Kadokawa is the Japanese juggernaut publishing house responsible for bringing to the public beloved series such as Oshi no Ko, Re: Zero, Sword Art Online, Mushoku Tensei, Delicious in Dungeon, and many more. Before anime became such a popular media, Kadokawa built its empire on publishing light novels and other forms of literature. Many of these popular series appeared in Dragon Magazine, which launched in 1988 and has now officially ceased publication.
Some of Kadokawa’s most popular series first appeared in Dragon Magazine, including Slayers, Full Metal Panic!, and Patlabor. The monthly magazine published both light novels and manga, and it was a steady feature throughout Kadokawa’s long history. Going forward, it will be replaced by a new web platform titled “Mekurimekuru”.
Is This the Future for Shonen Jump Too?
While Dragon Magazine is ceasing publication, Kadokawa is doing better than ever. A recent acquisition by Sony created the most powerful conglomerate in the world of anime, manga, and light novels. Sony/Kadokawa now owns an incredible number of profitable IPs, along with anime production capacities and the most popular anime distribution platform, Crunchyroll. The cancelation of Dragon Magazine, then, shows that printed media may simply not be a profitable investment anymore.
It’s hard not to make a comparison with the most famous manga magazine, Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump, which has been struggling with diminishing sales and a lack of popular series. Meanwhile, its digital counterpart, Shonen Jump+, hosts some of Shueisha’s most popular franchises of late, such as Chainsaw Man and Dandadan, both bolstered by successful anime series. Perhaps, going full-digital is the future of the industry, as seems to be confirmed by the statement released by Dragon Magazine‘s editorial department:
“Due to recent changes in the reading environment, we are increasingly realizing that the role that Dragon Magazine has played is no longer something than can be fulfilled by paper magazines, and this is our next challenge.”
Many famous light novel authors reacted to the announcement by expressing their sadness, including Record of Lodoss War‘s Ryo Mizuno and Full Metal Panic!‘s Shoji Gato.
Dragon Magazine Ends With a Beautiful Tribute From Its Most Popular Series
Slayers Is Still a Beloved Classic
Loyal fans who have purchased the final issue of Dragon Magazine have been rewarded with a beautiful gift, a Slayers short story collection, the first one to appear in 13 years. Slayers, written by Hajime Kanzaka and illustrated by Rui Araizumi, is one of the most popular light novel series to appear in Dragon Magazine, spawning a successful manga and anime that was a huge hit in the 1990s.
Light novels have outsold manga as the most successful form of popular literature in Japan, and they keep spawning a plethora of hit anime every year. Dragon Magazine was a pioneer in the dissemination of the genre, so it’s surely sad to see it go away, but at least, Kadokawa is bigger than ever.
Source: Oricon News
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