Interest

Pirated Manga Artist Gujira Lands Published Series Deal After Controversy

Gujira, the manga artist who threatened to quit because he was discouraged by piracy of his work, is now launching a new digital manga series on the Manga ONE app and Ura Sunday website. It is titled Himitsu no Reptiles (Secret Reptiles), and Gujira is writing it under a new pen name: Ryō Kujirakawa.

The manga will debut first on the app on May 6, followed by the Ura Sunday website on May 13. New chapters will debut every other Friday.

The Manga ONE App is associated with Shogakukan's comic website Ura Sunday. The app itself launched in December 2014, and allows users to vote once every 12 hours for the series they like. The votes factor into the series' ranking, which in turn affects which series will end or be made into an anime, and which authors will get bonuses.

Gujira tweeted his plans to quit in January after discovering that his manga had been downloaded illegally 25,000 times. He later reneged, saying he had written the tweet "while carried away by petty grumbling."

As a result of the stir caused by his initial comments, and the subsequent conversations about piracy, the English-language erotic manga website and publisher FAKKU messaged Gujira about licensing his Gal toka Bitch toka Iroiro. ("A Gal, a Bitch, and Whatnot.") erotic manga. Gujira agreed, making Gal FAKKU's first new acquisition of 2016.

Source: Gujira Twitter via Hachima Kikō]