Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, US, and a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of Japan's largest publishing company

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

. Established in July 1st 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

, the latter under their

Kodansha Manga is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

imprint (formerly

Kodansha Comics Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, US, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 1st 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and man ...

). In 2020, Kodansha announced that it had consolidated Kodansha Advanced Media and Vertical 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 Manga

Kodansha Manga (formerly Kodansha Comics) is an imprint of Kodansha USA Publishing who are responsible for the localization and publication of Kodansha's 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 manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized between 1989 and 1991, is set in mid-21st century Japan and tel ...

'' 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 film, an ani ...

and '' Akira'' by

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese Mangaka, manga artist, screenwriter, animator, and film director. He first rose to prominence as a pioneer founder of the New Wave (manga), New Wave in the 1970s. He is best known as the creator of ''Akira (franchise), Akira'', bo ...

, both of which were previously published in English by

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

. 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 licens ...

, 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 (trade name), 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 cr ...

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 imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

acting as the distributor for the imprint. On March 9, 2021, Kodansha Comics was renamed Kodansha Manga.

Vertical

Vertical is a Japanese novel and

imprint of Kodansha USA Publishing. Founded in 2001 by Hiroki Sakai, in February 2011, the company was bought by

(46.7%) and Dai Nippon Printing (46.0%). The company was consolidated into Kodansha USA Publishing in 2020.

Titles

Vertical, Inc. publishes books from a variety of genres, including

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

fiction, manga, nonfiction,

crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

, and

cooking Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...

Novels

* '' A Caring Man'' ( Akira Arai) * '' A Rabbit's Eyes'' ( Kenjiro Haitani) * '' Ashes'' ( Kenzo Kitakata) * '' Attack on Titan: Before the Fall'' (

Ryō Suzukaze The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre-Meiji period, Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the ''Japanese yen, yen''. Origins The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael. ...

) * '' Attack on Titan: Harsh Mistress of the City'' ( Ryō Kawakami) * '' Attack on Titan: Lost Girls'' ( Hiroshi Seko) * '' The Blade of the Courtesans'' ( Keiichiro Ryu) * '' Body'' ( Asa Nonami) * '' The Cage'' ( Kenzo Kitakata) * ''

The Cat in the Coffin ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' ( Mariko Koike) * '' City of Refuge'' ( Kenzo Kitakata) * '' The Crimson Labyrinth'' ( Yusuke Kishi) * '' Edge'' (

Koji Suzuki is a Japanese writer, who was born in Hamamatsu and lives in Tokyo. Suzuki is the author of the Ring (novel series), ''Ring'' novels, which have been adapted into other formats, including films, manga, TV series and video games. He has written ...

) * '' ENMA the Immortal'' ( Fumi Nakamura) * '' Fallout'' ( Tetsuo Takashima) * '' The Flowers of Edo'' ( Michael Dana Kennedy) * '' Gray Men'' ( Tomotake Ishikawa) * '' Guin Saga'' ( Kaoru Kurimoto) * '' A Guru is Born'' (

Takeshi Kitano , also known as in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. During hi ...

) * '' Innocent World'' ( Ami Sakurai) * ''

Monogatari series is a Japanese light novel series written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Vofan. The plot centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student who survives a vampire attack and finds himself helping girls involved with a vari ...

'' ( NisiOisiN) * '' Kubikiri Cycle'' ( NisiOisiN) * '' Lala Pipo'' ( Hideo Okuda) * '' May in the Valley of the Rainbow'' ( Yoichi Funado) * '' The Mediterranean Trilogy'' ( Shiono Nanami) * '' Naoko'' (

Keigo Higashino is a Japanese author chiefly known for his mystery novels. He served as the 13th President of Mystery Writers of Japan from 2009 to 2013. Higashino has won major Japanese awards for his books, almost twenty of which have been turned into films ...

) * '' Now You're One of Us'' ( Asa Nonami) * '' Outlet'' ( Randy Taguchi) * ''

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

'' (Koji Suzuki) * '' Parasite Eve'' ( Hideaki Sena) * '' The Poison Ape'' ( Arimasa Osawa) * ''

Pro Bono ( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...

'' ( Seicho Matsumoto) * '' Promenade of the Gods'' (

) * '' The Ring Trilogy'' (

) * '' Sayonara, Gangsters'' ( Genichiro Takahashi) * '' Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen'' ( Takaya Kagami) * '' Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: World Resurrection at Nineteen'' ( Takaya Kagami) * '' Shinjuku Shark'' ( Arimasa Osawa) * '' Summer of the Ubume'' ( Natsuhiko Kyogoku) * '' Translucent Tree'' ( Nobuko Takagi) * '' Twinkle Twinkle'' ( Kaori Ekuni) * '' Winter Sleep'' ( Kenzo Kitakata) * '' Zero Over Berlin'' ( Joh Sasaki)

Short story collections

* ''

Birthday A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage. Many religion ...

