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Magazine / Manga Time Kirara

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/manga_time_kirara_compile_1a_6136.jpg
Kirara Family of Magazines
Top (Left to Right): Kirara (featuring Yuyushiki), Kirara Max (featuring Kiniro Mosaic and Is the Order a Rabbit?), Kirara Carat (featuring A Channel). Bottom (Left to Right): Kirara Forward (featuring Dream Eater Merry and Hanayamata), Kirara Miracle! (featuring Sakura Trick), Kirara Magica (everything Madoka Magica).

Manga Time Kirara is a family of seinen manga magazines published by Houbunsha. Originally launched in 2002 as an offshoot of the Gag Series magazine Manga Time, it was created to capitalize on the burgeoning moe trend that began at the tail end of the 20th century. Due to the brand's success, it expanded to include six magazines in total published under the Kirara name. Although there is wide variety in the types of manga they publish, they are all united by their moe art style. The assocation between moe and Kirara is so strong that moe Slice of Life series are sometimes referred to as "Kirara-esque" even if they're not actually published in Kirara.

The Manga Time Kirara Family encompasses:

  • Manga Time Kirara: The flagship magazine, launched on May 17th, 2002. Intended to appeal to a younger market raised on anime, it recruited artists from the Doujinshi scene who didn't have much professional experience. Initially, it had an eclectic mix of stories (including male supporting characters, something which would become anathema to the main Kirara magazine), but by the 2010s its scope had narrowed to the point it mainly focused on Slice of Life Schoolgirl Series to capitalize on the "moe boom".
  • Manga Time Kirara Carat: The Distaff Counterpart magazine, launched in January 2003. Originally created to cater to the female market with moe about male characters, it nonetheless ended up publishing largely the same kind of content as Kirara proper. It does have a slightly higher-than-average female readership, and therefore a slightly more female-friendly vibe.
  • Manga Time Kirara MAX: The "Kirara to the max" magazine, launched in May 2004. MAX is largely similar to Kirara and Carat, and can best be summarized as "more of the same", offering a platform for Houbunsha to provide more yonkoma for the masses.
  • Manga Time Kirara Forward: The "story manga" magazine, launched on March 23rd, 2006. Uniquely among the Kirara family, Forward publishes "story manga" (the Japanese term for the standardized manga style, with irregularly-sized panels) rather then yonkoma. Coupled with its different editorial standards, this allows Forward authors a much freer hand to tell stories that, while keeping the moe aesthetic, otherwise shatter the typical Kirara mold, including angsty dramas, fanservice-y sports series, outright horror, shonen-style supernatural action series, and stories with male characters.
  • Manga Time Kirara Miracle: The diverse magazine, launched on March 16th, 2011. Advertised as allowing for "diverse worldviews and original heroines that no one would have thought of", it functioned like a Forward-lite, keeping the off-beat premises but sticking closer to the traditional Kirara aesthetic. Unfortunately, that proved to be its undoing, as Houbunsha decided they didn't need it after all and cancelled it in 2017, while shuffling its most popular ongoing series to the other magazines in the family.
  • Manga Time Kirara Magica: The Madoka Magica magazine, launched on June 8th, 2012. An irregularly-published magazine decided solely to the franchise Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which either is or isn't a Kirara series (due to some overlap in the production staff and its deliberate aping of the Kirara aesthetic), depending on who you ask.
  • COMIC FUZ: The online-only magazine, launched on March 29th, 2019. COMIC FUZ is Houbunsha's digital manga reading service. Although it isn't technically under the Kirara brand, several Manga Time Kirara series have been cycled out of the magazines and moved to digital distribution, and it also publishes digital-first manga by Kirara veterans such as Shotaro Tokuno.

The Kirara family of magazines have also become somewhat infamous for carrying works with high levels of Homoerotic Subtext, or in some cases out-and-out seinen Yuri Genre series, Sakura Trick being one of the biggest examples that got an anime.

Many of their anime adaptations are licensed by Sentai Filmworks for North American viewers, and some have also received English dubs, such as Kill Me Baby, Dream Eater Merry, and Hanayamata.

In addition, because of the format, each monthly release of one of the five magazines under the family can carry up to 26-27 series per issue. Works in these magazines are often authored by novices of professional manga; many of them were (or still are) doujinshi authors or illustrators.

In December 2017, Aniplex launched Kirara Fantasia, a Massive Multiplayer Crossover smartphone game which transports numerous characters from various Kirara properties into a fantasy setting. The game was only available in Japan and shut down its online servers on February 28, 2023.

