Kodansha USA Licenses Gang King & Boss Bride Days Manga Series

Kodansha USA has announced the licenses of the Gang King and Boss Bride Days manga series for digital distribution in January 2023. The delinquent and yakuza-theme stories will be available on various digital platforms, including Bookwalker, Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play, Nook, Kobo, and many more. 

Here are the details for each new digital manga license

Daiju Yanauchi’s long-running delinquent themed manga series Gang King will be released for the first time in English digitally on January 10, 2023. It was serialized in Kodansha’s bi-weekly seinen magazine Evening from August 11, 2003 to April 27, 2021. Thirty-seven tankoubon volumes have been released in total. 

© Daiju Yanauchi

Kodansha USA describes the synopsis as: 

Tattoos are the mark of a hero! Tattoos are life! Ever since being saved by a man with a back tattoo as a child, Jimmy has dedicated his life (and skin) to the ancient art of tattooing. Given his school full of delinquents, it’s no surprise that Tattoo Jimmy has become infamous for his skill at inking and brawling alike. So infamous that the biggest, baddest dudes around want to test their mettle against him…but Jimmy doesn’t take shit from anyone. He’s just got to stay in one piece long enough to meet his hero…even if it means bashing a few skulls along the way!

Boss Bride Days is a high-stakes romcom manga series by A Springtime with Ninjas creator Narumi Hasegaki. It will be released for the first time digitally on January 31, 2023. It was first serialized on Kodansha and pixiv’s Palcy manga app on April 1, 2018. The series recently concluded with its 15th and final tankoubon volume released on October 13, 2022. 

© Narumi Hasegaki

The manga is described by Kodansha USA as: 

Self-proclaimed otaku and shut-in Sakura Kisaragi would prefer to spend her days alone in her room, playing her favorite yakuza-themed dating simulator. But when she saves the life of an old man who turns out to be the head of the Amou-gumi crime family, she inadvertently earns a spot in the yakuza’s succession plans—moved by her courage, the old man declares that whoever among his three ambitious grandsons can win her hand in marriage will be the next boss. Now kind but ailing Shusuke, brash hothead Reo, and cool and calculating Ryusei are all vying to make her their boss wife—but will she be anything more to them than a means to an end? Meanwhile, not everyone in the Amou-gumi organization is happy to have her there…

Source: press release