NEWS
ANIME NYC: KODANSHA LICENSES LONG-RUNNING BOXING MANGA, ‘HAJIME NO IPPO’
Plus New Horror Series, ‘Trapped on Tape!’
Posted by Brigid Alverson on August 24, 2026 @ 7:43 am CT
Kodansha has added another classic to its catalog with the announcement during Anime NYC that it has licensed Joji Morikawa’s long-running boxing manga Hajime no Ippo, which it will release in three-in-one omnibus editions under the title Hajime no Ippo: Fighting Spirit! Morikawa launched the series in 1989, and it is 145 volumes long and still running. The story of a high school student who becomes a professional boxer, it has been adapted into numerous anime, one of which runs on Netflix (see “Netflix Gets 13 Anime”) and another on Crunchyroll. Kodansha will release the first omnibus volume in Spring 2027. The series is rated 13+.
This is Kodansha’s second license of a classic boxing manga (see “Exclusive: Kodansha Licenses ‘Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow”).
Kodansha also announced another new license: Trapped on Tape! by TNSK, a horror tale of a city girl who moves to the country and finds a sentient camcorder that allows her to hunt ghosts. The manga, which combines cute characters, a charming countryside setting, and a much darker horror plot, is rated 16+ and is slated to launch in Fall 2027.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brigid Alverson
Contributing Editor. Alverson has been writing about comics since she launched MangaBlog in 2005. She wrote the Comics A.M. column for Robot 6 (now part of CBR), and currently edits the Good Comics for Kids blog at School Library Journal. In her earlier life, she had roles at magazine and book publishers.
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