AI-Generated Manga Reaches 1st Place on the Major Ebook Store in Japan
Believe it or not, it actually happened: a manga created using AI managed to reach 1st place in the Young Adult category on Comic C’moA, considered the largest e-book store in Japan.
The achievement drew attention not only because of the use of artificial intelligence in its production, but also due to the discussions it sparked about the future of the manga industry and what may lie ahead.
The work in question is titled My Dear Wife, Will You Be My Lover?, released on December 28, 2025. The manga has four volumes, was created by mamaya, and published by STUDIO ZOON.
The story revolves around a 35-year-old couple struggling to rekindle the spark in their relationship, leading them to explore new things together. The manga contains suggestive content.
Since its release, the AI-generated manga has been outperforming titles created by traditional authors. However, despite its strong ranking on the platform, reader reviews show a very divided reception. While some praise the concept and the fact that the work managed to achieve such prominence, others point out several issues related to the quality of the material.
Many reader criticisms mention that, even by the standards of AI-generated works, the manga shows visible flaws. Among the most frequently cited points are characters that appear reused or pasted from other scenes, excessively long dialogues that resemble a novel more than a manga, and simple, uninspired backgrounds.
For part of the audience, these elements make the reading experience monotonous—which is somewhat ironic, considering there are many hand-drawn manga that barely have backgrounds at all, but I’m just raising a point here.
The only aspect consistently praised by those who reviewed the manga were the sensual scenes, in which the woman appears almost naked. Some readers consider these scenes visually superior to the rest of the work, despite appearing only a few times.
There were also suspicions that part of the positive reviews may have been inflated by fake accounts, leading some readers to state that they intend to leave Comic C’moA and migrate to services that prohibit the use of AI.
This perception was reinforced by Kazuaki Ishibashi, a former manga editor, who stated on his profile:
“The criticism isn’t particularly heated either, and readers don’t seem to care whether the artist is an AI or not. Maybe it’s only the creators themselves who worry about this. Has this era finally arrived? I predict its popularity will explode this year.”
Reactions:
“Sad…”
“2026. The age of AI has truly begun. Creative fields will be especially invaded.”
“Is it interesting?”
“Whether it’s interesting or not is what matters. Obviously, a reasonably entertaining AI-made work will be rated higher than a boring one made by a person.”
“As expected, it’s full of 1-star attacks just because it’s AI lol”
“I checked it out and about 90% of the 5-star reviews are from new accounts. Now the rating is 3.1 and things are pretty chaotic. The work in 2nd place has many users with hundreds of reviews… calling this ‘a hit that will shake the manga world’ feels odd (unless it’s just irony).”
“Seriously? I knew this would happen someday, but it was way faster than I expected…”