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Rakuten to Launch Vertical-Scrolling Digital Comic Service Partnering with Shonengahosha, Nitroplus
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
R-Toon will allow users to read one chapter a day for free, and users can purchase manga titles on a per-chapter basis.
Rakuten will also launch a new comic label with Shonengahosha to create new content tailored for the international market's demand for Japanese cultural content.
Rakuten will also utilize its comprehensive intellectual property content production label Rakuten Content Central as a platform to roll out related content and merchandising for the jointly produced titles across various media locally and internationally.
Rakuten announced its partnership with Toon Cracker in June 2022, signaling the company's move to enter the vertical-scrolling digital comic service business.
Production I.G launched the Tate Anime (Vertical Anime) app in June 2017 and it ended service in May 2018. The app relaunched in June 2018 with the new Anime Beans name, and ended service on March 31 earlier this year. The Tate Anime app offered short (about three-minute) anime that updated on weekdays, and each series had 10 episodes. The anime were presented vertically for smartphones.
BookWalker Global launched the TATESC Comics vertical-scrolling webcomic brand in English last year. Kadokawa launched the service in Japanese in August 2021.
Echoes, Bandai, and Bandai Namco Filmworks established a new joint business venture for a vertical-scrolling manga label and service named Bandana Comic in February. The site will launch sometime after summer, and the service will begin sometime at the end of 2023.
Shueisha announced in May that it will launch a new vertical scrolling manga service named Jump Toon in 2024.
Source: Press release
