Manga, have you heard of it? Once a niche subset of the graphic novel market, the Japanese comics now dwarf it in popularity, and are only finding new readers (and selling more books) with each passing year. Kodansha USA, the English-language arm of the Japanese publishing giant Kodansha, is doing its part to make that happen, giving away volumes of hundreds of different series across all storytelling genres in the hopes of attracting new readers.
Until March 27, the publisher is offering free digital copies of the first volumes of more than 220 series, from the mega-popular to the incredibly niche, so you can sample whatever interests you. If you like what you read, subsequent volumes of many series are also available at a discount of up to 50%. Here’s what you need to know to get in on the deal—and where to start reading if you’re new to manga in general.
What is manga?
If you’ve never read it, getting into manga can be intimidating. On the one hand, it’s comic books. On the other, it features its own unique art style (usually all black and white), tropes (from exaggerated character expressions to stylized violence and, sometimes but definitely not as much as the stereotypes might suggest, sexual content), and format (many series are published in weekly installments in Japanese magazines that are later collected into paperback volumes of a few hundred pages). Even reading it requires comes with a real learning curve—the books read right to left instead of left to right and there’s a certain geometry to decoding each page—but once you get the hang of it, you’ll likely quickly become obsessed.
Who is Kodansha comics?
Kodansha Comics publishes translated versions of popular Japanese manga titles for English-speaking readers in North America. One of the “big four” players in the manga industry, they publish some of the world’s most popular manga, including Attack on Titan, Sailor Moon, Fairy Tail, and Vinland Saga.
How to get hundreds of free volumes of Kodansha manga
Picking up the free volumes is as easy as heading to one of the many online retailers that sell digital manga, including:
Any of these retails will allow you access to the free volumes, subject to their own particular requirements (you may still need to have a credit card on file, for example). Unless you want to read everything off of your laptop, you’ll also want some sort of e-reader that can handle manga. (For reference: here is a primer on how to make it readable on your Kindle.)
Where to get started
Manga is a medium, not a genre, so there are types of stories for every reader, from action-adventure to romance. The breadth and variety on offer can be quite overwhelming when you’re just starting out. Since so many first volumes are free as part of this “sale,” it’s best to just grab as many as you can and see what catches your attention. However, you probably will be well-served by starting with the series that have proven to be perennially popular the world over. Here are series to consider:
Attack on Titan: A post-apocalyptic sci-fi story in which the remnants of humanity fight back against hordes of giant, flesh-eating monsters.
Vinland Saga: An action-packed historical viking epic.
Battle Angel Alita: The inspiration for the 2019 movie about a cyborg struggling to find her place in a cruel human world.
Tokyo Revengers: A time travel mystery in which a disaffected young man returns to his middle school years and tries to prevent a terrible tragedy.
Fairy Tail: A silly fantasy romp about a wizard searching the world for an ancient dragon.
A Silent Voice: An emotional teenage drama about a deaf girl’s struggles in middle school.
Check out the complete list of available titles on the official Kodansha website, where you can narrow down your options by category.