We caught up with Kadokawa Retail Ventures President Kurt Hassler to talk about Manga Spot, their new manga, graphic novel, and merch retail chain shooting for 1000 stores (see “Kadokawa Plans Rapid Expansion“) and talked about the concept for the chain, the customers, locations, product mix and more.
ICv2: Can you clarify your roles in the U.S. structure of Kadokawa?
Kurt Hassler: It’s actually just changed. I was the CEO and President of Kadokawa World Entertainment in addition to being the President of Yen Press, but we had a newly added organization strictly for retail. Given that I was the one spearheading the Manga Spot experiment, now expansion, this new organization, which is Kadokawa Retail Ventures, was created. I’ve given up Kadokawa World Entertainment. Now I am the President of Kadokawa Retail Ventures in addition to remaining the President of Yen Press.
What was missing in the U.S. retail picture that created the need for Manga Spot?
Basically, you’re talking about a retail structure where bookstores have been closing rapidly for the last 20 years. It’s simply hoping to expand the number of physical touch points where customers can interact with the product.
One of the big things that we saw during the peak of the pandemic sales was we were reaching a lot of customers through mass merchants like Target and Walmart who don’t normally play very big in this space but they are definitely getting into communities that may not have a standard bookstore or local comic shop, to areas where opportunities to touch the project were not presenting themselves.
Borders and Waldenbooks used to be the leader in the category that was, at the time, between the two, probably 1,000 to 1,200 stores that are no longer in the market, with the exception of a handful that were taken over by Books-A-Million.
Rcognizing that there is a lot of enthusiasm for the product but knowing that people may not have local outlets for it, we felt like there was an opportunity for expanding that portion of the market. That’s what we’ve been trying to accomplish with Manga Spot.
Are you trying to open in places that were not well served by bookstores?
Ideally, although we do certainly have locations in some major outlets. Just by way of one example, we have a store in Ketchikan, Alaska. I can tell you that, on that small island, there’s not a lot of competitors. [laughs]
Yes, we are definitely looking at markets where we feel like there’s an opportunity to put things in front of people where they may not have great representation within a radius of X number of miles.
One of the great things about the Walden’s chain, which you’re familiar with, was they had mall stores, which was where young people were shopping.
And increasingly are again.
Now both the mall scene and what that demographic does has changed. Is that what you’re trying to replicate? What kind of venues are you looking for?
Most of our stores are in malls. They’re finding new purpose, particularly with younger shoppers. Especially after the pandemic, people are valuing an opportunity to get out to visit physical spaces. Malls are coming back in a resurgence.
Yes, that’s where most of our locations are. That’s not to say that’s where every location is or where we want it to be, but certainly, there’s a lot of opportunity there. We are exploring it.
Who’s the Manga Spot consumer?
It’s basically the same consumer you would have found in a Waldenbooks back in the day. Depending on the location, it’s a lot of teens, a lot of 20-somethings, increasingly 30-somethings. The category has grown and expanded over time. Depending on where the venue is, the demographic changes a bit, but in most locations, you’re largely talking about teens and 20-somethings.
How is that different from the people that shop at a Barnes & Noble, a Walmart, a comic store, or is it different?
All of the things you just mentioned are different. Comic book shops, historically, have not thrived with manga. Certainly, there are some locations that do incredibly well with it. They’re improving and increasing.
Back in the day, it used to be the push and pull between the big box bookstores staking their claim on manga early and comic shops struggling to replicate some of that, maybe demographically not appealing to the younger and particularly more female audiences.
Barnes & Noble certainly connects more directly with that because Barnes & Noble was one of the big box retailers that staked their claim in manga early. They continue to hold it. You get a lot of the same teen, 20-something shoppers there.
As far as Walmart goes, they have a very limited footprint with manga. They tend to be in and out opportunistically, depending on the time. In the pandemic, we saw a lot of activity around a small number of titles with them, but in terms of depth of selection, they can’t really compete or choose not to compete with more of the bookstore-oriented venues.
We’re not trying to replicate any one of these. We’re trying to build something new and dedicated to manga. Hence the name, Manga Spot. That really is the destination. We’re doing a lot of merch, but it is first and foremost a bookstore.
We visited your store in Chicago (see “Explore the Store: Manga Spot”) and looked at the displays and had a couple of questions based on what we saw there. One thing that was interesting was that you had dedicated displays to some manga-adjacent categories, like webtoons and manhwa. What are your thoughts in terms of the range of book products beyond manga that you’ll be carrying? Light novels, for example.
We absolutely do light novels. If you visited the Chicago store, I can tell you that was our third store and is operating on a smaller footprint than a lot of the other stores now. In fact, the Chicago store will be relocating two doors down from its current location, to a much larger space.
A lot of the time we spent over the last two years while we were experimenting was playing with the footprint, trying to find out what the appropriate square footage was. We’ve come to determine that what we were working on early just wasn’t aggressive enough.
