Japanese manga platform LINE Manga launches AI character chats and fan fiction feature for “IPs approved by authors”

LINE Manga, one of Japan’s top digital comic apps, has introduced byUs, an AI story chat feature that allows users of the platform to interact with comic characters and generate fan fiction-like stories through conversations (via PRTimes). The company states that all featured IPs are approved for use by their respective authors, some of whom contributed original stories for users to experience on the platform.

byUs comes with two types of content: Official Stories and Fan Stories. Official Stories are provided by the original authors and include content structured around the source material’s world-building and characters. Once the prologue is over, the user can converse with the characters to create their own scenarios.

Fan Stories, on the other hand, are user-generated stories that take liberties with the source material, and may include newly established situations and relationships. It’s envisioned for users to create and share their own stories online, as well as read others’ stories.

The first wave of characters to be included in byUS includes Joy and Esther (from the manhwa Job Change Log by Woo Si-mok), as well as Ren Tachibana and Reo Momotani (from Operation True Love by kkokkalee). Additional titles and characters are scheduled to be added in the future.

Before its implementation on LINE Manga, byUs was released in June 2026 on NAVER WEBTOON, a South Korean digital comics and webtoon platform. The feature reportedly generated a cumulative total of 14 million conversations within the first ten weeks. While the original comics had been on hiatus, the release of byUs caused their views to increase by 67% and new users of NAVER WEBTOON to rise by 105%. It remains to be seen how the service will be received in Japan.

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