While some manga series like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen can quickly become massive hits just a few weeks after their debut, others struggle to find success, especially in niche magazines. These magazines are usually published by small publishing companies and rarely get the same attention as Shonen jump series in Japan and internationally (although other major magazines also have some hits). The manga market is really very difficult for most authors and very few of them can actually make a living from it.
However, with the Internet and social media, authors often seek to reach and build their audience by interacting with fans online. Still, not everyone is as brave as Shiten Akiyama, a mangaka who recently shared his struggles making a living from manga and was overwhelmed by the warmth and help he received from overseas fans.
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Overseas Fans Help Mangaka “Buy Coffee”
A few days ago, manga artist Shiten Akiyama posted on X (formerly Twitter) sharing 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 buy his work, which is available in Japanese on many digital stores such as Amazon and BookWalker. As of now, there is no official English edition of his manga Horizonbut maybe, with the attention it's getting, a publisher can license it soon.
After revealing his financial problems 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 their followers to help him. He has received more than ¥900,000 (around $5,600) in donations, an amount he noted is more than he has ever earned from his own manga. He later posted a photo of the 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 feel that his style is similar to Asano's, but Akiyama has his own signature handwriting. He also delves into heavy subjects in his original work titled Horizon. It follows a young woman named Mieko who is frustrated with her own life. After observing a few students hanging around, she reminisces about her days at school and, after drinking a bit, decides to put on her navy uniform and take a walk to the park at night. There she meets a handsome man. It starts off cheerfully, but things get a little more serious as the story progresses.
Akiyama actually gained some attention earlier this year after it was announced that he had made the decision translate his own manga into English and upload it to MangaDex (which has been the target of several DMCA takedowns in 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 the manga “was not demonstrated by corporations, but by individual fans.”
Horizon not currently officially licensed in the US.
