Shueisha to Simulpub All Weekly Young Jump Manga Worldwide

Shueisha announced on Thursday that its official free reading app will begin publishing every manga from Weekly Young Jump simultaneously around the world, outside of Japan, Korea, and China. The expanded simulpub kicks off with Yūji Ninomiya’s Bungo -unreal-, a sequel to the popular baseball manga Bungo.

Bungo -unreal- launched in Weekly Young Jump on the same day, picking up with the original series’ characters now in high school.

For newcomers, the story began when Bungo Ishihama, after diligently practicing his solo wall ball drills, had a fateful meeting with Yukio Noda, a member of Japan’s youth baseball national team.

From there the two rose through the ranks together, joining a fiercely competitive middle school team and battling toward the top of the sport, before setting their sights even higher in high school.

Bringing an entire magazine’s worth of titles to readers worldwide at the same time as Japan is a meaningful step, giving international fans a real chance to follow series as they happen.

My take: Simultaneous worldwide releases are exactly how you fight piracy and grow a fanbase, so this is genuinely good news. Starting with a heartfelt baseball sequel is a nice, accessible way to kick it off.