Kodansha has revealed the final results from its reader poll following the release of the special edition U.S. issue of Young Magazine. 281,461 votes were accrued during the voting period, far exceeding the expectations that the team at Young Magazine had for the poll.
The top five rankings from the Young Magazine U.S. reader poll results were:
- Still You by Kami Nishio
- Godmother by Rin Shimokawa
- The Knight of Blasphemy by Ray Kindo
- The Journey of a Dark Elf with Fading Powers by Daisuke Itabashi
- Fasciation by OUGA
The five newly serialized winners will be celebrated with special gift campaigns, with more details to come at a later date via the official Young Magazine U.S. X (formerly Twitter) account. The Young Magazine editorial team will also make additional selections for works that did not make the top five in order to highlight more talent who contributed to the success of the issue and poll. A second Young Magazine U.S. project is also in the preparation phase now.
Young Magazine U.S. special issue editor-in-chief Hidemi Shiraki also commented on the results:
“Thank you very much for the overwhelming participation in this voting campaign. We received a total of over 280,000 votes!
The entire editorial department was genuinely astonished by the massive response, which far exceeded our initial expectations. The sincere adolescence depicted in Still You, the exotic horror of Godmother, the epic drama surrounding the religious war in The Knight of Blasphemy, and the stories of the legendary magician who lost her powers and seeks ‘ordinary happiness’ in The Journey of a Dark Elf with Fading Powers, and the woman called ‘The Woman Who Carried the Forest’ raising a young girl in Fasciation—in every single one of these works, the diverse and stimulating sensibilities unique to the U.S. shone brightly.
Due to this tremendous support from all of you, we have urgently decided to select four additional works for serialization. To all the readers in the U.S. who voted, truly, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We sincerely look forward to these new talents born from Yanmaga US reaching readers around the globe.
There are no borders in storytelling. Following this immense response, we are already moving forward with preparations for the 2nd Yanmaga US project. We believe that no matter where you are in the world, the forms of conflict and hope are likely similar. And we trust that depicting these emotions directly gives manga its ‘power that transcends language.'”
The Young Magazine U.S. reader poll allowed manga fans to choose their favorites from among 16 eligible manga titles, and the five most supported works will be selected for serialization in Japan via Young Magazine and in the U.S. via the K MANGA app. Voting was conducted on the official website (one vote per day) and official X (formerly Twitter) account (likes and reposts count as votes) from August 21 to November 10.
The special edition of Young Magazine contains over 1,044 pages of content, and the physical copy was being distributed for free to Anime NYC 2025 attendees at the Kinobuniya booth. Fans can read the issue digitally on Omoi.
Final Weapon interviewed Young Magazine USA editor-in-chief Hidemi Shiraki about the release of the new Young Magazine special edition issue. Shiraki also discussed the creation of the magazine issue ahead of its release at Anime NYC 2025.
