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Orange Inc.'s e-Bookstore Service emaqi Adds Makoto Mizuta's Bouncer Manga

AI localization company Orange Inc. revealed on Friday one new manga release for the week of November 15 for its new e-bookstore service "emaqi."

Meet Joichiro Shishido, a 19-year-old delinquent whose brutal honesty has gotten him fired from 26 temp jobs in a row.

He's an impatient good-for-nothing, but this half-baked young man is about to learn what working in the real world is actually like from a group of tough-as-nails bodyguards who keep the night streets safe.

Welcome to "Tokyo Fist," the private security firm where Joichiro Shishido finds himself thrust into life's boot camp! How far can you go down your own true path? It's time to find out!

Mizuta launched the manga in Akita Shoten's Bessatsu Young Champion magazine in 2014. Akita Shoten published the manga's first compiled book volume in May 2015, and the 14th volume on March 18.

The manga inspired a live-action series adaptation, which premiered in Japan in 2017.

Orange launched the emaqi service in the United States and Canada on September 3. The "emaqi" platform featured approximately 6,000 volumes of manga from 13 publishers in its launch, with plans to add at least one new title previously unpublished in English every week. Orange Inc. announced that it has secured translation, publishing, and distribution rights from publishers including Shonengahosha, Futabasha, and Akita Publishing. The company also acquired distribution rights from Kodansha USA Publishing.

The company's partnership with Shueisha to localize one-shot manga from Shonen Jump+ allows readers to read newly translated stories in English several times a week, for free. Both the emaqi and Shueisha's MANGA Plus services are simultaneously publishing the one-shot manga. MANGA Plus had also announced its new program to release all one-shots from the Shonen Jump+ service in English simultaneously.

Readers can create a free account on emaqi and access the platform's wide range of content. Each manga has a detailed synopsis, and sample chapters or previews that are available for readers to try out. Readers can buy individual volumes of a manga title, or subscribe to an ongoing series directly through the platform.

emaqi is web-based, and Orange is considering launching the service as a mobile app next year.

Source: E-mail correspondence