Anime and manga are often touted as Japan’s proud, globally beloved cultural exports. However, particularly when it comes to manga, there are still many hurdles in terms of global expansion. In recent years, the rise of webtoons has led to claims that “horizontal-reading manga are hard to read overseas,” but that may not be the real issue. We interviewed the giant community site MyAnimeList (MAL), which recently announced a user-curated list of “must-read manga,” to uncover the reality.

MyAnimeList’s “You Should Read This Manga 2025” Features Popular Titles Like Kagurabachi

The newly announced You Should Read This Manga 2025 is a global manga promotion project held by MyAnimeList (MAL), a massive community site used by manga fans from 240 countries and regions. This major event compiles the “ultimate manga list,” with nominations and selections made by general users as well as moderators—knowledgeable manga lovers within MAL.

This year’s list features 77 titles across four categories, including fan-favorites like Kagurabachi, Gachiakuta, Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, and Firefly Wedding, among others, impressing even Japanese manga fans. It serves as valuable evidence of the worldwide reach of Japanese manga.

“A noticeable trend this year is the strong showing of manga popular among women, such as The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All and The Star of the Girls' Garden. While MAL users used to be overwhelmingly male just a few years ago, now about 30–40% of users are women,” said Atsushi Mizoguchi, CEO of MyAnimeList.

Despite being the world’s largest community and database for Japanese anime and manga with over 1.2 billion viewing and reading records, MAL is still little known in Japan due to its 99% overseas user base. The platform was originally founded by an American youth in 2004 with the idea of creating a site where fans could share information about their favorite Japanese anime globally. Though currently MAL has 19.5 million registered users, many more visit without registering—potentially tens of times more. Approximately 90% of visitors are between the ages of 18 and 34.

Mizoguchi also pointed out that the user base has seen major shifts in recent years:

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, our user numbers have skyrocketed. This is largely thanks to more people discovering Japanese anime through Netflix and other platforms. With global hits like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen, the old stigma that anime fans are ‘geeks’ has pretty much vanished overseas.”

While many of the titles on the list have not been adapted into anime, the number of overseas manga fans continues to grow.

“Though still limited, the spread is definitely expanding thanks to the rise of digital comics. One of the great appeals of manga is synchronicity and empathy—reading something at the same time as your friends and talking about it amplifies the joy. In the past, translated editions would be published long after the Japanese release, keeping manga fandom a niche among hardcore fans. But now, with digital comic services, more works are available without a time lag, and the global experience of sharing impressions via social media is creating a clubroom-like culture,” Mizoguchi explained.

Source : ORICON NEWS