00:00On December 17th, 2025, NTT Solmare published the annual rankings for its Comic Kumoe store.
00:09The most striking result was that the isekai genre was the most read by both men and women.
00:14In the boys' manga category, solo leveling took first place. This manhwa tells the story of a
00:21weak hunter who, after a mysterious incident, gains the power to level up and face increasingly
00:27stronger monsters. Among the most read-light novels was The Apothecary Diaries, which follows a young
00:34slave girl who is an expert in herbs at the Chinese imperial court. Isekai not only leads in digital
00:42sales, traditional shounen such as One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen still dominate physical sales,
00:49showing the contrast between online and bookstore consumption. On December 17th, 2025, the case of
00:57a student in Indonesia who attended his graduation ceremony with a cardboard cutout of his waifu,
01:03March 7th from Hongkai Star Rail went viral. Hongkai
01:08Star Rail is an RPG game by Mahoyo set in a science fiction universe where players travel on a space
01:16train. March 7th is a popular character in the game, a pink AI companion, and the young man decided to
01:24share his achievements with her. The news caused a sensation on social media, showing how fans of
01:30anime and gacha games can be very creative in expressing their affection for their favorite
01:36characters. On December 19th, 2025, Japanese digital sales platform DL Site, which offers manga, games,
01:45and Dugenshi, including adult content, announced its own official credit card, Vivian JCB, in collaboration
01:53with JCB. This comes after problems in April 2024, when Visa and MasterCard suspended payments on DL Site due to
02:03its controversial content. With the new card, users will be able to shop on DL Site with peace of mind. The Vivian
02:11JCB card will offer a 4% rebate on purchases made on DL Site between January and July 2026, as well as
02:21allowing the use of an alternative payment method following the suspension of international cards.
02:27In November 2025, DL Site launched Pomu, described as a Twitter-style social network for anime and manga
02:35fans. Introduced on November 7th with the slogan, A Friendly and Secret Place for Otakus, Pomu allows
02:42users to post illustrations, cosplay, and even adult material on their feed. A notable feature is the
02:49Toggle R18 button on the homepage, which allows users to quickly switch between SFW and NSFW content.
02:58In its first few weeks, Pomu was flooded with mature and risque illustrations, as many users took
03:05advantage of the expected lower level of censorship compared to Twitter. The creators of DL Site hope
03:12that Pomu will be a little corner free from the restrictions that other sites impose on otaku content.
03:18Blue Archive, a school-themed gacha mobile game, announced a campaign featuring popular streamers
03:25C-D-A-W-G-V-A, Gigguk, Ironmouse, and Zentreya. However, this news sparked a strong negative reaction
03:34from the fan community, who felt that these creators did not represent the game's usual
03:38audience. Within 24 hours, the developers cancelled the campaign and apologized, promising to listen more
03:45closely to the Sensei, as they call the players, in the future. VTuber Zentreya, who is a fan of the game,
03:53supported the decision. She wrote that she would prefer the campaign to feature someone
03:59who has played Blue Archive non-stop, and added that she herself will continue playing
04:05because she finds the game nostalgic and fun. An article recounted how the collector community
04:11came together to help E.E. Works, a talented Japanese sculptor of handmade figures. E.E. Works had
04:19posted a desperate message because he couldn't sell his hand-painted figure of Gentildana,
04:24a character from Uma Musume. Pretty Derby. After his story went viral, fans highlighted that his work
04:32was a true gem and literally sold out all available units in a matter of hours. Gentildana is a popular
04:40mare from the Uma Musume franchise, and fans celebrated by saving the artist, demonstrating the
04:46power of the anime community to support their favorite creators. Naver Webtoon announced that
04:51it would implement new guidelines to combat hate speech on its platform. This was in response to
04:57the scandal surrounding the amateur Webtoon, Otherworldly Pong Pong Man, which was accused
05:04of misogyny and had sparked massive boycotts in late 2024. The new rules took effect on June 30th.
05:12Naver now monitors all user content, including comments and profiles, and will penalize posts
05:18that promote discrimination based on race, gender, or other categories. The previous scandal
05:25even led to public demonstrations with funeral wreaths in front of Naver's offices in Seoul,
05:31pressuring the company to change its policies to regain the trust of creators and readers.
05:36In December 2025, controversy erupted in China over the organization of Comic Cup, Hangzhou,
05:44one of the largest comic book and fan events in the country. On December 19th, organizers announced
05:50that the end-of-year event, December 27th to 28th, would take on a new Chinese style and expressly ban
05:58Japanese anime, manga, and cosplay. The sudden change, motivated by cultural considerations,
06:05in the face of diplomatic tensions, caused dozens of exhibitors with Japanese content to cancel their
06:11participation. This is not an isolated measure. Even the anime film Demon Slayer Infinity Castle
06:18had to shorten its run in China despite being a box office success due to similar regulatory decisions.
06:26All of this has generated fears of losses in fan tourism and concern in the Chinese cosplay community.
06:35In this case, there's also an isolated measure of the
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