While some manga series like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen can quickly become massive hits just weeks after their debut, others struggle to find success, especially in niche magazines. These magazines are usually published by small publishers and rarely receive the same attention as Shonen Jump series in Japan and internationally (although other major magazines also have some hits). The manga market is actually very difficult for most authors, and only a few of them can actually make a living from it.
But with the internet and social media, authors often try to approach and build their audience by interacting online with fans. Still, not everyone is as bold as Shiten Akiyama, a mangaka who recently shared his struggles to make a living from manga and was overwhelmed by the warmth and help he's received from overseas fans.
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Foreign Fans Help Mangaka 'Buy Some Coffee'
A few days ago, manga artist Shiten Akiyama posted on X (formerly Twitter) and shared with his followers that he could barely afford cheap coffee because his work wasn't selling. He asked fans to support him on Ko-fi or to buy his works, which are available in Japanese on many digital stores, such as Amazon and BookWalker. Currently, there is no official English edition of his manga Horizonbut maybe, with the attention he's gotten, a publisher might license it soon.
After revealing his financial struggles to his followers, Akiyama received massive support from fans through Ko-fi, and his original post went viral, with over 2,800 retweets. Many fan pages also urged followers to help him. He received over 900,000 yen (about $5,600) in donations, an amount which, he noted, is more than he has earned from his own manga to date. He later posted a photo of a coffee he bought at Lawson, a popular convenience store chain in Japan.
Shiten Akiyama was Inio Asano's assistant
Before writing his own manga, Akiyama worked as an assistant to Inio Asano, which may be one of the reasons why a few fans find his style similar to Asano's, but Akiyama has his own distinct signature. He also delves into heavy themes in his original work, titled Horizon. It follows a young woman named Mieko, who is frustrated with her own life. After seeing some students hanging around, she reminisces about her days at school and after drinking a bit, decides to put on a sailor's uniform to enter a park at night. There she meets a handsome guy. It starts off lighthearted, but things get a little more serious as the story progresses.
Akiyama actually received some attention earlier this year after it was reported that he decided to do so translate your own manga into English and upload it to MangaDex (which has been the target of several DMCA takedowns over the past year). But his publisher apparently found out and asked him to stop. In his message thanking fans for supporting him financially, he claims that the love for manga was “proven not by companies but by individual fans.”
Horizon is not officially licensed in the US at this time.