'' (

) * '' Boy'' (

) * '' Dark Water'' (

) * '' Season of Infidelity'' ( Oniroku Dan)

Non-fiction and miscellaneous

* ''

A Slow Death A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

'' (

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

-TV “Tokaimura Criticality Accident” Crew) * '' Aranzi Aranzo'' * '' The Honda Myth'' ( Masaaki Sato) * '' Iron Chef Chen's Knockout Chinese'' ( Chen Kenichi) * ''

J-Horror Japanese horror, also known as J-horror, is horror fiction derived from popular culture in Japan, generally noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre differing from the traditional Western representation of horr ...

'' ( David Kalat) * '' Nintendo Magic'' ( Osamu Inoue) * '' North Korea Kidnapped My Daughter'' ( Sakie Yokota) * '' Saying Yes to Japan'' ( Tim Clark,

Carl Kay Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

) * '' Sayonara, Mr. Fatty!'' ( Toshio Okada) * '' Slow Sex Secrets'' ( Adam Tokunaga) * '' The Toyota Leaders'' ( Masaaki Sato) * '' Walking Your Way to a Better Life'' ( Kimiko)

Manga

* '' 5 Centimeters Per Second'' (

Makoto Shinkai , known as , is a Japanese filmmaker and novelist. He is known for his anime feature films produced with CoMix Wave Films. Shinkai began his career as a video game animator with Nihon Falcom in 1996, and gained recognition as a filmmaker with ...

, Yukiko Seike) * '' 7 Billion Needles'' ( Nobuaki Tadano) * '' A School Frozen in Time'' ( Mizuki Tsujimura, Naoshi Arakawa) * ''

An Older Guy's VR First Love is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Violence Tomoko. It was serialized on Ichijinsha's ''Zero Sum Online'' website from August 2020 to March 2021, with its chapters compiled into a single volume released in April 2021. A 32- ...

'' (Tomoko Boryoku) * '' After the Rain'' ( Jun Mayuzuki) * '' Ajin: Demi-Human'' (Gamon Sakurai) * '' Andromeda Stories'' ( Ryu Mitsuse, Keiko Takemiya) * '' Avant-garde Yumeko'' ( Shūzō Oshimi) * '' Ayako'' (

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...

) * '' Apollo's Song'' (Osamu Tezuka) * '' Black Jack'' (Osamu Tezuka) * ''

Blame! ''Blame!'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese science fiction manga series written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei. It was published by Kodansha in the manga magazine '' Monthly Afternoon'' from 1997 to 2003, with its chapters c ...

'' ( Tsutomu Nihei) * '' Blood on the Tracks'' ( Shuzo Oshimi) * ''

The Book of Human Insects is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It is about Toshiko Tomura, the "Woman of Talent", who is able to leech the abilities out of people, constantly reinventing herself. The manga was originally serialized in Ak ...

'' (Osamu Tezuka) * ''

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

'' (Osamu Tezuka) * ''

Cardfight!! Vanguard is a Japanese multimedia franchise jointly created by Akira Itō, Satoshi Nakamura, Mitsuhisa Tamura, and Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani. It currently consists of multiple anime television series, an official t ...

'' ( Akira Itō) * '' Chi's Sweet Home'' ( Kanata Konami) * ''

Ciguatera Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), also known as ciguatera, is a foodborne illness caused by eating tropical reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxins. Such individual fish are said to be ciguatoxic. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, numbness ...

'' ( Minoru Furuya) * ''

CITY A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

'' (Keiichi Arawi) * '' Devil's Line'' ( Ryou Hanada) * '' Dissolving Classroom'' ( Junji Ito) * '' Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro'' ( Nanashi) * '' Dororo'' (Osamu Tezuka) * '' Dream Fossil'' ( Satosi Kon) * '' The Drops of God'' ( Tadashi Agi, Shu Okimoto) * '' The Flowers of Evil'' ( Shūzō Oshimi) * '' Flying Witch'' (Chihiro Ishizuka) * '' From the New World'' ( Yusuke Kishi) * '' The Garden of Words'' (

) * '' A Girl on the Shore'' ( Inio Asano) * '' Go with the Clouds, North by Northwest'' ( Aki Irie) * '' The Gods Lie'' ( Kaori Ozaki) * '' The Great Cleric'' ( Broccoli Lion, Hiiro Akikaze) * '' GTO: 14 Days in Shonan'' ( Tooru Fujisawa) * '' GTO: The Early Years'' ( Tooru Fujisawa) * '' The Guin Saga Manga: The Seven Magi'' ( Kaoru Kurimoto, Kazuaki Yanagisawa) * '' Helter Skelter'' ( Kyoko Okazaki) * '' Heroman'' (

