is a Japanese monthly manga anthology published by Kodansha. The first issue was published in December 1986, with new issues released on the 25th of each month. Monthly Afternoon has spawned many successful manga series that span a variety of different genres, such as Oh My Goddess!, Blade of the Immortal, Genshiken, and Big Windup!. Chapters of each manga series in the magazine are compiled and released as volumes under its "Afternoon KC" imprint. A spin-off magazine, named good! Afternoon, started publishing in November 2008.

History The magazine was founded as a sister magazine to Morning by the same publisher, Kodansha. It originated as a special issue to the magazine, titled Its first issue was released on December 25, 1986, with the cover date of February 1987. Its purpose was as a complementary magazine, acting as an "experimental zone" for new artists to develop unique art styles in manga. Vice editor of Morning, Yasumitsu Tsutsumi, described the differences between the two magazines in 1994: "Morning uses manga to express ideas and write stories. Afternoon, of course, is similar, but it is also about manga itself, and experimenting and developing forms of expression in manga."

Initially, both Afternoon and Morning shared the same editorial department. Its first editor-in-chief was also the editor-in-chief of Morning at the time, Yoshiyuki Kurihara. According to Frederik L. Schodt, stories that the editors of Morning liked but felt did not fit the magazine would often land in Afternoon. Afternoon has since maintained its own separate editorial department.

Under the magazine's approach of eschewing an editorial policy in favor of publishing what is experimental and "interesting", Afternoon eventually gained a reputation for its sheer quantity of both its titles and pages, alongside its diverse selection of manga. From 1992 to 1997, an average issue would contain over 1,000 pages. Adding to its diversity was the novel approach of inviting foreign artists and writers to create manga in Afternoon, much like in Morning.

Many of the artists working for the magazine used to publish amateur and were influenced by amateur manga. Sharon Kinsella claims that around half of all series featured in Afternoon between 1994 and 1997 were inspired by aesthetics. She lists Discommunication, Gunsmith Cats, Assembler 0X, Seraphic Feather, Aqua and Oh My Goddess! as examples.

A sister magazine, titled was originally published in eight issues between 1987 and 1988, shortly after Afternoon launch. After over a decade, it was revived and began publishing on a quarterly basis, from October 1999 to October 2002. After 14 issues, the magazine was discontinued; some of its series, like Mushishi and Mokke, were transferred to Afternoon. Another sister magazine, good! Afternoon, began publishing on November 7, 2008.

Between 2006 and 2009, Afternoon was part of Kodansha's "e-1day" series, a comprehensive website which also included Morning and Evening, its other sister magazine. A similar website, "Moae", was established in May 2013, featuring the aforementioned magazines and their spin-offs, Morning Two and good! Afternoon. It has since been discontinued. An online platform, titled , was launched in March 2018, featuring manga titles from various Kodansha magazines, including Afternoon. As of November 2013, new issues of Afternoon are distributed simultaneously in print and digitally.

In February 2024, the Afternoon editorial department, Skip and Loafer author Misaki Takamatsu, and the Skip and Loafer anime team donated 10 million yen to the Ishikawa Prefecture Relief Fund after the 2024 Noto Earthquake.

Newcomer award Since 1987, Monthly Afternoon has held the seasonal contest for potential newcomer manga artists. Contenders submit one-shot stories for the chance to win prize money and have their work published in Monthly Afternoon, good! Afternoon, or , out of five prize categories. A number of winning works have become serialized hits in Monthly Afternoon, such as Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Blame!, and Love Roma. In 2013, Kodansha published a selection of past winners in several volumes.

Circulation and demographic Like with most major manga magazines, Monthly Afternoons circulation has been steadily declining, from an estimated 200,000 in the 1990s, to 22,800 in 2025. Despite higher circulation figures in the past, they were still considered low by large publishers' standards; according to Sharon Kinsella, the magazine did not generate any revenue for Mornings editorial department between its launch in 1986 and 1994.

About two-thirds of Monthly Afternoon readers consist of corporate workers or civil servants. In 1994, the average age of Monthly Afternoon readers was 28 years and four months, younger than the average age of 30 years and two months for adult manga readers. That same year, magazine editor Haruo Ogawa guessed that up to a third of readers of the magazine could be called . In 2014, former editor-in-chief Tatsuya Shishikura estimated that most readers of Monthly Afternoon were in their mid-30s, further stating that while good! Afternoon is aimed at casual manga readers, Monthly Afternoon is aimed at "hardcore manga readers".

Features Series

There are currently 39 manga titles being serialized in Monthly Afternoon. Out of them, Big Windup!, Historié, Wandering Island and Yakuza Fiancé are on hiatus. Nella of the Horizon is serialized on an irregular schedule.

Series title Author Premiered Fiok Lee Hikari Matsuda Asa Higuchi Tsubasa Yamaguchi Rei Tasaki (story) and Nezu Usugumo (art) Shun Umezawa Yoshidamaru Bin Kusamizu (story) and Megumi Saburo (art) Satoshi Karasuya Akira Suga Daiki Yamazaki Yūichirō Momose (story) and Shiwasu Hoshikawa (art) Masakazu Ishiguro Ryōji Minagawa Shiho Takase Hitoshi Iwaaki Ryū Suenobu Satoshi Karasuya Izu (story), Hagane (art) and Masato Hara (translation) Kou Fumimura Tsurumaikada Ao Ameta Masaki Andō Masayuki Ishikawa Yuki Urushibara Omocat (story) and Nui Konoito (art) Gorō Taniguchi (original work) and Zelihan (art) Maki Marukido Masayuki Kitamichi Akino Miyabi Misaki Takamatsu Ai Tanaka Kōsuke Fujishima Shunji Enomoto Coffee Kenji Tsuruta Hiroaki Samura Shiho Kido Asuka Konishi

Circulation figures + Monthly circulation Year/Period January–March April–June July–September October–December Magazine sales () 1990s 200,000 2000 170,000 2001 160,000 2002 160,000 2003 140,000 2004 144,583 2005 133,834 2006 127,417 2007 119,666 2008 — 114,000 114,334 117,667 2008 circulation figures: 2009 112,667 106,334 105,000 105,000 2009 circulation figures: 2010 104,334 102,000 100,000 100,000 2010 circulation figures: 2011 98,000 95,000 91,667 91,667 2011 circulation figures: 2012 90,000 89,000 87,000 87,000 2012 circulation figures: 2013 87,000 85,000 85,000 87,000 2013 circulation figures: 2014 85,000 85,000 84,500 83,367 2014 circulation figures: 2015 75,607 75,310 74,444 74,110 2015 circulation figures: 2016 73,843 72,310 69,310 65,000 2016 circulation figures: 2017 65,000 65,000 63,000 63,000 2017 circulation figures: 2018 62,333 60,333 53,333 51,000 2018 circulation figures: 2019 49,000 44,167 42,700 41,500 2020 37,800 34,267 33,380 32,000 2021 30,467 30,200 29,333 28,333 2022 27,000 26,500 26,333 25,633 2023 24,733 26,633 27,700 25,200 2024 23,667 22,800 22,800 22,800 2025 22,800 22,800 22,800 22,800 1990s to 2025 27,652,845

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