Young Magazine USA Special Gets 2nd Issue

This year's 45th issue of Kodansha's Young Magazine revealed on Monday that it is launching a second issue of Young Magazine USA, a special edition of the magazine for the U.S. The staff is again looking for Japanese manga creators who want their story published for overseas readers. Interested applicants must submit a storyboard for a chapter as well as three sample manuscript pages by December 13. The staff is looking for stories themed around an outcast who is overlooked by society and has issues fitting in.

Kodansha had teased in November 2025 that it was preparing a second issue of Young Magazine USA.

The first Young Magazine US special issue commemorated the magazine's 45th anniversary. The 1,044-page magazine had 18 new series from Japanese artists, as well as the first chapter of Kengo Hanazawa's Under Ninja manga, and Shūichi Shigeno's (Initial D, MF Ghost) new manga Subaru and Subaru. The magazine also featured a cover illustration by Ghost in the Shell creator Masamune Shirow.

The magazine's special issue was distributed for free to attendees at Anime NYC in August 2025, and was distributed at specific Kinokuniya locations from August to November 2025.

The titles are available to read on the magazine's official website, which launched in August 2025. Digital reading and distribution platform GlobalComix also released the special issue for free. Azuki (now Omoi) also released the issue for free for all users, which was available until last December.

The top five winners of the magazine's reader poll campaign are guaranteed serialization on Kodansha's K MANGA app. The winners also get serialized in Japan in Monthly Young Magazine and/or YanMaga Web, serializing at the same time on K MANGA.

Winning titles include Still You, Godmother, The Knight of Blasphemy, The Journey of a Dark Elf with Fading Powers, and Fascination. Additional titles getting that have earned seraliziations include To Dusk and Twilight, Boys Run the Riot -In Transition-, Protocol Ryugu, and The Last Terran.

Source: Young Magazine issue 45