As far as the adjacent categories, in the same way that Yen Press has always been dedicated to manhwa, we think that the customer appeal is much the same. There’s certainly quite a bit of overlap.
Even if you’re talking about customers who are only interested in webtoon or manhwa, we want to appeal to them. There’s no reason to exclude them from the product mix. We’re absolutely doing that. You will see other products. Certainly, light novels are a part of it.
We will do some American comics. We don’t expect that it’s going to take up half the store, but we want to appeal to a broad range of consumer interests that may not be limited to just one area of the business.
What kind of American comics?
Pretty much your bestsellers. We do very well with things like Invincible. Especially since the animation came out, that’s been popping. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been doing very well. Now they’ve got the Turtles and Naruto crossover. I can safely say that that’s represented in the store.
We’re carrying some of the DC stuff. They have their smaller line that we’re representing. Some of the Absolute books are doing very well. It’s not really that we’re limiting it to any one product. It’s more just keeping it very top-of-mind interest, very broad audience interest, not deep dives.
You’re probably not going to find a deep Aquaman book on the shelf somewhere, but if you’re looking for something that is in the cultural mindset, you’d probably find it in the stores these days.
There was a big LGBT display. Was that for Pride, or is that permanent?
No, that’s pretty much permanent, you’d find it in most of the stores. We do very well with Boys’ Love, Girls’ Love. The stores are very dedicated to supporting that. It’s a pretty permanent fixture.
On the merch side, that was interesting because it’s so different from the other mall stores that carry anime and manga merch. What’s your merch strategy?
It’s really, “What do we think will connect to our audience and our consumers?” [Barnes &Noble veteran] Jim Killen is the buyer for the stores. He’s overseeing the merch selection. When the product is coming out, he is just looking at what’s selling, what are the properties that are connecting well to the audience.
He’ll pursue that in a wide range of different formats. They’ll do blind boxes, blind bags, statues, Funko, whatever it is that is touching the properties that our customers seem to be excited about.
We were thinking of stores like BoxLunch and Hot Topic, which have tons of apparel and backpacks, that kind of stuff, and we weren’t seeing much overlap with that kind of merchandise. Is that a conscious strategy to be different from what they’re carrying, or what’s your thought there?
We do some apparel. It’s mostly been things that, frankly, Manga Spot has licensed and created. We will do more of that, but we’re not actively looking to compete with anyone in the market.
That’s not to say we won’t pursue certain lines of product, but at the same time, we’re conscious about what our place is. We want to fit nicely into the mall storefronts that may have a BoxLunch. We’re not looking to go in there and try to compete with them on the footprint that they hold.
Two things we didn’t see in your mix were any physical media (Gen Z is starting to buy Blu-ray discs now because they’re afraid of losing stuff streaming) and more tabletop games. Obviously, anime TCGs are just insane right now. What are your thoughts about those categories as fits for Manga Spot?
There’s things we could be interested in. It may just be that we haven’t identified the best vendor or supplier for that product line just yet. Beyond tabletop games, the cards are quite difficult to get into, given the high demand right now. Most distributors aren’t even taking new accounts.
It may be more time before you’re seeing things like Pokémon cards in the stores, but certainly, we’re in tune with the product and just looking at the right opportunity to get it onto shelves.
What is the size you’re shooting for now? How big are the stores you’re opening now?
It’s really space available, but somewhere in the 2,200 to 2,400 to 3,000 square footage seems to be our sweet spot, based on what we’re seeing.
Can you speak at all to Kadokawa’s overall retail strategy? In Japan they have tabletop game stores. You’re opening manga stores here. Is there a comprehensive strategy, or is it just market by market?
Pretty much every market they’re operating in is experimenting to one degree or another with retail, both in Japan and Southeast Asia. I know that there are some other experiments being kicked off and working to greater or lesser degree, but not everything is in complete alignment in the approach.
For example, say in some of the Chinese market, there may be stores, but they’re less book-oriented and more merch-oriented. That’s more about the economic situation and governmental situation on the ground there. Certainly, Kadokawa is very keenly aware of how vital retail is becoming. Where there is an opportunity, they’re keen to explore it.
What about online retail? Are you doing that now, or are there plans to?
Certainly there are plans to do something online in the future, but right now, we’ve been paying more attention to the physical growth. That’s something that will come naturally, particularly as we build out locations.
We might dig more into it, say in 2027, 2028. If I had to guess, we’d probably be looking more at 2028. Right now, it’s the physical component of the stores that we’re more interested in.
What’s the pace of openings? How many stores have you or are you opening this year?
By the end of the year, we aim to have 14, so that’s about 4 this year. We had about six last year. I believe we’re aiming for another four next year. That feels like an appropriate pace for where we are.
Is there an upper target you’re headed toward?
I would love to see a thousand Waldenbooks replicators out there… [laughs]
For Hassler on Yen Press, the top titles and top prospects, see “Interview: Hassler – Yen”).
For more ICv2 Manga Week – Fall 2026 coverage, click here.
Source: ICv2
