HOOPLA DIGITAL, an “all-in-one media app for libraries” for web, Android or iOS has announced today that they’ve expanded their manga offerings for libraries with their new partnership with KODANSHA USA, one of the leading publishers of top-selling manga titles in N. America. This announcement significantly boosts hoopla’s manga catalog, which was launched in June 2023 with a diverse mix of shonen manga, shojo manga, seinen manga, boys love and yuri manga titles from DARK HORSE, TOKYOPOP, UDON ENTERTAINMENT, SATURDAY AM, TITAN, FANTAGRAPHICS, ABLAZE, and DENPA.
“hoopla received a glowing response to the manga experience we developed and launched this year, and we are thrilled to expand the offering with one of the most renowned manga publishers, Kodansha,” said hoopla Comics and Graphic Novels Marketing Lead Ray Barry. “When we launched manga, we pledged to continue building the category on our service and this new agreement adds some of the best-known manga titles to our existing offering. With Kodansha, hoopla continues to entrench our position as a home for manga enthusiasts and those who want to explore the category.”
What this means for manga readers is more manga you can borrow from your library, provided that your library subscribes to hoopla to offer over 1.4 million eBooks, audiobooks, comics, manga, movies, anime, music albums, television episodes, and more through hoopla BingePass, with a valid library card from a participating public library through this digital media service. As of today, if you have a library card and your library offers hoopla, you’ll be able to borrow e-book versions of recently-released and backlist Kodansha manga series, including:
- ATTACK ON TITAN by Hajime Isayama – An award-winning and New York Times-bestselling series that is the manga hit of the decade! Spawning the monster hit anime TV series of the same name, Attack on Titan has become a pop culture sensation.
- FAIRY TAIL by Hiro Mashima – A manga series that follows the adventures of Natsu Dragneel, a member of the popular wizard guild Fairy Tail, as he searches the fictional world of Earth-land for the dragon Igneel.
- BATTLE ANGEL ALITA by Yukito Kishiro – The iconic manga series is now available again for the first time in nearly a decade, in a stunning new translation. Kishiro’s post-apocalyptic science fiction story about an amnesiac cyborg named Alita.
- BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei – This breakthrough science-fiction masterpiece takes readers to a future version of Earth, where there is a city that’s grown so chaotically massive that its inhabitants no longer recall what “land” is.
- THE KNIGHTS OF SIDONIA by Tsutomu Nihei – An award-winning manga series that tells the story of Nagate Tanikaze, who has lived in the underground layer of Sidonia, a massive starship, since birth. Following the death of his grandfather, Nagate travels to the surface and is selected as a Garde pilot, just as Sidonia is once again threatened by the Gauna, a hostile alien species.
While this initial offering on hoopla doesn’t include EVERY series available as ebooks from Kodansha USA, both Kodansha and hoopla reps are promising that more will be added in the coming months. See what’s currently available on hoopla from Kodansha US.
“hoopla has developed a digital experience that is true to the art and storytelling of the manga craft, and we are committed to this partnership and service to the public library market,” said Alvin Lu, of President and CEO of Kodansha USA. “This partnership will fuel wider access to our manga titles and the category at large, while inviting new readers to the manga vertical.”
Hoopla has also made accommodations for the right-to-left manga reading experience in their “ActionView” feature, which allows readers to see the story panel-by-panel (similar to ComiXology’s Guided View experience) to “ fully view and appreciate the intricacies of the art and take in the story at their own pace” on mobile devices.
Besides adding more Kodansha manga series to their catalog in coming months, hoopla has also hinted at “continued new partnerships with other prominent manga publishers” (translation: More manga from other as-yet-unannounced manga publishers) before the end of 2023. Stay tuned for more on that front!
hoopla is available in more than 10,000 public libraries in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, including the Chicago Public Library, San Francisco Public Library and Los Angeles Public Library. Visit hoopladigital.com to find out if your library partners with hoopla, or if you’re a librarian, find out how you can add hoopla to your collection.
Visit Kodansha USA at kodansha.us to learn more about these manga and other new and best-selling series available now in print and digital formats.