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

, BONES, Tamon Ohta) * '' Immortal Hounds '' ( Ryō Yasohachi) * '' In Clothes Called Fat'' ( Moyoco Anno) * '' Insufficient Direction'' ( Moyoco Anno) * '' Knights of Sidonia'' ( Tsutomu Nihei) * '' Limit'' ( Keiko Suenobu) * '' Lychee Light Club'' ( Usamaru Furuya) * '' Message to Adolf'' (Osamu Tezuka) * '' Miss Miyazen Would Love to Get Closer to You'' (Taka Aki) * '' Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin'' (

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko is a Japanese animator, manga artist, and anime director. He is best known for being the character designer and animation director of the original '' Mobile Suit Gundam'' anime, which began in 1979. That same year, he began working as a mang ...

Yoshiyuki Tomino is a Japanese anime director, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist best known for creating the ''Gundam'' anime franchise. Early life and family Tomino was born on November 5, 1941, in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, to an old family of regio ...

Hajime Yatate is a pseudonym for the collective contributions of the Bandai Namco Filmworks#Sunrise, Sunrise（Bandai Namco Filmworks） animation staff. Name "Hajime Yatate" is considered to be named after a quote of Matsuo Bashō's ''Oku no Hosomichi'': ...

) * '' Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz - Glory of the Losers'' ( Tomofumi Ogasawara, Katsuyuki Sumisawa) * ''

Moteki is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mitsurō Kubo. It was serialized in ''Evening'' magazine from 2008 to 2010, with its chapters collected into four ''tankōbon'' volumes by Kodansha. It was adapted into a Japanese televi ...

'' (Mitsuro Kubo) * '' Mysterious Girlfriend X'' ( Riichi Ueshiba) * '' MW'' (Osamu Tezuka) * '' My Neighbor Seki'' (Takuma Morishige) * '' My Boy'' (

Hitomi Takano Hitomi may refer to:. People * Hitomi (given name), a feminine Japanese given name * Hitomi (voice actress) (born 1967), Japanese voice actress * Hitomi (singer) (born 1976, as Hitomi Furuya), Japanese singer and songwriter * Hitomi Nabatame (b ...

) * '' Ninja Slayer'' (Bradley Bond, Philip "Ninj@" Morzez) * ''

Nichijou is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Keiichi Arawi. The manga began serialization in the December 2006 issue of Kadokawa Shoten's manga magazine '' Shōnen Ace'', and was also serialized in '' Comptiq'' between the March ...

'' (Keiichi Arawi) * '' No Longer Human'' ( Usamaru Furuya) * '' Ode to Kirihito'' (Osamu Tezuka) * '' Paradise Kiss'' ( Ai Yazawa) * '' Peepo Choo'' (

Felipe Smith Felipe Smith (born 1978) is an American comic book writer and artist of Jamaicans, Jamaican and Argentine descent. He is the creator, co-designer, and writer of Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider, and the author of ''Peepo Cho ...

) *

Pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

( Kyoko Okazaki) * '' Pop Team Epic'' ( Bkub Okawa) * ''

Princess Knight ''Princess Knight'', also known as ''Ribon no Kishi'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. This manga follows the adventures of Sapphire, a girl who was born accidentally with a blue heart of a boy and a pin ...

'' (Osamu Tezuka) * ''

Prophecy In religion, mythology, and fiction, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain di ...

'' ( Tetsuya Tsutsui) * '' Sakuran'' ( Moyoco Anno) * '' Sickness Unto Death'' (Takahiro Seguchi) * '' Summer Wars'' ( Mamoru Hosoda) * '' To Terra...'' ( Keiko Takemiya) * '' Tokyo ESP'' ( Hajime Segawa) * '' Tropic of the Sea'' (Satoshi Kon) * '' The Twin Knights'' (Osamu Tezuka) * '' To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts'' (Maybe) * '' Twin Spica'' ( Kou Yaginuma) * '' Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist'' ( Asumiko Nakamura) * '' Velveteen & Mandala'' ( Jiro Matsumoto) * '' What Did You Eat Yesterday?'' ( Fumi Yoshinaga) * '' Witchcraft Works'' (Ryu Mizunagi) * '' Wolfsmund'' ( Mitsuhisa Kuji)

Kodansha Advanced Media

Kodansha Advanced Media, LLC was an American distribution company, based in San Francisco, and established on December 4, 2014. The company was a subsidiary of

, 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 Vertical 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'' 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.

References

External links

* *
Vertical, Inc. page
{{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