Skip to content 
Kadokawa Corporation launched the Kadokawa World Manga Contest, a new global manga competition with a maximum prize of USD 10,000. The contest is open to anyone and anywhere in the world.
The entries for the contest will be accepted from Friday, November 28, 2025, to Tuesday, March 31, 2026, with award winners scheduled to be announced around May 2026. The publishing giant aims to embrace their guiding principle of “Global Media Mix with Technology” to focus on discovering talent worldwide.
Furthermore, they plan on delivering the intellectual properties created by this contest to a global audience through various technological means such as digital platforms and online content distribution. As part of this approach, in 2024 the company held its first-ever “Wordless World Manga Contest,” where creators were challenged to convey stories purely through visuals, enabling their works to communicate across languages.
The wordless contest drew 1,126 submissions from 104 countries and regions, far exceeding expectations. Based on this response, Kadokawa is scaling up the contest as the Kadokawa World Manga Contest. However, this time it is open to works that include dialogue.
The contest website will be available in five languages – Japanese, English, Spanish, French, and Traditional Chinese, enabling even broader participation from creators around the world. The contest is accepting submissions in two categories: the “Manga With Dialogue” category and the “Wordless Manga” category. The contest is open to individuals, teams, or organisations worldwide and welcomes submissions from creators of any age or experience level.
The submissions will be evaluated by editors selected from Kadokawa’s editorial departments and the contest secretariat.
Prizes for winners include:
- Gold Prize: 10,000 USD
- Silver Prize: 5,000 USD
- Bronze Prize: 3,000 USD
In addition to cash awards, Kadokawa’s comic editorial team will provide hands-on support to help winners prepare their works for commercial publication in Japanese magazines and online platforms.
The support includes remote meetings and email consultations with editors to help creators develop their works toward potential serialisation. Other benefits for winners include invitations to the contest awards ceremony, editorial department tours, and publication on Kadokawa’s manga portal site Kadacomi.
This contest aims to provide aspiring manga creators worldwide with guidance and support toward developing their works for potential publication with a Japanese publisher. The contest also introduces Honourable Mentions (300 USD), recognising outstanding entries that did not receive a main prize. However, they will not receive additional support from the Kadokawa team.
To further support overseas creators, Kadokawa has established a new Overseas Manga Editorial Section this year.
This department is dedicated to nurturing contest winners and providing specialised assistance for global development and distribution of their works, ensuring ongoing support for their creative activities.
Noboru Segawa, Head of the World Manga Editorial Section, mentioned that, “In the previous Worldless World Manga Contest, we received more than three times the number of submissions we had anticipated. We were truly amazed by the sheer number of talented manga creators from around the world. With the new Kadokawa Manga Contest, we aim to meet even more unique creators and discover outstanding works, hosting the contest on a larger scale. At the same time, we have strengthened our operational structure by establishing the World Manga Editorial Section to provide ongoing editorial support to winners through their potential debut in Japan. Looking ahead, we hope not only to help creators debut in Japan but also to expand opportunities for their works to be read around the world by strengthening collaboration with our overseas group offices. We truly look forward to meeting manga lovers and creators from across the globe and sharing in the joy of creative storytelling.“
The submission period for the contest begins on November 28, 2025 (Friday) and will continue to March 31, 2026 (Tuesday). Creators can apply for the contest via the contest’s official website submission form. The results of the contest are scheduled to be announced in May 2026.
The official links for the contest are:
- Japanese: https://kadokawaworldmanga.com/jp/
- English: https://kadokawaworldmanga.com
- Spanish: https://kadokawaworldmanga.com/es/
- French: https://kadokawaworldmanga.com/fr/
- Traditional Chinese: https://kadokawaworldmanga.com/tw/
Whereas the official Instagram account is @kd.worldmanga.official and the link for the same: https://www.instagram.com/kd.worldmanga.official/
Source: Press Release
