Kodansha launches KAQREAL, a manga label based on investigative journalism

Kodansha launched KAQREAL (カクリアル) this November 11, a manga label that draws on the investigative capacity of its nonfiction magazines to build journalistic and documentary-style stories. The launch takes place within the Gendai Business portal, the publishing group's news website.

The label comes from Kodansha's first business department, the division that coordinates publications such as Shūkan Gendai, FRIDAY, and Gendai Business itself. The publisher explains that the name combines three ideas: "writing the real," "drawing the real," and "getting closer to the truth at the core of things." This is not a project confined to a single magazine: KAQREAL will distribute its works across different web manga platforms depending on the theme and audience of each title.

The label's team sees it as an evolution of the medium. In its launch statement, Kodansha says manga has moved beyond the framework of entertainment and become a vehicle for raising social awareness and dialogue. The proposal is to bring the perspective of its investigative media into the language of comics.

"We want to fuse the perspective of approaching real facts and the reporting spirit cultivated by Shūkan Gendai, FRIDAY, and Gendai Business with manga's overwhelming communicative power."

A catalog of 13 titles with a strong nonfiction weight

KAQREAL starts with 13 works, split between original creations, series already published on the Magapoke platform, and adaptations of content from the group's media outlets. Among the new titles is Inoki Kyōdai, a manga about the life of Antonio Inoki written by his younger brother, Keisuke Inoki, author of the nonfiction book Ani: Watashi dake ga shiru Antonio Inoki. The script is by Kensei Aoki and the art by Nobuhiro Akiyoshi. It runs on KAQREAL and Yanmaga Web.

Also arriving is Tsuresari: Fukushi Jigokuhen, a social suspense manga by Takahiro Tōfū —known for Kaba Chitare!— about abuses in the adult guardianship system. It will be serialized on Comic Days. And on Yanmaga Web, Tōkyō Chika premieres, a monster horror manga scripted by Itaru Mizuno, director of the TV series Brush Up Life and Hot Spot, with art by Tatsubi.

The initial catalog also includes a manga essay by Daisuke Nishijima, author of Diên Biên Phú, titled Art no Kizashi, and the comic adaptation of Hito wa dō shinu no ka, Yō Kusakabe's bestseller about the process of dying, with art by Yunuma.

Series arriving from Magapoke and more launches in December

The label also adds titles that were already working on Magapoke, Kodansha's manga platform. Nankai Trough Kyodai Jishin, with script by Biki and art by Kumichi Yoshizuki, has sold over 150,000 copies in print. Habsburg-ke no Kareinaru Junan, by Rei Azuma and Inatani, reaches 50,000 with its first volume. And Uchūjin to deau mae ni yomu hon adapts a bestseller from the Blue Backs science collection.

The first wave is completed by the manga biography of investor Tatsurō Kiyohara, with a personal fortune of 90 billion yen; a drawn report on the JAXA space agency; the comic strip Kachō no Yagi-san, which comes from Gendai Business; the real estate manga Mataide Nanbo, from Yanmaga Web; and a one-shot titled Uchūnuma e Yōkoso!.

New series will be added starting in December. Among them, a humanistic medical drama, a survival gourmet manga, a work about Arthur Conan Doyle's conflicts, the adaptation of a Gari original about the barber of a death row inmate, and a title in which Kodansha editor Daisuke Kondō tours restaurants serving authentic Chinese cuisine.

KAQREAL is not limited to a single reading app or website. The publisher will distribute each work on the platforms that best fit its theme and audience. The label has an official page within Gendai Business and its own X account from which it will announce its new releases.