If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Is Viz Media raising prices on its manga volumes?

According to reports, Viz is upping the price of a manga volume by two dollars at the start of 2024

My Hero Academia
Image credit: VIZ Media

Next year marks the end of an era, with ICv2 reporting that, as of January 2024, VIZ Media will raise the price of its manga titles from $9.99 to $11.99.

The price rise — as yet unconfirmed by VIZ itself — was made public thanks to listings for future releases on Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s websites, and appears to show that Viz is raising the price of a single manga volume from $9.99 to $11.99. (Notably, Liz’s own website doesn’t appear to include pre-orders for anything beyond the end of 2023 at present.)

ICv2 wasn’t the first to notice the increase; Reddit users seemingly noticed the trend in May, to much upset. “You've got to be kidding me that we're going to be buying cheap paper and horribly misprinted books for 20% more the price than before,” complained one fan. “I hope the quality control also improves,” added another.

Should the increase take place, it’ll be the first time Viz has raised its prices in 15 years. As ICv2 notes, the new $11.99 price would still be lower than comparable released from Kodansha, Yen Press, and Seven Seas Entertainment, which charge $12.99, $13.00, and $12.99 through $14.99, respectively. In that same period, the average price of a U.S. monthly comic book has gone from $2.99 to anywhere between $3.99 and $4.99.


In case this makes manga fans want to quit collecting the volumes, Viz has a new manga app for fans to keep up to date with the latest releases, with 15 titles published simultaneously in English and Japanese.

Graeme McMillan

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

Comments

Want to join the discussion? Please activate your account first.
Visit Reedpop ID if you need to resend the confirmation email.

View Comments (0)

Find out how we conduct our review by reading our review policy