At its Anime Boston industry panel on May 28, Azuki revealed that they have licensed the slice-of-life dramedy manga Hikaru in the Light!. This will be the manga streaming service’s first English license from Japan for its subscription-based website and apps.
The first chapter of Hikaru in the Light! will be available on June 13, 2022, after which new chapters will be added weekly up to the current chapter of Japanese serialization. A free preview of the series’ “Chapter 0” is now available on Azuki’s official website.
🔊 New License Announcement 🔊
— Azuki: Your Digital Manga Cafe (@ReadAzuki) May 28, 2022
We are licensing and translating our own manga, and our first series is Hikaru in the Light! 🎶
Our team has been hard at work on this thrilling new idol series and we can’t wait to share it with you!
📆Launching June 13, 2022 pic.twitter.com/FG8QE81ERK
The manga series is created by Mai Matsuda and was first serialized in Futabasha’s Manga Action magazine in 2021. Two tankoubon volumes of the series have been published in total so far, with the third volume set for release on June 28, 2022.
Dan Luffey will be translating the manga into English and Barri Shrager will be handling the lettering. Arbash Mughal is designing the manga’s cover and Dogshitjay is in charge of quality assurance.
Azuki was first launched in June 2021 on iOS, Android, and web browsers worldwide, except in Japan. It is described as a modern digital manga streaming service that “puts Japanese manga at your fingertips.” The service was founded by former Crunchyroll software developers who wanted to give manga readers an easy way to access chapters easily and legally, across all their digital devices.
The service primarily offers simulpub manga chapters from Kodansha USA, as well as an extensive catalog of manga titles from smaller publications. Free readers are able to read select chapters from series with advertisements. The premium subscription, priced at US$4.99, lets readers read manga without any ads.
Azuki describes the story of Hikaru in the Light! as:
“In order to get up on stage, you need to be special.”
Hikaru Ogino spends her days singing oldies in her family’s bath house, but when her best friend Ran — a former idol — invites her to try out for an “idol survival camp” together, it’ll put her talents to the test. Can Hikaru outshine the competition and make her stage debut, or will she fall flat? Witness the birth of a new star in this exciting story about chasing your dreams!
Source: Azuki Official Twitter
