Manga Artist Jobs — Draw for Japanese Publishers, From Anywhere
Mangatari is a manga production studio near Tokyo. We develop original series and place them with Japan’s major digital manga platforms — Comic Cmoa, Mecha Comic, Manga Kingdom, Manga Box and others. Our artists work from China, South Korea, Japan and elsewhere.
Everything is remote. No visa, no relocation, no Japanese fluency required.
Apply now See our published titles
Read this first
How our projects start: the brief comes first
Every series we produce begins from a brief set by the client — the platform, the target readership, the genre and the requirements are all agreed before an artist joins. Your work is to build the concept and the story on top of that brief.
We call this brief-first manga production. It also means that if you bring a project you have already developed from scratch, and it does not match the brief of any current opening, we will not be able to carry it through selection. We hope you will understand.
So the best first step is to read through the current openings and find the one whose brief fits what you want to draw. Each opening lists its platform, genre, target readership, publishing pace and rate — tell us which one you want when you apply.
The division-of-labor system
You don’t need to speak Japanese. Here’s how that works.
We produce manga through a division-of-labor system. Instead of one person doing everything, a series is split into three roles — and you can take just one.
| Role | What you do |
|---|---|
| Story & concept gensaku | Propose the concept, write the project proposal (we provide the template), write the script for each episode, build the character list, suggest titles |
| Storyboard nēmu | Set up the page files, draw the storyboard, type the dialogue into the balloons, hand the Clip Studio files over to the finishing artist |
| Finished art sakuga | Read the script and design the characters, build the internal character relationship chart, draw the cover line art, draw the finished pages, gather reference material |
Many of our Chinese and Korean artists work on finished art or storyboards only. That is how they built a career in Japanese manga without Japanese being their first language.
About the working language, honestly
We work in Japanese internally. In practice both sides use translation tools — you write in your own language, we read it translated; we reply in Japanese, you translate it back. It works, and it has worked for years with our overseas artists. You are never expected to write Japanese yourself.
And if you do read or speak some Japanese, we’re glad of it — it makes everything faster and opens up more of the projects on our list. It simply isn’t a requirement.
When you first contact us, sending both your original text and a machine-translated Japanese version speeds things up.
Proof, not theory
This is how it actually works: Karen
Karen: The Devil in a White Coat is currently serializing on Comic Cmoa.
- Story & storyboardsHinome Yaegashi — based in Japan
- Finished artJoufune — a two-person team from South Korea
The Korean team draws the series. The Japanese writer builds the story and the page layouts. Neither side needed to do the other’s job.
Hinome Yaegashi also writes the story and storyboards for Rental Murderers: Agents of Revenge, drawn by a different artist. This pairing isn’t a one-off — it’s how we normally work. Teams get their own credit, too: that one publishes as Dengashiya.
You bring one thing you’re excellent at, and we build the rest of the team around it.
Read Karen: The Devil in a White Coat on Comic Cmoa (Japanese) →
We also have an artist based in China with a series currently in preparation.
Published work
Titles we’ve produced
Series we produced in Japan. Three of them are also published in English on MangaPlaza (NTT Solmare).
Mystery / Suspense / Revenge
English · Japanese
Romance / Fantasy
English · Japanese
Drama / Josei
English · Japanese
Seinen / Suspense
Japanese
Our series run on Japanese platforms first. Strong titles are then licensed for English-language release. See all our serialized titles →
Rates
What the work pays
Rates are set per page and vary by project. Here is one current opening as a concrete example — an ongoing romance series for Comic Cmoa, one of Japan’s largest digital manga stores, commissioned by NTT Solmare.
| Role | Rate per page |
|---|---|
| Solo — all three roles | from ¥7,000 |
| Finished art only | from ¥6,000 |
| Storyboard only | from ¥2,000 |
| Story & concept only | from ¥1,000 |
All rates above are inclusive of Japanese consumption tax.
Format: 24–36 pages per episode, biweekly or monthly. Around 8 episodes to start, extended if the series performs.
At our minimum volume of 24 pages a month, finished art alone comes to ¥144,000 per month, and a solo artist to ¥168,000 per month. Rates go up from there depending on the project and your experience.
Payment starts when you deliver a manuscript that is ready for serialization. Please keep that in mind: the work before that point — the selection stage, where you propose the concept and design the characters — is unpaid, and the review can take up to about a month.
This is not a condition we apply only to artists abroad. It is the same for our Japanese artists — the selection stage is unpaid for everyone.
And please don’t push yourself too hard for this. If an unpaid selection stage doesn’t work for your situation, tell us. We would much rather hear that early than have you take on something unsustainable.
Every project sets its own rate. The full list of current openings — with the rate and conditions for each — is on our Japanese recruitment page. Use your browser’s translate function to read it; that page is where you’ll find the project that fits you.
Payment
How you get paid
- Wise transfer, worldwide.
- Rates are set in Japanese yen and converted at the exchange rate on the day of transfer.
- The transfer fee is deducted from your fee, so what arrives is the page rate minus the cost of sending it.
- Invoicing closes at the end of the month in which you deliver your finished pages. Payment then follows the client’s payment terms for that project — we tell you the exact date when your project starts.
Rights
Your rights
- You keep the copyright to your work.
- Mangatari handles its commercial management on your behalf — platform negotiation, publication, and follow-on licensing.
- Pen names are fine. Most of our artists use one.
- Once your series is running, you are free to show the freely-readable portion of it in your portfolio.
Requirements
What we’re looking for
- Black-and-white, horizontally-read manga (not vertical webtoon)
- Ability to produce at least 24 pages per month
- Clip Studio Paint proficiency
- Comfortable with Google Drive (file handoff), Slack (day-to-day) and Zoom (meetings)
- Comfortable using translation software
- Familiarity with Japanese fashion and everyday culture — or a real appetite to learn it
- Willingness to build your story on the client’s brief, rather than bringing a project developed from scratch
- Serialization experience is required on some projects and not on others; each posting says which
Not required
What you don’t need
- Japanese fluency — though it’s welcome if you have it
- A visa, or living in Japan — this is fully remote
- Taking on all three roles
※ We cannot sponsor a visa or act as a sponsoring employer. Once a project is confirmed we’re glad to discuss the contract paperwork on our side, but we can’t advise on immigration procedure or residency status — please consult a qualified professional in your own country.
Application
How to apply
- Pick the opening you want from our Japanese recruitment page, and note which one.
- Send your portfolio through the form below. A link is enough — Google Drive, Dropbox, Pixiv, X, Instagram, or your own site.
- We review it and reply — usually within 5 business days. If you haven’t heard from us after that, please do send your message again. We’d rather answer twice than miss you.
- Zoom call to talk through which project and which role fit you.
- Selection stage — you put together the concept proposal and the character designs for the project. This stage is unpaid, and the review can take up to about a month. Per-page rates start when you deliver a manuscript that is ready for serialization.
- Your project starts.
The company
About Mangatari
Mangatari Co., Ltd. — founded January 2020, based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. Around 20 staff. Clients include KADOKAWA, NTT Solmare, viviON and Amutas.