LayarHijau — Japanese manga artist Kajimoto Reika bought 1,000 copies of the first volume of her own comic in an attempt to keep the series from being cut short. She posted a photo of the stacked boxes of books on the official X account of the comic Gansaku no Dai Juuban on November 2. Even so, volume 2 will still not be released in print.
According to Kajimoto, the purchase cost ¥880,000 (about $5,500), which she is paying off in 10 installments. The post drew discussion among internet users in Japan and the West.
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Gansaku no Dai Juuban is serialized in Mystery Bonita, a comic magazine for young women published by Akita Shoten. The story is a mystery with yuri (romance between women) elements, centered on whether a manuscript of Beethoven’s unfinished Symphony No. 10 is genuine. Volume 1 went on sale on September 15, 2026, but sales fell short of expectations.
In late September, Kajimoto announced the series would end earlier than planned. Starting with volume 2, the comic is released only in digital form. She later added that the publisher has agreed to let the series conclude digitally in volume 3, with eight chapters remaining.
Kajimoto also warned fellow manga artists not to follow her example. She called the move a mistake and asked to be treated as a cautionary tale. She said she did it while drunk, because the comic grew out of a story proposal she submitted herself and she was determined to see it through to the end.
According to Kajimoto, 1,000 copies is a very small number for a title like hers, which did not even make the bookstore sales (POS) rankings in its first week. She said that is not enough to persuade a publisher. She explained that a new comic volume has to sell more than 3,000 copies for a publisher to merely break even, and even that does not guarantee a profit.
She joked that the only benefit of the purchase is that she can call herself the publisher’s biggest customer in meetings, which keeps the mood lighter when discussing how to sell books and pay off the debt. Kajimoto added that her relationship with her editor in charge varies from person to person, and urged manga artists who want to keep getting work not to imitate her.
She revealed that the actual sales of volume 1 were roughly on par with the best-selling run of her self-published comics (doujinshi). In her view, what helps more than numbers is readers expressing their anticipation for the work in various ways. As for the 1,000 books, she plans to give them away free as promotional items at a signed-copy event when volume 2 is released.
On social media, some internet users said the move amounts to self-publishing, comparing it to a desperate insurance agent buying a policy from themselves. Some argued the ¥880,000 would have been better spent on her own advertising, paid promotion, or serializing the comic for free on social media platforms. Others said the publisher would only become more reluctant to release volume 2, since buying copies herself does not add new readers. Some Japanese users also questioned whether behind-the-scenes dealings like this should be made public, and whether Akita Shoten allows such a practice.
On the other hand, quite a few internet users first learned of the comic through the news. Kajimoto said the episode unexpectedly worked as publicity, and that she has no regrets.
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