In light of the of the recent earthquakes in Japan, publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha have announced that they will be publishing select manga magazines and the serializations contained within on the Internet for free viewing.
The news comes via Anime News Network, who report that Shogakukan will post all the manga from the 16th and 17th issues of their Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine on their Club Sunday website for free on April 5th. Issue #16 of Shonen Sunday sees the debut of Major author Takuya Mitsuda’s new boxing manga, Buyuden. You might recall that Pokémon ReBurst is also presently serializing in Weekly Shonen Sunday.
Additionally, Shogakukan have already been selecting four manga titles from each issue of the magazine to post online for free since last week. This practise will continue until the combined 22nd/23rd issue of the magazine. Issue #19 of the magazine will see the debut of Fullmetal Alchemist author, Hiromu Arakawa’s new series, Silver Spoon. There’s nothing to suggest, however, that the series will be part of those selected to be posted online.
Meanwhile, Shueisha published the manga sections of issue #15 of 2011’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine online for free last week. Kodansha, too, are planning something similar, with issues #15 and 16 of Young Magazine, issues #16 and 17 of Weekly Shonen Magazine, and issues #15 and 16 of Weekly Morning, among other magazines, online for free.
