KADOKAWA Corporation has officially opened submissions for the second KADOKAWA World Manga Contest, giving aspiring manga creators worldwide another opportunity to break into Japan’s professional publishing industry. Entries opened on September 7, 2026, and will remain accepted until February 28, 2027, with winners expected to be announced around May 2027.
The international competition returns after its first edition attracted 1,959 submissions from 118 countries and regions, demonstrating considerable interest from manga creators outside Japan. Participants can once again compete through either a dialogue-based manga category or a wordless format designed to remove language barriers.
Beyond cash prizes reaching $10,000, KADOKAWA is positioning the competition as a potential route into professional publishing. Selected winners will receive editorial guidance toward a possible serialized debut and may be invited to attend the contest’s awards ceremony in Japan.
The approach has already produced a commercial serialization. Indian creator masterlynx developed an earlier contest-winning work with KADOKAWA editorial support, eventually resulting in KUNG FU KUNG FOOL beginning serialization on Kadocomi in May 2026.
KADOKAWA World Manga Contest 2026 Categories, Prizes and Eligibility
The Manga With Dialogue Category accepts works written in Japanese, English, Spanish, French or Traditional Chinese. The Wordless Manga Category, meanwhile, requires creators to communicate their stories without dialogue or text, meaning submissions can come from artists regardless of their language.
Eligibility is similarly broad. Individuals, creative teams and companies can participate regardless of nationality, age or previous professional experience. Entrants younger than 18 must receive permission from a parent or legal guardian, while additional submission requirements are available through the official KADOKAWA World Manga Contest website.
KADOKAWA will award $10,000 to Gold Prize winners, $5,000 for Silver Prize recipients and $3,000 for Bronze Prize winners. Honorable Mentions will receive $300. Entries will be evaluated by KADOKAWA editors alongside members of the competition’s organizing team.
Winning can also provide opportunities extending beyond the monetary awards. Eligible winners may be invited to Japan for the awards ceremony and assigned a KADOKAWA editor who will help develop their work with the goal of achieving manga serialization.
KADOKAWA Wants to Give International Manga Creators a Route Into Japan
The initiative forms part of KADOKAWA Corporation’s wider strategy of finding creators internationally and developing intellectual property for global audiences. Its international competition originated as the Wordless World Manga Contest in 2024 before expanding into the KADOKAWA World Manga Contest in 2025.
Noboru Segawa, Chief Editor of KADOKAWA’s World Manga Editorial Section, said the publisher has encountered creators outside Japan who want to become professional manga artists but have few opportunities to commercially publish their work.
“To build the world’s biggest bridge between manga creators and readers around the world, we look forward to meeting even more talented creators in the second contest,”
Segawa said in KADOKAWA’s announcement.
The company’s previous efforts provide a concrete example of what that support can produce. India-based creator masterlynx, who received a Silver Prize in the earlier Wordless World Manga Contest, subsequently worked with a KADOKAWA editor to develop the winning project further. That collaboration became KUNG FU KUNG FOOL, which launched as a serialized manga on KADOKAWA’s Kadocomi platform in May 2026.
KADOKAWA says editorial teams are similarly supporting winners from the first KADOKAWA World Manga Contest as they work toward potential serialized debuts.
Creators interested in the second competition have until February 28, 2027 to submit their manga through the contest’s official application form.