Series Run in Manga Time Kirara

Series Run in Manga Time Kirara Carat

Series Run in Manga Time Kirara Forward

Series Run in Manga Time Kirara Max

Series Run in Manga Time Kirara Miracle! (Cancelled in October 2017)

Tropes common in Manga Time Kirara works:

  • Dramedy: While most of their works are lighthearted, some do attempt to be a balance between comedy and drama. Stardust Telepath and The Demon Girl Next Door are notable for their more melancholic tones against the often upbeat character and comedy. The final season of Hidamari Sketch incorporates this more then the rest of the series as Sae and Hiro approach their graduation and the changes the Hidamari Apartments will deal with.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • If it was made today, a series like Doujin Work wouldn't be allowed to be serialized on Kirara per se. It could probably be serialized on Miracle! or Forward, though.
    • In terms of anime adaptations, Doujin Work and Kanamemo feel more unique compared to the traditional Schoolgirl Series they would later become famous for.
  • Iyashikei:
    • Most series running in the non-Forward magazines are meant to be sweet, heartwarming, and relaxing. Some series in Forward are also sweet, heartwarming, and relaxing, but it's more of a grab-bag in terms of genre.
    • Although School-Live! was published in the more experimental Forward brand (which should set off warning bells, as should the fact that it's written by a Nitro Plus writer), the series subverts the concept since it fools the audience into thinking it's a typical easygoing Schoolgirl Series at first. Then the end of the first chapter/episode reveals that it's actually about a group of schoolgirls trying to survive in a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Japanese School Club: Roughly half their works revolve around moe girls doing an activity together, often — but not always — under the auspices of an official school club. After the tremendous success of K-On!, it seems the floodgates opened. Many, many manga authors rushed out to copy the formula of "four girls + school club + rock band", and put their own spin on it by swapping "rock band" for whatever hobby the author is interested in. Consequently, expect these works to have plenty of Exposition and Exposition Diagrams imparting extremely technical knowledge about how to perform the hobby, along with general gushing over what a life-changing experience it is.
  • Nice Girl: It's usually expected to have at least one girl fitting into this bill.
  • Schoolgirl Series: Most of their series focus on groups of schoolgirls and their everyday lives.
  • Seinen: Many of these works are usually geared towards an older adult male audience.
  • Slice of Life: Most of these works are set in a mundane world and focus on the characters' everyday lives.
  • The One Guy: Recurring male characters are very very rare in non-Forward Kirara series, enough so that when a series DOES feature a regular male cast it's noticeable (see Place to Place, Castle Town Dandelion, Doujin Work, GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, and Blend-S).
  • Sexy Packaging: Every chapter comes with an illustration on the title page. While the (non-Forward) manga are all relatively chaste, the title illustrations can get a little more risque.
  • Token Mini-Moe: It is expected that at least one female character will fit into bill in any Manga Time Kirara works.
  • "YEAH!" Shot:
    • In every manga chapter they publish, the first page will be four panels (arranged in a square instead of a column) and a detailed illustration taking up half the page. Although the content varies, it's fairly common to see the girls jumping exuberantly into the air.
    • One of these happens in the openings of almost every anime based on a Kirara Manga, enough that it is called the "Kirara Jump", and occurs even in non-Kirara slice of life anime openings.
      "Any anime where they jump in the opening is a god-tier anime." - Ryo, Bocchi the Rock!
    • This is referenced in Kirara Fantasia: whenever a character uses a special move, they do the famous Kirara Jump first.

Tropes pertaining to the Manga Time Kirara family itself:

  • Artifact Title: It has been editorially independent from Manga Time for a long time.
  • Breaking Old Trends: Convenient Semi-Friend is much raunchier and more sexually-charged than the usual Manga Time Kirara fare, to the point the author spent the afterword to her first volume talking about how weird it is to see it published there.
    Minori Chigusa: The manga about saying "sefure"note  over and over that defies the laws of 4-Koma and should by all accounts be considered out of bounds was not only allowed to be serialized in the precious 4-Koma magazine known as Kirara but also had commercials aired about it... I'm so grateful towards Houbunsha-san...
    Ruka: [pulling her shirt open to reveal her cleavage] It's not out of bounds! Also, here's some fanservice! Thanks for buying!
    Kohaku: That kinda thing is out of bounds! Or rather, having sefure as a focal point would normally be no good for Kirara!
  • Darker and Edgier: Manga Time Kirara Forward. In contrast to the Slice of Life Iyashikei works of the other magazines, Forward often features more action-heavy manga like Dream Eater Merry or horror-themed manga like School-Live!, not to mention two Puella Magi Madoka Magica Expanded Universe manga, Puella Magi Kazumi Magica and Puella Magi Suzune Magica, both of which happen to even more dark and bloody than their parent series. That said, Forward also has Iyashikei like Laid-Back Camp.
  • Distaff Counterpart: When Carat was launched, it was aimed specifically at female readers and focused on male main characters. However, this didn't last. Now it's effectively the same as Kirara, although with a slightly higher female readership. Notably, Carat ran Anima Yell!, one of the few school club stories with an explicitly-female-oriented hobby, whereas most other Kirara school club stories revolve around either unisex hobbies or hobbies stereotypically associated with thirtysomething men.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Kirara Fantasia, a fantasy RPG which takes the girls of various Kirara magazines and gives them fighting prowess.
  • Network Red-Headed Stepchild: Forward is a magazine edition, in that it has very different editorial directions, despite sharing the moe connection with the other four.
  • Word Salad Title: "Kirara" ("Shiny") is not particularly meaningful as a title, and "Carat," "Miracle" and "Forward" are not helpful additions to "Kirara" title-wise.

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