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Posts Tagged NYCC 2012

NYCC 2012: Viz Media Announces Tiger & Bunny, Pepita and Alpha Prints

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, October 15, 2012

The last big manga panel of NYCC 2012 was Viz Media‘s who had a couple exciting titles to cap-off one of the year’s biggest conventions.

Pepita: Takehiko Inoue Meets Antonio – Takehiko Inoue
Sunny – Taiyo Matsumoto
Tiger & Bunny – Mizuki Sukikobara
Tiger & Bunny (Anthology) – Multiple Artists

Along with these titles, they’ve confirmed that two series currently running in Shonen Jump Alpha will be brought to collected print editions as well:

Barrage – Kōhei Horikoshi
Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration – Nobuhiro Watsuki

Easy pick for the titles I’m most eager for are the Tiger & Bunny books. I still haven’t even seen the original anime series – not available to stream in Canada – but I’ve heard so many good things about it that I’m immensely curious to experience it in any form. I also purchased a volume of the Tiger & Bunny anthology series for a friend so I’ve first hand how fun that is. The first of the two T&B licenses is a manga adaptation of the series, while the anthology collection is a series of books collecting an assortment of short stories from a variety of creators.

Pepita sounds like a very potentially worthwhile read as well, described by Viz Media as such: “Antoni Gaudi was the world leader of Catalan modernist movement in architecture. Takehiko Inoue is one of the premier manga artists in the world. Inoue’s journey to Spain and to the world of Gaudi is half travel memoir, half art book, and all beauty.” Meanwhile Sunny is a new title from Taiyo Matsumoto, the creator of Tekkonkinkreet, so that in itself makes me intrigued.

Viz Media also announced they’ll be releasing 3-in-1 omnibus volumes of Dragonball and D.Grayman starting June of next year. I’m not sure what the difference will be with these new Dragonball omnibus compared to their previously released VizBIG versions, but we shall see. I’m pleased to see D.Grayman getting the omnibus treatment; it’s a series I’ve been meaning to start. Each volume of these omnibus edition will be priced at $14.99/US, $16.99/CAN.

You can read all the nitty-gritty details and extra tidbits at ANN’s write-up of Viz Media’s panel.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Conventions, Manga, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Omnibus, Rurouni Kenshin, Viz Media

NYCC 2012: Yen Press Announces New Madoka, Alice and Artbooks

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, October 15, 2012

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Yen Press took the stage – quite literally it sounds – this past week at NYCC to announce a handful of new manga licenses and upcoming releases. For new titles, behold the following:

Are You Alice? – Ai Ninomiya & Ikumi Katagiri
K-ON! highschool – kakifly
K-ON! college – kakifly
Puella Magi Kazumi Magica ~The innocent malice~ – Takashi Tensugi
Puella Magi Oriko Magica – Chloe Mura

The two K-ON books are sequels to the original K-ON manga, which Yen Press is currently publishing, while the two Puella Magi series are spin-offs of their origin story, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. As two of Yen Press’s most popular titles, it’s no surprise to see their franchises get further title exploration. Good news for the fans!

The solo entirely-new series in this batch is Are You Alice?, a story based on Alice in Wonderland but that sees a young man don the name of Alice and become embroiled in a sinister, non-nonsensical game of kill-the-white-rabbit. The story sounds neat though not especially gripping by synopsis alone. The art though really caught my eye when I was looking it up. I see some eye-candy on the horizon at the very least.

Other neat news of the panel was word that Yen Press will be releasing a Soul Eater art book next year including colour pages from the original manga and a bunch of character illustrations. Down the road they also plan to release an art book based on Highschool of the Dead. It likely goes without saying that you can expect plenty of blood, boobs and butts from that one.

I was hoping for a little more from Yen Press at NYCC, but spin-offs or not, five new titles is still something to be appreciative for and I’ll very likely be picking up Are You Alice? when it’s released next year. Of the announcements, I’m actually most excited to see them delving into art book territory. I love manga art books!

For more coverage on Yen Press’s panel, including news about their digital ventures, I recommend ANN’s full write up of the show.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Conventions, Manga, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Yen Press

NYCC 2012: Kodansha Comics Licenses No. 6, Sailor Moon Artbook…

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, October 14, 2012

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It was Kodansha Comics‘ turn to impress today at NYCC with a handful of new licenses:

No. 6 – Atsuko Asano & Hinoki Kino
Sankarea: Undying Love – Mitsuru Hattori
Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode – Mia Ikumi
Vinland Saga – Makoto Yukimura

Kodansha Comics is bound to have made many readers really happy today with these titles. I have no experience with any of them myself but I’ve seen rallying cries for No. 6 and Vinland Saga, in particular, for quite a while. These are the two I’m most excited to read by reputation alone (and all the adorable No. 6 fanart that continues to litter art sites doesn’t hurt either). Sankarea sounds bizarre enough to potentially give a try and Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode I’ll likely pick up out of affection for its predecessor, Tokyo Mew Mew.

You can read a synopsis for all Kodansha Comics’ newest titles on their website. Huzzah for new license announcements that include titles, creator credits, release dates and synopsis’s! Volume one of No. 6 and Sankarea are scheduled for a June 2013 release, while Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode and Vinland Saga will be released that following winter.

Along with their new titles, Kodansha Comics also announced they’d be speeding up the print copies of Fairy Tail to one a month in order to catch up with Japan. This will begin in March 2013 with volume twenty-four. The series itself is currently over thirty volumes in Japan.

