Manga Apps

choi

George Gene Gustines, Manga Fans Can Get Fix on Same Day as in Japan.  New York Times, May 9, 2023, at page B3.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/business/viz-media-manga.html

the first seven paragraphs (which constitute half of text):

"VIZ Media, a publisher devoted to manga and anime, on Tuesday [May 9, 2023] will begin offering translated [in English] chapters of popular manga to audiences in North America on the same day they are released in Japan.

"The simultaneous publication of titles through the company's VIZ Manga app is part of an effort to get manga more quickly into the hands of fans at a time of booming readership, the company said. And it may also help fight pervasive piracy.

" 'In the last few years, manga became so much bigger,' said Ken Sasaki, the chief executive of VIZ Media, which is based in San Francisco and is a subsidiary of the Japanese publisher Hitotsubashi Group. 'I think readers are finally aware that there are so many other genres.'

"Manga sales hit $550 million in 2021, said Milton Griepp, the chief executive of ICv2, an ​​online pop culture trade publication, last year at New York Comic Con [short for Conference]. Sales jumped 9 percent in 2022, ICv2 reported in March.

"Prepandemic, manga action stories (known as shonen [correct romanization: shōnen 少年] manga, and geared toward young male readers) were the dominant force. VIZ's Shonen Jump digital service, which began in 2018, specializes in those types of stories.

"But VIZ Manga will offer romance, fantasy, horror and other stories, and put more female characters at the forefront. The library includes more than 10,000 chapters of 148 existing series from the manga publishers Shogakukan [Shōgakukan 小学館 (1922- ; privately held)] and Shueisha [Shṳ̄eisha; 集英社 (1947- ; privately held)], which are also part of Hitotsubashi. In addition, installments of 15 current series will be available in English on the same day they are released in Japan. Some of the series deal with topics like social anxiety in high school ('Komi Can't Communicate [古见同学有交流障碍症, whose protagonist 主人公 was a high school girl 古见 硝子; 障碍 disability]' by Tomohito Oda [小田 智仁; male]), or unexpected romance ('How Do We Relationship?' by Tamifull).

"The arrangement with VIZ Media is the first time that Shogakukan has offered its manga on-demand. The subscription service costs $1.99 a month, but the three most recent chapters of each series will be available without cost. Others titles will be added, and VIZ Media plans to expand to other regions.

Note:
(a)
(i) Viz Media LLC (1986- ; an American company based in San Francisco)  en.wikipedia.org
(ii) Hitotsubashi Group  一ツ橋グループ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitotsubashi_Group
is owned by Ōga 相賀 family and based in Hitotsubashi 一ツ橋 neighborhood, whose name came from a bridge of that name which still exists. That bridge spans where two streams converge, hence the name (per ja.wikipedia.org). The kanji 一 has Chinese pronunciation ichi and Japanese pronunciation hitotsu.
(b) Manga is different from anime, which is akin to motion picture or movie.