#Kodansha USA Launches Kodansha Print Club for Digital-First Titles Starting December 2024

Kodansha USA has announced the launch of the Kodansha Print Club — a new publishing program aimed at bringing digital-first manga titles to print. The first digital manga series to be released in print through this program include Love, That’s an Understatement, Teppu, and Blade Girl. 

Today we proudly announce the launch of the Kodansha Print Club! Bringing digital-first favorites to print starting with Love, That’s an Understatement; Teppu, and Blade Girl.

Pre-order now or buy starting 12/10/24!

For details visit: https://t.co/4FLDrIjRDw pic.twitter.com/6WqopSD0oo

— Kodansha (@KodanshaManga) December 9, 2024

The three manga series will be available for purchase in print format from various retailers via Penguin Random House starting December 10, 2024. The first volumes of each series will also be available to pre-order in print starting tomorrow, with subsequent volumes coming out soon.

Suggestions, comments, and requests for specific titles to be added to the Kodansha Print Club can be submitted via the company’s suggestion feedback form.

Kodansha USA describes the main synopses of the three manga series as: 

Love, That’s an Understatement

Spare eraser? Check. Extra folding umbrella? Check. First aid kit? Check. Cool and collected high school student Risa Amakawa has something in her heavy bag for every situation, and the last thing she needs — or knows how to ask for — is anyone’s help. When she saves a beat-up delinquent in the park one rainy evening, she refuses any sort of repayment. But it turns out that saving the notorious Zen Ohira buys her the attention of some unsavory characters. As Zen keeps swooping in to help her out of one pickle after another, her feelings about relying on anyone but herself — and her feelings toward Zen — slowly begin to change… A new romcom from the author of Lovesick Ellie!

Teppu

It’s not easy being good at everything. First-year high school student Natsuo Ishido has always been a gifted athlete, and her ability to easily master every sport has not only bought her a life of boredom, but the resentment of everyone else who has had to work hard for their achievements. Not that Natsuo cares what anyone else thinks. All she longs for is a break from the monotony…for a real challenge worthy of pouring all her efforts into. A rival — an equal — worth beating down, crushing, and demoralizing… That all seems like a pipe dream until a pair of annoyingly peppy transfer students arrive from Brazil and start up a brand-new club that teases the challenge she craves — Mixed Martial Arts.

Blade Girl

One year after losing her leg, 16-year-old Rin is tired—tired of the painful physical therapy, tired of being treated differently, and tired of her stupid, heavy, awkward prosthetic leg. All that changes when she encounters the Blade Runners, a group of one-legged athletes who run with “blades”— carbon fiber prosthetics specialized for competitive running-made by their gifted prosthetist, Kazami. The blades are light, flexible, and formidably difficult to control — Rin can barely walk with one, much less sprint. But as she tumbles to the ground again and again, she rediscovers many of the things that she’d forgotten, and finds a new goal: to compete in the Paralympics.

Source: press release