Kodansha Rebrands, Eliminates Vertical

Kodansha has announced today that they are unifying their “English-language publishing program” with a new website, kodansha.us (formerly KodanshaComics.com), and the elimination of Vertical as a label.

Well, they didn’t exactly announce that last part, but that’s one of the results. The combined website “spotlights not only the Kodansha manga you know and love but also highlights all of Kodansha’s award-winning and fan-favorite English-language, novels, cookbooks, craft guides, historical/cultural literature, and more.” This includes what was formerly Kodansha Comics, Kodansha USA International, and Vertical.

But the important thing, to me, is that What Did You Eat Yesterday?, a Vertical title, is still listed on the new website, because that’s my favorite of their publications.

This is not a particularly surprising move, as they’d been listing the digital manga titles under one heading for a while, and they were doing joint promotion, so the question of what calling some of the books “Vertical” meant any more was a valid one.

The Twitters and other social media have changed as well. KodanshaUSA and Vertical are now twitter.com/KodanshaManga and twitter.com/KodanshaBooks. If you were following the previous versions, you’ll still be following these.