Kadokawa Forms Subsidiary to Run Its U.S. Manga Spot Stores
The subsidiary structure signals that Kadokawa treats its U.S. stores as a permanent business line rather than a temporary marketing experiment, with a leader who shaped manga retail at two major bookstore chains now building a chain that deliberately targets areas other manga sellers have ignored.
Reporting from 2 sources: Animenomics, Animehunch.
Kadokawa created a new subsidiary, Kadokawa Retail Ventures, to manage its growing chain of Manga Spot bookstores in the United States. The publisher has opened ten locations since its first store launched in May 2025, placing them in cities from New York and Chicago to smaller hubs like Grove City, Pennsylvania, and Ketchikan, Alaska. Kurt Hassler, who leads Yen Press and Kadokawa World Entertainment, will run the new retail unit. Hassler previously helped Borders and Waldenbooks build their manga sections. He told a podcast last year that the chain aims to go where there is less competition from existing comic shops and that shopping malls remain a viable location, pointing to the survival of specialty retailer Hot Topic. The move comes two and a half years after Kadokawa began its North American marketing push. The company sees direct retail as a way to get more face time with customers, a problem Hassler said most publishers share.
Kadokawa Retail Ventures is the formal name of the subsidiary, as reported by Animenomics. The unit sits under Kadokawa World Entertainment, the North American holding company Hassler has led since 2022.
Hassler described the thinking behind the chain on a podcast with comics industry consultant Atom Freeman. "We're investing a lot in it, but I think it's worth investing in because the biggest problem most publishers have is that we don't get enough face time with the customer," he said. On location strategy, he added, "if there's a comic shop nearby, I'm really not looking to compete with that. I want to go where there's less competition."
The first Manga Spot opened in May 2025 in a shopping mall in Saugus, Massachusetts, a suburb north of Boston. Hassler pointed to specialty retailer Hot Topic as proof that mall-based stores aimed at the same demographic can work. "If a Hot Topic can survive, why can a Manga Spot not?" he asked.
Animenomics notes that U.S. manga publishers depend heavily on brick-and-mortar retail to turn curious shoppers into buyers. The subsidiary structure arrives roughly one year after the chain doubled from five to ten locations.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.