Kodansha USA

Kodansha USA
Status	Active
Founded	July 1st 2008; 16 years ago
Headquarters	New York City, New York, U.S.
Parent Company	Kodansha
Website	kodansha.us

Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of the Japanese publishing company Kodansha. Established on July 1, 2008, the company is headquartered in New York City, New York. Kodansha USA is responsible for the translation, localization, publishing, and distribution of books related to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga from Kodansha’s catalog in Western markets.

In 2019, Kodansha USA collaborated with ComiXology (a subsidiary of Amazon) to digitally distribute Initial D in English, marking the end of a ten-year period without an official English release of the manga. The company later retranslated and published Initial D in physical omnibus format.

2019 Manga Release

Kodansha USA collaborated with ComiXology to release Initial D in two phases: Volumes 1–38 were released in April 2019, while Volumes 39–48 followed in July 2019. This version has since been made available on additional platforms, including Kodansha’s K-Manga app.

The first 33 volumes of this release retained the Tokyopop translation, while the remaining volumes featured a brand-new translation that kept the original character names and translated the sound effects. Each volume also featured a new cover that retained the original Japanese artwork but replaced the logo and text.

Issues

This release of the manga has several issues, including:

Chapter 34 - note the pixelated artwork, and the flatness of the darker portions

Levelling and cleaning - there is visible specs of dirt on many pages, and some volumes (including Volume 04) are visibly poorly levelled, with the artwork being damaged. Many darker panels lose their depth.

Page seams - all double pages feature a large seam down the middle, either a white bar or a crease that separates the artwork (in several cases featuring an actual tear down the centre of the page). This issue is not present in Volume 34 onwards, suggesting an issue with the scan used for the earlier volumes.

Censorship - despite decensoring the nudity in Chapter 006, the Tokyopop censorship of Chapter 097 is maintained.

A large error in Chapter 34

Errors - many translation errors featured in the Tokyopop version are maintained in this version, as text seems to have been copied straight over. Several errors are added, most prominently in Volume 04, where placeholder text requesting that Japanese sound effects be translated is seen covering the art in numerous panels. In one speech bubble in Chapter 34 (in Volume 04) the text "THERE'S MORE TEXT IN THIS BUBBLE IN THE JAPANESE." appears.

2024 Manga Release

At Anime Expo 2023, Kodansha USA announced a new omnibus (2-in-1) edition of the Initial D manga, with the first volume scheduled for release on March 19, 2024. This release features a brand-new translation and lettering by Kevin Steinbach, and newly designed covers by Phil Balsman. The current release schedule has them releasing about 4 omnibus volumes a year.