Shueisha’s MANGA MILLION Project to Bring One Million Manga Pages to the World in Its 100th Year
Shueisha, one of Japan’s largest manga publishers, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with one of the most ambitious projects in the history of digital publishing. The initiative called MANGA MILLION aims to have a full one million manga pages translated and delivered to readers worldwide on the MANGA Plus platform. Shuhei Hosono, Editor-in-Chief of MANGA Plus, shared details about the project in an interview with Anime Corner.
Hosono stated that this massive translation push is not limited to new series, and that many works from Shueisha’s rich history will also be officially translated into different languages for the first time. Since its launch in 2019, MANGA Plus is known for releasing new chapters of popular series such as One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw Man almost simultaneously with Japan. MANGA MILLION, on the other hand, expands the platform’s current “first and last chapter” approach, promising readers a more comprehensive catalog.
This initiative is also a sign of Shueisha’s desire to strengthen its position in the global manga market. The publisher, founded in 1925, has been one of the cornerstones of the manga industry with its dozens of magazines, especially Weekly Shonen Jump, and thousands of series. One million pages, when considered in chapters of average 20 pages, corresponds to tens of thousands of chapters. An official translation and digital archiving move of this scale is historic both for fans and the industry.
The most important impact of the project will be that series without official translations for a long time will come to light. Shueisha aims both to prevent pirate reading and to offer equal access to readers in different countries through MANGA Plus. The series to be added within the scope of MANGA MILLION and the translated pages will be released gradually on the platform throughout the 100th anniversary celebrations; fans are expected to experience a huge archive explosion in both classic and current series in the coming period.