Air Gear – which Kodansha Comics has released up to volume twenty-six so far – is due to be released in omnibus format from the beginning. The first volume of this new edition will be released in May 2013.

A bonus treat announced today was that Kodansha Comics would be handling the English publication of an upcoming Sailor Moon art book that’s due to be published worldwide in 2013. All editions released globally will have the same paperback trim size, plus dust jacket, and art content including some of the most popular Sailor Moon drawings along with new artwork by the series creator, Naoki Takeuchi. Kodansha Comics also confirmed that after they finish publishing the original manga series, they will be releasing the series of Sailor Moon short stories as well. (Src: A Case Suitable For Treatment)

And last, but not least – though I don’t believe this was announced during their Saturday panel – Kodansha Comics has relaunched their website with a new layout. It doesn’t offer any new content but does load a lot more nicely than their previous site. There is a blog section currently marked as Coming Soon that could offer some interesting new info and insight in the future, much like Vertical Inc’s newly relaunched on-site blog. (Note: Lack of link to Vertical’s blog is due to numerous virus warnings on Vertical’s site in recent weeks; better safe than sorry!)

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Air Gear, Conventions, Kodansha Comics, Manga, No.6, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Omnibus, Sailor Moon, Sankarea

NYCC 2012: Vertical Nabs Tezuka’s Twin Knights, Okazaki’s Helter Skelter

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, October 13, 2012

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It begins! New York Comic Con 2012 is this weekend and there’s been a lot of anticipation that this would be the big news event of the year for comics and manga. It’s a great show, having an audience big enough to be an important promotional opportunity but without all the same Hollywood-suffocation of SDCC. This is the first time in a few years I haven’t attended, but fortunately there’s no shortage of Twitter tweets and news posts to keep us all informed of the news as it breaks.

Vertical Inc. was one of the first to provide us eager readers with manga news. They’ve licensed two new series both due out next year:

Twin Knights – Osamu Tezuka
Helter Skelter – Kyoko Okazaki

Of the two, Twin Knights is definitely the big news for me. It’s a sequel series to Tezuka’s Princess Knight which Vertical released in two omnibus volumes last year. This follow-up story takes place years in the future with the birth of Princess Sapphire’s twin children – Prince Daisy and Princess Violetta. When the two grow older, the son is kidnapped and his sister juggles her own identity while pretending to be him in order to go out and make a rescue. Sounds great to me!

The other series really piques my interest as well. I haven’t heard of Helter Skelter in detail until now but it sounds like a story that fits well in Vertical’s library of books which includes titles like Lychee Light Club, Black Jack and 7 Billion Needles.

“Helter Skelter revolves around Ririko, a model who underwent extensive plastic surgery to attain her beauty. The clinic who performed Ririko’s surgeries goes under investigation for questionable business practices, and Ririko’s body starts to deteriorate. As the model’s prominence in the entertainment industry begins to falter, so does her sanity.” – AnimeNewsNetwork

The first volume of Twin Knights will be released in July 2013 for $12.95/US, $13.95/CAN. Volume one of Helter Skelter will premiere in July 2013 as well for $16.95/US, $18.95/CAN.

ANN has a full write-up of the event, including this interesting tidbit “…gauging interest in starting a subscription model so that series will stay in print.”. Fantagraphics recently offered a subscription-like service for their series, Wandering Son. Omnibus volumes were a big trend-shift for print manga in North America – could subscription models be next? If it’ll keep printed books in my hands, then sign me up! My only real issue with subscriptions directly with publishers is cutting out the comic-store middle man, but it’s all test-and-see now.

Back to the manga goods in closing – two awesome licenses! Excellent choices, Vertical. I’m eagerly awaiting them both next summer.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: 7 Billion Needles, Conventions, Helter Skelter, Manga, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Osamu Tezuka, Vertical Inc

Manga Guests Announced for New York Comic Con 2012

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, September 20, 2012

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New York Comic Con – formally known in-part as the New York Anime Fest – is swiftly coming up with October just around the corner. Leading up to the date with news of their guests and events, the convention announced Tuesday (via their mobile app) that they’ll be having three manga guests in attendance for NYCC 2012.

Masakazu Ishiguro
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Moyoco Anno (website)
Sakuran*, Flowers & Bees*, Sugar Sugar Rune

Toshio Maeda (website)
Demon Beast Invasion*, La Blue Girl, Legend of the Overfiend*, Adventures Kid*

*These series are rated 18+ for sexual content, and sometimes violence, so readers be warned if you’re curious of what they are! Toshio Maeda’s website also has a lot of mature imagery.

The app lists Masakazu Ishiguro as a guest courtesy of JManga, while Moyoco Anno will be there as a special guest of Vertical Inc. JManga is currently releasing Ishiguro’s Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (digital only) and Vertical Inc. just released a beautiful omnibus release of Moyoco Anno’s Sakuran this past summer. They have a few more details about her appearance on their newly relaunched blog.

Vertical Inc’s marketing director, Ed Chavez, spent Monday teasing eager fans on Twitter with news that there would be a big announcement on Tuesday. Guesses ranged from new licenses to Vertical Inc going digital, but the closest hint he’d give was that the news would make some happy and others sad (“…will applaud but will be saddened all the same.”). The news is great for Vertical but I can’t say I was particularly happy or sad either way, finding the news rather lacklustre after all that hype. Then again I’m not someone who generally goes to conventions for the guests so that’s just me. None the less, I hope all three guests have a great time visiting the convention and meeting some of their global fans!

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