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Kodansha Removes 16 Manga Titles From Crunchyroll on January 31 (Updated)

Crunchyroll announced on Thursday that it will remove a number of Kodansha USA Publishing manga titles from its platform on January 31. The majority of the titles are also ones that will be affected on the Azuki manga service, following a decision from Kodansha. Crunchyroll will remove the following Kodansha titles:

• A Sign of Affection
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card
• Drifting Dragons
• EDENS ZERO
• Fairy Tail
• Farewell, My Dear Cramer
• Fire Force
• In/Spectre
• Space Brothers
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
• Ghost in the Shell: The Human Algorithm
• The World of Summoning
• To Your Eternity
• Toppu GP
• UQ HOLDER!
• Wave, Listen to Me!

In addition, Kodansha issued a statement to Crunchyroll, saying that it is suspending simulub updates due to "changes" in its simulpub distribution program, and adding that it will have announcements regarding simulpubs "in the coming months."

Kodansha will end distribution of simulpub chapters on Azuki beginning on January 16. On January 31, previous simulpub chapters from Kodansha's titles will be removed on the service. Azuki stated that this is a "policy change on Kodansha's end that affects all of the platforms they distribute on." Azuki confirmed with ANN that other chapters, including early non-simulpub chapters of some of the series listed as well as non-simulpub series, will remain on the service.

Update: ANN reached out to Kodansha USA Publishing about the removal of chapters and titles on Azuki, and the company stated it has no additional information to share about the removal at the moment, but added, "What we can say is that Kodansha is reassessing the distribution of its English-language chapter-based content. Any updates on the exact nature of this reassessment will be shared at a future date." Source: Email correspondence

Source: Crunchyroll (Kyle Cardine)