda, Tokyo , known as Chiyoda City in English,
." ''City of Chiyoda''. Retrieved on December 28, 2008. is a S ...

. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV series. The company is part of the

Hitotsubashi Group The is a Japanese family-owned publishing vertical keiretsu in Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is composed of Shogakukan, Shueisha, Hakusensha and related publishing companies. The name of the group is derived from the location of its majo ...

History

Hakusensha was founded on December 1, 1973, by

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

. It is now a separate company although still a part of the

with Shueisha and

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

as one of the major members of the

keiretsu A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings that dominated the Japanese economy in the second half of the 20th century. In the legal sense, it is a type of business group that is in a loosely organized al ...

. After setting up the company for five months, the firm published their first magazine, a shōjo manga magazine titled . In November that year, they moved from to . In 1975, the firm changed the frequency of their magazine from monthly to semi-monthly; in March, they created their first

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

, . In July 1976, they published their second manga magazine, a shōjo manga magazine named as a sister magazine to ''Hana to Yume'' that is published bi-monthly. In April 1977, they set up a publication editing department and in July, they began publishing a seasonal magazine titled . In March 1981, they moved to . In September, they branched out from their usual shōjo manga magazines to a shōnen genre by publishing . With that, the company released their series in ''Shōnen Jets'' under a new imprint, in July 1982. As of January 2009, the magazine was defunct but the imprint is used to publish their seinen manga series serializing in ''Young Animal'' and ''Young Animal Arashi'' as well as certain series serializing in ''Melody''. Three years later on August, they published a new magazine, specialising under the josei genre, ''Silky'' that is published on even-numbered months. With that, they created an imprint for ''Silky''s series to be published under . In March 1989, they started publishing a seinen manga magazine called ''Animal House''. Three years after ''Animal House'', they published ''Moe'', a monthly magazine for

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

s targeted toward shōjo readers. In May that year, ''Animal House'' was renamed to ''Young Animal'' and was then published semi-monthly since. In March 1994, they created another imprint, . This imprint is for publishing manga in the bunkoban format. Moreover, in December 1995, they started publishing another magazine that was published seasonally, which is targeted toward josei readers. In January 1996, they created an imprint for , . In July that year, they created . In September, they published ''Melody'' which publishes on odd-numbered months. On the same month, they moved to , their present location. In April 1996, they published ''LaLa DX'' on odd-numbered months. The company also began selling their drama CDs under , abbreviated as ''HCD''. In June 2001, they published ''Candy''; as of January 2009, the magazine has been discontinued. In May 2005, they changed their special publication of ''Young Animal Arashi'' into a monthly publication. In July 2006, ''Bessatsu Hana to Yume'' was made a monthly publication. , a magazine targeted at readers of yaoi genre started its publication in May 2008. ''Le Paradis (magazine), Le Paradis'', a manga anthology published triannually published its first issue on October 29, 2008. Source:

Media mix

Besides publishing, the company releases drama CDs of series under their magazines: , , , and . Moreover, they are involved in the productions of games, TV drama, theatrical movies, musicals, radio shows, TV animation and original video animation. Series under the company can be read through mobile phones in Japan using the following service portals: and . ''Hakusensha e-Comics'' was started in September 2005 and is operated by Hakusensha and CharaWeb. This service is available in two variations and customers will have to pay 315 yen and 512 yen respectively to access this service every month. Source:

Sony PlayStation Portable manga distribution service

It was announced at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show press conference that Hakusensha and 11 other publishing companies in Japan (such as Kodansha,

, Square Enix, publishers associated with Kadokawa Shoten, Bandai Visual and Futabasha) would provide nearly 100 titles of manga to supply the service in PlayStation Store. Hakusensha has yet to provide details of the supplied titles for the service. This service is only available for Japanese PlayStation Portable consoles and will start in December 2009.

Publications

Manga magazines

*''Hana to Yume'' *''Bessatsu Hana to Yume'' (defunct) *''The Hana to Yume'' *''LaLa'' *''LaLa DX'' *''Gekkan Shōnen Jets, Shōnen Jets'' (defunct) *''Melody (magazine), Melody'' *''Silky (magazine), Silky'' *''Young Animal (magazine), Young Animal'' *''Young Animal Zero'' *''Young Animal Arashi'' (defunct) *''Young Animal Island'' *''HanaMaru Black'' *''Le Paradis (magazine), Le Paradis'' Source:

Other publications

*''Shōsetsu HanaMaru'' *''Moe (magazine), Moe'' *''Kodomo Moe'' Source:

Imprints

Hakusensha publishes their books and manga under these imprints. *Hana to Yume Comics *Young Animal Comics (formerly known as Jets Comics until June 2016) *Hakusensha Ladies Comics *HanaMaru Comics *Hakusensha Bunko *HanaMaru Bunko *HanaMaru Novels *HanaMaru Black

Awards

Hakusensha organizes contests to offer aspiring manga artist a professional debut as well to be affiliated with their magazines. These contests or awards are , ''Hana to Yume Mangaka Course'' (''HMC''), ''LaLa Mangaka Scout Course'' (''LMS''), ''LaLa Manga Grand Prix'' (''LMG''), and ''Big Challenge Awards'' (''BC'').

Radio show

There was a radio show hosted by voice actor Takehito Koyasu and Atsushi Kisaichi called that was broadcast by Nippon Cultural Broadcasting. The show ended in March 2002. It was compiled into two CDs and is sold under Hakusensha's drama CD imprint, Hakusensha CD Collection (HCD).

References

External links

* {{Authority control Hakusensha, Hitotsubashi Group Book publishing companies in Tokyo Comic book publishing companies in Tokyo Magazine publishing companies in Tokyo Distribution companies based in Tokyo Manga distributors Publishing companies established in 1973 1973 establishments in Japan Anime companies Chiyoda, Tokyo