I have spoken before about the differences between otaku fandom in Japan and the West when it comes to anime but I believe it’s just as important to point out the differences in popularity of manga series as well. One of the most obvious differences between the fandoms, and the subject of this article, is how some of the most popular manga series of all time have yet to be released in English.
Of course, popularity can be highly subjective with many different ways of gauging how popular different series are. In the case of this article, I will be looking at some of the best selling manga series of all time that have, somehow, still not been released in English. I was also tempted to include series such as Golgo 13 and Oishinbo which have only seen best of releases in English but decided to stick with series that have never seen an English release whatsoever.
The most popular manga series to yet be released in English in any shape or form would be the series Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo, better known as Kochikame by Osamu Akimoto. A comedy series following a police officer called Kankichi Ryotsu, commonly referred to as Ryo-san, who concocts all sorts of get rich quick schemes, often failing spectacularly. The series ran for 40 years from 1976 to 2016 with sales of 156 million copies across 200 volumes.
The next most popular manga series that has never been released in English would be Touch by Mitsuru Adachi. The series tells the story of Tatsuya Uesugi whose twin brother Kazuya is injured in a traffic accident. Tatsuya takes Kazuya’s place as the ace pitcher of the baseball team in order to fulfill Kazuya’s dream of going to Koshien. Touch has sold 100 million copies across 26 volumes and I would love to get the opportunity to read this series in English someday considering how much I enjoyed Mitsuru Adachi’s Cross Game.
Interestingly, the next most popular manga series yet to be released in English is another sports series called Hajime no Ippo by George Morikawa. This series follows a high school student called Ippo Makunouchi who is discovered by professional boxer Mamoru Takamura who decides to help nurture Ippo’s boxing talent. The series has been running since 1989 and, as of this article, is continuing to see new chapters released. The series has seen 96 million copies sold across 128 volumes .
Finally, I would like to mention a series called Captain Tsubasa by Yōichi Takahashi. Captain Tsubasa tells the tale of an elementary school student called Tsubasa Oozora who dreams of winning the FIFA World Cup for Japan. Upon moving to a new town and school, he meets Roberto Hongo, a Brazilian footballer who decides to mentor Tsubasa. The series originally ran from 1981 to 1988 with 37 volumes released but has since seen numerous sequel series with total sales of 80 million copies.
It is amazing to me how many of the most popular manga series of all time have yet to see an English release of any kind! While some of these titles might be difficult to release in English due to their sheer number of volumes (I’m looking at you Kochikame!), I still hope that we might see some of these series released someday. Let me know your thoughts on these manga titles that have yet to see an English release, whether you’d heard of any of these before, your thoughts on a potential English release and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!