TOKYO – One of Japan’s most successful manga series will be translated into English, 19 years after it began dominating its home market.

The new version of Kingdom, which chronicles ancient China’s dynastic wars, will go on sale from November, said its creator-artist Yasuhisa Hara in an interview.

The manga has sold roughly 110 million copies domestically, making it one of the top 20 best-selling series of all time. 

Japan’s cultural exports, including Pokemon, Hello Kitty and the Mario Brothers, have long attracted overseas fans. Hara, who left his job as a system engineer to pursue a career drawing manga, expects the English version of his work will help him do the same. 

“Outside Japan, I think manga is still an undiscovered treasure chest,” the 49-year-old said. 

Sales of manga globally reached about US$15.6 billion (S$20.9 billion) as at 2024 and are expected to rise to US$42 billion by 2030, according to analytics firm Grand View Research.

Japan’s US$7.7 billion in revenue accounts for about half of the global total. While the US market is estimated at US$1.1 billion currently, it is expected to grow at a faster pace than Japan’s and to more than triple by 2030. 

Kingdom’s popularity as a comic book has also translated into other mediums. It was turned into an ongoing anime adaptation for television, which first aired in 2012, as well as four live-action films. The latest instalment was the third-most popular movie in Japan in 2024, grossing more than eight billion yen (S$71 million). 

Still, some observers say the focus on historical drama risks failing to attract readers to the series. 

“Period pieces have had a hit-and-miss result in the West, as it can be difficult to capture the historical story essence and deliver it to a culturally unfamiliar Western audience,” said Mr John Parker, chief executive of Patencio Development, a California-based company that helps Japanese anime and manga publishers on overseas licensing and marketing. BLOOMBERG

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