Baseball has gone cosmic.
In a historic partnership bridging professional sports and Japanese pop culture, MLB Players, Inc., OneTeam Partners, and renowned manga artist Acky Bright have announced GalaXic Baseball League (GXBL)—a new sci-fi manga series published by VIZ Media.
In the distant future, baseball has rocketed into the cosmos. What was once America’s pastime is now a high-stakes interplanetary competition, with teams from every corner of the universe battling for glory. When a sinister plot threatens the galaxy, legendary baseball players team up with two unlikely heroes to save Earth—and the heart and soul of the game.
This marks the world’s first original manga IP to feature active baseball players, with story and art by Acky Bright. The Japanese visual artist is known for his iconic “WcDonald’s” global campaign for McDonald’s and critically acclaimed work with DC Comics and Marvel.
The seed for the series was planted during the 2023 World Baseball Classic final. “I kept seeing people saying, ‘Reality just outdid manga!'” Bright recalled. “At the time, I never imagined that my dream of creating a baseball manga would one day become reality—together with MLB Players, Inc.”
Guiding the series is Hisashi Sasaki of VIZ Media, the former editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump—the legendary magazine that launched One Piece, Naruto, and Demon Slayer.
“When Acky shared his idea of fusing the global language of manga with the global passion for baseball, it ignited a spark in my manga editor’s soul,” Sasaki said.
The saga begins this summer:
- Digital Serialization: July 2, 2026, exclusively on the VIZ Manga app
- Print Release: Volume 1 to follow in October
Source: VIZ Media
