The revolution in the Shueisha house began in the mid-10s with the debut of the Shonen Jump + platform, a real change compared to a usage model that is linked to the now-old paper magazines. In 2019, the digital project was expanded to include theMangaPlus’ debut, the first international platform dealing with Shueisha Manga.
Weekly Shonen Jump, Jump SQ, V-Jump and Shonen Jump + were brought together on a single portal for the first time, with the chapters first translated into English and Spanish, then into other languages. MangaPlus recently added French, which allows for a continuous increase in the languages available, also thanks to the increasing number of users reading manga on the platform. One can only please the editor Momiyama, who takes care of the project. And he himself revealed in an interview in the last few hours the status of MangaPlus and the weight it has been gaining lately.
For Momiyama, the future lies in the broad international orientation. As a result, the manga sales have increased and the European countries will therefore have a much greater decision-making power. In the past, the decision to cancel a manga or not was only a matter of selling volumes and magazine surveys, but now part of the response also depends on the international trend. And not only, Souls are also decided taking this criterion into account: If a manga is famous in the west, it means that it has the opportunity to become an international giant, not just a Japanese, and thus increase sales. The overseas anime market has actually gotten too big to ignore.
The MangaPlus project is therefore doing very well thanks to 5 million unique monthly visitors. Obviously, Momiyama is emphasizing that Shueisha is still young in this industry and does not fully understand Western mechanisms, but the company will see to it that it develops in this sector in the years to come.
Momiyama finally adds some information about the current state of MANGA Plus: The platform has a total of 5 million monthly active users (both on the web and in the app) with currently 7 languages supported.
– Shonen Jump News – Unofficial (@WSJ_manga) January 9, 2022
The editor adds that international licensing is increasing thanks to MANGA Plus.
