If you ask many manga fans about their licensing "white whales," they'll likely serve you up a list of titles that have gained renown in Japan, but have yet to be translated and shipped out in any official capacity to North American readers. Well, recently, more than a few of those fans crossed a series off their lists: Kingdom, Yasuhisa Hara's historical adventure manga that runs in the anthology Weekly Young Jump (which skews a bit older than something like its brother publication Weekly Shōnen Jump,) will be published by VIZ Media in the US beginning in November 2025. It's been a long time coming: Kingdom first hit Japanese shelves back in 2006.
But this isn't just a victory for devotees of Kingdom, or more likely anyone that happened to check out its Wikipedia page and thought "Man, that sounds cool. Wish I could read it!" Kingdom's North American licensing is representative of a growing trend, one that finds publishers of all sizes attempting to corner a passionate and growing market.
