Afternoon » 441 issues

Proper Japanese Title: アフタヌーン

Afternoon began at the very end of 1986 (cover-dated 1987) as a sister magazine to Comic Morning (essentially replacing Morning Magnum Zokan), with Morning having recently become weekly and Afternoon being a monthly. From the beginning, a lot of the focus was on newer authors and the Afternoon Shiki award and the first series with a lasting-legacy on the magazine only began nearly two years into the magazine's run (Aa Megami-sama). Its author Kosuke Fujishima had already found success in Comic Morning Party Zōkan but after shifting over to Afternoon he has remained a consistent figure in it ever since, beginning a trend of creators who remain in the magazine for decades even if the works they are serializing end.

Another early hit came soon after with Kiseijū (whose author also transferred from a Morning special issue, Open) and through the 90's Afternoon built-up a significant group of creators that would go on to define the magazine and make the magazine one of the most influential non-shonen manga magazines for international audiences with many of its works being translated within years of original publication even in the 90's (a trend that has only grown over time). Other major works to begin serialization during the 90's included Mugen no Jūnin, Jiraishin, Blame!, Gun Smith Cats, Eden, Discommunication, Narutaru and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō.

However, the magazine notably prioritized quantity and while it had a consistent number of headliner manga, it also had dozens of serializations that would come and go without ever receiving much promotion. At its peak the magazine was over 1000 pages in length, making it the thickest manga magazine at the time.

Some of the main 90's serializations would remain strong through the 00's (like Mugen and Aa Megami) while other authors would end one successful serialization to begin another, including Bakuon Rettou, Historie and Sidonia no Kishi. New major serializations included Ookiku Furikabutte and Vinland Saga (a transfer from Weekly Shonen Magazine).

Afternoon had an ongoing but short-lived and obscure special issue very early in its run called Seasons but re-used this name for a new special issue a decade later (see: Afternoon: Seasons Zōkan). Although it only lasted fourteen issues, this special issue began the serialization of Mushishi which transferred to Afternoon after the special issue's end. A few years later Afternoon began a new special issue good! Afternoon which has remained ongoing ever since. good! was initially a bimonthly magazine but increased to a monthly after a few years. Since it is still officially counted as a special issue of Afternoon, it is an extremely rare instance of a parent magazine and its special issue having the same publishing rate long-term.

In the 10's, Afternoon was one of the early major manga magazines to fully embrace same-day digital publishing and with more simultaneous and widespread translations becoming a global trend, Afternoon has continued to produce new internationally popular works like Hōseki no Kuni, Tengoku-Daimakyo and Blue Period. The magazine's longest-running serializations from its early years (Mugen and Aa Megami) ended around the start of the digital era but both authors returned with new serializations and have remained consistent figures in the magazine, while a handful of works from the early 00's have remained the oldest ongoing works.