Coamix

• 1. Introduction

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  Coamix is a Japanese manga and anime production company whose founding story reads like a creative reunion. On the 4th of June 2000, a small but notable group gathered to build something new: a former editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump named Nobuhiko Horie, two celebrated manga artists in Tsukasa Hojo and Tetsuo Hara, fellow artist Ryuji Tsugihara, and voice actor Akira Kamiya. Their headquarters took root in Kichijoji, a neighborhood in Musashino, Tokyo. What drew these figures together? What kind of company would they build, and how would it grow from a single anthology magazine into a publisher with global ambitions, a Kyoto restaurant, and a worldwide competition for wordless comics?

• 2. Weekly Comic Bunch

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  Coamix launched its flagship publication, the manga anthology Weekly Comic Bunch, in 2001. Throughout that decade the company published collected editions of its titles under the Bunch Comics imprint. These books gave readers a way to own the stories serialized in the weekly magazine. The partnership with Shinchosha underpinned this era, providing the distribution and publishing infrastructure Coamix needed while it built its roster of titles. When that relationship ended in 2010, so did Weekly Comic Bunch itself, closing a chapter that had defined the company's first decade.

• 3. A New Monthly Chapter

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  Monthly Comic Zenon arrived in 2010 as the direct successor to Bunch. Where Bunch had run on a weekly schedule, Zenon adopted a monthly rhythm. Coamix took on responsibility for Zenon directly, and the magazine continues to run under that arrangement today. The shift from weekly to monthly publication was not merely a change in frequency. It marked a turning point in how Coamix structured its partnerships. After Bunch ended, the company moved into an arrangement with Tokuma Shoten, which lasted until 2020, when Coamix began self-publishing its output entirely on its own terms.

• 4. Raijin Comics and North America

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  Coamix's international ambitions found expression through Gutsoon! Entertainment, a North American manga publisher that Coamix owned as a parent company. Gutsoon! published Raijin Comics for readers in North America, bringing Japanese manga to an English-speaking audience. Coamix simultaneously ran a Japanese-language edition of Raijin Comics back home in Japan, giving the title a dual life in two markets. Gutsoon! Entertainment has since ceased operations, but it stands as evidence that Coamix looked beyond Japan's borders during its formative years.

• 5. Beyond Publishing

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  Kichijoji is home to more than Coamix's editorial offices. The company operates a cafe and dining facility at its headquarters there, weaving hospitality into its business alongside comic production. Further west, in the historical city of Kyoto, Coamix runs a theme restaurant called Shincho-sa-ryo. The restaurant is devoted to Oda Nobunaga, the historical samurai figure who loomed large over Japanese history. The name Shincho-sa-ryo is rendered in Japanese characters on site, signaling that this is not a casual pop-up but a considered cultural project tied to a specific historical legacy.

• 6. Silent Manga Audition

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  Since 2012, Coamix has organized the Silent Manga Audition, an open competition for comics drawn without any spoken dialogue. The premise is deliberate. Coamix's organizers argue that relying on images alone to carry a story is both a rigorous test and a genuine training ground for manga artists. Competitors must communicate character, emotion, and plot using only visual storytelling. Winners of the competition have made commercial debuts in Japanese comic magazines, and some have gone on to develop prospects for full ongoing series. As of January 2016, the event was in its fifth round, suggesting a competition that had become a regular fixture in the manga calendar.