Bandai and More Launch Toon Gate Manga Reality Show

Shogakukan, Bandai, and Bandai Spirits are launching a reality show for different manga creators titled Toon Gate. The show will premiere on June 28th, JST. The setup for the show features ten groups of challengers, all competing for the chance to create a full-color, vertical scrolling manga. Once a winner is chosen, they will be included in LINE Manga’s catalog.

The staff for Toon Gate had received over 500 applications for the show and chose 10 groups of people from various age groups. Recruited challengers will then team up with professional production teams for the chance to win the Grand Prix. Winners of the show will get 3 million yen (about $22,000 USD) and the chance to publish a serialized manga on the LINE manga app.

“Toon Gate”: Diverse Teams for A Diverse Medium

At the time of this writing, it is unknown which manga teams will be working with the artists. Hopefully, all will be revealed when the series actually starts and finds its footing on Youtube. As of now, the age ranges for challengers include those in elementary, middle, high school, and beyond. However, for the students participating, they must prove that they can compete and keep up with their school work as well. In regards to the diverse cast of challengers, Bandai director Ken Togashi had this to say:

The attributes of the applicants were completely different from what LINE Manga caught up, and they were rich with individuality. I applied because it was a reality show. I thought that the attributes of people should be taken into consideration, but as a result, I decided on 10 groups based on the work alone. I’m glad that people who happened to be super-unique gathered.

Shogakukan, Bandai, and Bandai Spirits chose LINE manga with the hopes that the given webtoons will build more connections to readers. They are looking for this as opposed to a trend of creating a manga that becomes an anime and then sells toys. They also chose vertical scrolling manga as opposed to traditionally styled manga because this style requires an entire team (instead of one person). In other technical aspects, the comedy duo new york will be the program’s host.

The Toon Gate manga series will be available on Youtube on June 28th, at 8:00 p.m. JST. Toon Gate will be available on their official Youtube channel.