Medalist is an ongoing manga series serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon. Volume 15 is scheduled for digital release on July 22, 2026.
Medalist, the figure skating manga by Tsurumaikada, continues as one of Monthly Afternoon's flagship series. Volume 15, which covers the JGP Final, is set for digital release on July 22, 2026, and appeared as a pre-order title on Amazon Kindle's July 17 chart. The series has seen a wave of merchandise and promotional activity in mid-2026.
A pop-up store ran from June 18 to June 30 at Kinokuniya Shinjuku Main Store, featuring newly drawn illustrations of Inori, Tsukasa, Hikaru, and Iruka in banquet attire, along with GraffArt goods and purchase bonuses. Creator Tsurumaikada contributed an original illustration to celebrate Monthly Afternoon's 40th anniversary, showing the protagonists holding an anniversary card. Kodansha plans to sell merchandise based on that artwork.
Figures based on Medalist were listed among dealer offerings for Wonder Festival 2026 Summer, indicating continued expansion into physical collectibles. The series remains active with regular volume releases and event tie-ins, though no new anime or major format changes have been announced in the covered stories.
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Tsurumaikada's Olympic ice-skating manga Medalist is going on hiatus due to production circumstances, the official X/Twitter account announced on Friday. No return date was given. The creator apologized and said that when the manga resumes, she would ideally like to carry the story to the Junior Grand Prix finals without any breaks.
The 85th Prize Fair, a private industry viewing held in Tokyo on August 25, 2026, displayed new Banpresto prize figures scheduled for release from January to March 2027. The Banpresto brand showed figures from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Medalist, and Bocchi the Rock!. BANDAI SPIRITS displayed prizes from Marriage Toxin, Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji, and KINGDOM HEARTS.
Kadokawa revealed on Sunday a teaser trailer, teaser visual, character visuals, and the February 19, 2027 opening date for the upcoming anime film based on Tsurumaikada's Olympic ice-skating manga Medalist. The film will tell a story set after the end of the television anime's second season, with the cast and staff from the TV anime returning. The first season premiered in Japan on the "NUMAnimation" programming block on TV Asahi and 23 affiliated channels in January 2025, with Disney+ streaming it. The second season debuted on January 24 on the same block and ended on Sunday. Hulu is streaming the anime in the U.S., and Disney+ is streaming it in other countries and territories. The second season featured the returning cast and staff, with Hazuki Nakamura as art director and Kentaro Kashiwagi as compositing director of photography. The anime's second season opening theme was "Cold Night" by girl group HANA, and the ending theme was "Rookies" by Conton Candy. Japanese figure skater Rika Hongo took part in motion capture filming alongside the first season's Akiko Suzuki, who choreographed the skating routines. Tsurumaikada launched the manga in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine in May 2020, and Kodansha published the 15th compiled volume on July 22.
Dengeki Hobby Web reports the top 20 best-selling manga volumes on Amazon Kindle as of July 17, 2026. The Apothecary Diaries Volume 17, available for pre-order, takes the top spot. Other notable entries include pre-order titles Kingdom 80 and Medalist 15, new releases Shangri-La Frontier 27 and Zatch Bell! 2, and recent volumes Hunter x Hunter 39 and One-Punch Man 37. Sale items like Mob Psycho 100 at 100 yen per volume also appear.
Kodansha will release a slate of digital manga on July 22, 2026, including the final volume of Space Brothers in a special edition with a booklet and recap map, the latest volume of Medalist featuring the JGP Final, and several other ongoing series from its Morning, Afternoon, and Comic DAYS imprints.
Dengeki Hobby Web published the third installment of dealer information for Wonder Festival 2026 Summer, three weeks before the July 26 event. The roundup covers figures from KanColle, Medalist, Vigilante -My Hero Academia ILLEGALS-, Blue Archive, Uma Musume, Tsukihime, Made in Abyss, and more, with sculpts by Okiraku-dou, Būrian-Wa-Sa-Seki, Atelier ITO, and others.
A Medalist pop up store will run from June 18 to June 30, 2026, at Kinokuniya Shinjuku Main Store. Newly drawn illustrations show Inori, Tsukasa, Hikaru, and Iruka in banquet dress and suits. Deformed GraffArt goods with rain umbrellas are also available. A purchase bonus postcard is given for every 2,200 yen spent.
Medalist creator Tsurumaikada submitted an original illustration to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine. The drawing shows series protagonists Inori Yuitsuka and Tsukasa Akeuraji holding a "40th Anniversary" card. Kodansha will sell merchandise based on the artwork. Monthly Afternoon launched in December 1986 and has published major titles including Ah My Goddess, Parasyte, and Blade of the Immortal.
TheOASG Podcast reports that Shogakukan's MangaOne editorial department admitted it allowed manga creator Shoichi Yamamoto to publish under a pen name after his 2020 arrest and conviction for a sex crime. The department also hid his past from the artist drawing the series. Shogakukan later revealed that Tatsuya Matsuki, the act-age writer convicted in 2020, was also working on the service under a pen name. An investigative committee with lawyers has been formed.