Starting next year, all new manga serialized on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ app and website, the publication venue for popular series like Spy x Family, Kaiju No. 8 and Ghost Reaper Girl, will simultaneously be published in English on the same date that they are released in Japanese.
According to Mantan Web, the English simulpubs will be released on the MANGA Plus app, which has roughly 5 million active users. Shueisha editor Yūta Momiyama explained that the new publication strategy's goal is to facilitate the creation and distribution of hit series worldwide. Since manga markets outside Japan have greatly expanded in recent years, the company is looking to further energize the medium's popularity on a global scale.
Simultaneously publishing its new manga in English isn't the only step Shueisha is taking to bring in new readers. It was recently revealed that the second part of Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man will feature on Shonen Jump+ beginning next month. The story follows an improvised young man named Denji who gains the power to transform parts of his body into chainsaws after he makes a deal with a devil. Over 13 million copies of the manga have been sold since it made its debut in December 2018, and an anime adaptation by MAPPA, the studio behind Attack on Titan: The Final Season, is expected to premiere later this year.
Tatsuya Endo's highly popular Spy X Family manga was originally published as a Shonen Jump+ exclusive and is distributed in English digitally through MANGA Plus. The story follows the misadventures of the Forger family, which is made up of a super spy, a deadly assassin and a young child who can read minds. Over 21 million copies have been sold since its 2019 debut, and the series is currently in contention for an Eisner Award. The anime adaptation of the series recently wrapped up the first half of its first season; the second half is scheduled to premiere later this year.
Shueisha, which also publishes the popular manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, launched the Shonen Jump+ app in 2014. VIZ Media launched MANGA Plus in 2019, as the company's first step in directly serving the global manga community. MANGA Plus is available for iOS and Android smartphones.
Source: Mantan Web, via Anime News Network