is a Japanese monthly seinen manga anthology published by Kodansha under the Afternoon line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. Afternoon has spawned many successful manga series such as Oh My Goddess!, Genshiken, Blade of the Immortal and Big Windup!. It is part of Kodansha's "1day" series, which also includes the magazines Morning and Evening. A spin-off magazine, named good! Afternoon, started publishing on November 7, 2008. History The magazine was founded as a sister magazine to Morning by the same publisher. According to Frederik L. Schodt, stories that did not convince the editors of Morning would often land in Afternoon. Many of the artists working for the magazine used to publish amateur dojinshi and were influenced by lolicon amateur manga. Sharon Kinsella claims that around half of all series featured in Afternoon between 1994 and 1997 were inspired by lolicon aesthetics. She lists Discommunication, Gunsmith Cats, Assembler 0X, Seraphic Feather, Aqua ańd Oh! My Goddess as examples. From 1999 until 2022, Afternoon Season Zōkan was published as a quarterly spin-off magazine to Afternoon. After the magazine was suspended, some of its series, like Mushishi and Mokke, were transferred to Afternoon. Newcomer award Since 1987, the magazine hands out the newcomer award Afternoon Shiki Shō. In 2000, Kodansha published a selection of winners of the award in a book. Circulation and demographic Like with most major manga magazines, the magazine's circulation has been declining since the 1990s: 2004: 144.500 2005: 133.800 2006: 127.400 2007: 119.666 2016: 69.310 In the late 1990s, the magazine's editors guessed that about a third of the readers of the magazine could be called otaku. Features Ongoing There are currently 28 manga titles being serialized in Monthly Afternoon. Out of them, Wandering Island is on hiatus. Past 1980s by Kōsuke Fujishima (1988–2014) by Norifusa Mita (1989) Spirit of Wonder by Kenji Tsuruta (1989–1994) (originally serialized in Weekly Morning) 1990s by Hitoshi Iwaaki (1990–1995) (moved from Morning Open Zōkan) by Kia Asamiya (1990–1992) by Kenichi Sonoda (1991–1997) by Riichi Ueshiba (1991–1999) by Tsutomu Takahashi (1992–1999) by Kia Asamiya (1992–1995) by Kazuichi Hanawa (1992–1994) by Hiroaki Samura (1993–2012) by Yo Morimoto, Toshiya Takeda (story) and Hiroyuki Utatane (art) (1993–2008) by Daisuke Igarashi (1994–1996) by Shinji Makari (story) and Akana Shu (art) (1994–2004) by Hitoshi Ashinano (1994–2006) by Mohiro Kitoh (1995–1997) Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei (1997–2003) by Satoshi Shiki (1997–2003)