The Manga Works

Adventure

Ratings

Age

4+

Adventure

Languages

English

Latest Version 1.40

Tue Apr 09 2024

Fixed minor issues.

In The Manga Works, you step into the shoes of an aspiring manga creator. This management simulation by Kairosoft lets you customize your artist's life, from coming up with plot ideas to managing grueling deadlines. Hunt for inspiration, draw masterpieces, and work your way up from a small apartment to a professional studio. Will you create the next global phenomenon?

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

85/100

Kairosoft has done it again with The Manga Works. If you’ve played their other sims, you’ll feel right at home, but the theme here is particularly special. You start as a struggling artist in a tiny room with nothing but a pen and a dream. The progression from drawing one-shot chapters to getting a serialized anime adaptation is incredibly rewarding.

The game strikes a perfect balance between creative choices—like picking your genre and theme—and the cold, hard reality of the publishing industry (deadlines are no joke!). It’s charming, funny, and surprisingly educational about how the manga world works. Watching your 'Artist' grow their stats while managing their stamina is addictive. It's the perfect 'one more turn' game that fits beautifully into short mobile sessions.

Dinsun reviewed on: Thu Mar 21 2024

Features

Classic Kairosoft pixel art charm

Deep artist stat and skill progression

Realistic deadline and publishing mechanics

Unlockable studio upgrades and assistants

Multiple awards and rankings to conquer

Tips & Walkthrough

Finding Inspiration

Send your artist out on 'scouting' trips frequently. New locations unlock better themes and plot points, which are essential for creating 5-star manga chapters.

Gameplays

Chapter Creation

Mix and match genres and themes. Pairing 'Science Fiction' with 'Robots' might be a safe bet, but experimenting can lead to unexpected 'God-tier' combinations.

Screenshot

Q&A

Initially no, but as you grow your studio and hire assistants, you can manage more complex projects.

Ratings & Reviews

It's good, BUT...

Sun Sep 04 2016 MrCamachosan

It's a great game, like all Kairosoft games are. The only thing about this one is that it starts off at a great pace. After getting through a couple of your first manga's you'll get the hang of making a better one to rack in more money and better your time management. The only downside I would say is; after you get to your 3rd publisher it gets harder to get trophies (which allows you to obtain more manga publishers) after you get all the trophies for the 3rd publisher it is almost impossible to get trophies for the 4th publisher without grinding out some manga to level up your 4 main skills. This could take forever, especially since a level up on stats only gives you +2, and your goal is 200+ Other than this slow and dragged out part of the game it gets back up to speed and you'll be able to get your final 2 publishers. After getting the trophies from the final publisher then you can freely write manga to gain money and be #1 on the leaderboard. Great game over all, hoped this helped! :)

Very diverse and packed full of variety

Sun Mar 05 2017 AES_Bri

As someone who plays Kairosoft games when I'm exercising, I've spent a good amount of time in the game. Actually 16 years worth so I've seen most of what this game has to offer. I've played the girl's part and the original and will get around to the comedy one soon. Kairosoft gives you the choice of three paths which surprisingly do offer substantial variety from the other. It took 13 years in the girl's path for me to discover everything available in that path. My highest record of sold manga was 500 million. I've very proud of how much content Kairosoft continues to deliver in their tycoon games and their hidden jokes continue to crack me up!

Enjoyed it BUT

Thu Aug 29 2024 gucciiflip

Honestly, really like this game! It’s super entertaining, but always has me stressed out lol. The publishers ask for so much with so little time (which is super realistic) but with such a weak work lvl in the beginning it makes it increasingly difficult to make a good rep with them. But maybe idk what I’m doing. Otherwise this is a fantastic game.

LOVE KAIROSOFT

Wed Dec 14 2016 Islaaa

I have played nearly every game and this one was fantastic. I check every so often to see when new games are released and it's been awhile! Hoping someone at kairosoft might see this and realize you have fans who are excited for new releases! Or even translated games that haven't been released in English!

Iffy

Thu Oct 06 2016 Luludohthatiscool

I enjoyed how Kairosoft was innovative in making this game and tried to add many new aspects to it. However the game had too much micromanaging in it and the addition of stamina was quite annoying as it lead to the micromanaging. It is also extremely hard to build up skills with them going up usually 1 or 2. Another downside is the fact that getting the publishers beyond number 4 is nearly impossible. It took me a long time to get to that point.

Great Game!

Sun Nov 13 2016 Hectqrr

This game is really good! I am really addicted to it, If you're looking forward to buy this game, I totally recommended, At first it seems boring but then you'll love it, You guys had me impressed and I can't wait for a new game to come out from you guys!

Horrible text formatting errors

Thu Feb 15 2018 Youthless

Almost every time text comes up in the game, words are missing a space between them - sometimes it happens multiple times in one speech box. It makes the game almost completely unplayable. I went into it ready to overlook it happening a few times, but it just keeps coming up. I could maybe understand this appearing in a free app, but this is a $5 game from a dev with a decent track record.

One of the best Kairosoft games!

Tue Apr 25 2017 YourBuddyKevin

I started with Game Dev Story like you probably did, and I've played through almost every Kairosoft game like you might have. If you're a fan of Game Dev Story and/or Anime Studio Story you should scoop this one up for sure!