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Posts Tagged Seven Seas

Seven Seas Makes More Friends With Two New Haganai Licenses

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, December 3, 2013

When it rains, it pours! And in manga license world, that’s happy news indeed. Seven Seas announced another two licenses via their Twitter account last week:

Haganai: Club Minutes – bomi & Kiurian
Haganai: Now With 50% More Fail! – Chirow Kazahana & Shirabi

Seven Seas has been releasing the original Haganai series – the full title being Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends – since November 2012. The next volume scheduled is volume five in January.

Haganai: Now With 50% More Fail! is a one-shot collection of short stories taking place within the timeline of Haganai. Each story follows a different character from The Neighbours club, a group of students brought together by their common trait of not having many friends. Now With 50% More Fail! is available for pre-order on Amazon (CAN/USA) with a release date for July 2014. It’s priced at $14.99/CAN, $12.99/US.

Haganai: Club Minutes is another collection of short stories, however chronologically these all take place after the original series, so it serves as a sequel. It also focuses more on the group’s activities than individual members. Club Minutes is scheduled for November 2014, but doesn’t yet have a confirmed price or Amazon page.

In response to the license announcement, one fan asked about the possibility of Seven Seas licensing the original Haganai light novels which garnered the following response:

“As we’ve frequently mentioned, the light-novel market isn’t exactly in the kind of condition where we’d be able to release LNs. … As much as we’d love to license/release the Haganai light-novel series, at the current time, it just isn’t feasible/realistic.”

Seven Seas has recently announced a number of other licenses, including several Strikes Witches’ titles, a new Alice in Wonderland spoof, and something about biscuits and hammers.

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: Haganai, Light Novels, Seven Seas

Seven Seas Returns to the Sky With Three New Strikes Witches’ Titles

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, December 1, 2013

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Edit: Missed one of the licenses! It has now been added for more Strikes Witches’ goodness~

Up, up and away! With panties! Seven Seas is expanding their Strike Witches offerings with three new licenses announced via their Twitter last week:

Strike Witches: 1937 Fuso Sea Incident – Humikane Shimada & Ningen
Strike Witches: One Winged Witches – Shimada Fumikane & Shinozuka Atsut
Strike Witches: The Sky That Connects Us – Humikane Shimada & Yuuki Tanaka

Both titles are a part of the Strike Witches franchise, a series of medium-spanning stories that follow young woman turned into weaponry – called Striker Units – as they soar the skies with rockets for legs and their arsenals coming magic and technology.

1937 Fuso Sea Incident is one of the earliest stories set in this universe. It follows a young woman through her training before she becomes involved in the first battle to see wide-spread use of the Striker Units. The first volume of 1937 Fuso Sea Incident is scheduled for August 2014, with pre-orders available now on Amazon (CAN/USA).

One Winged Witches jumps us forward a few years and take places just prior to the start of the Strike Witches anime. It follows the training and subsequent squadron participation of another young Striker Unit solider, while also revealing back story for other characters readers will see in the multiple stories taking place further in the timeline. Volume one of One Winged Witches is scheduled for January 2014.

The one-shot, The Sky That Connects Us, serves as filler between the two seasons of the Strike Witches anime. Viewers can read this after finishing season one if they’d like to know more about what happened after the… spoilers… events of season one. The book is separated by chapters that focus on the different characters. The Sky That Connects Us is set to be released in June 2014, with pre-ordering abilities activated on Amazon (CAN/USA).

Seven Seas has a placeholder page up on their site for three of their Strike Witches titles. They announced their first Strike Witches title, Maidens in the Sky, back in May and the main story version, Strike Witches, soon after in July.

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: Seven Seas, Strike Witches

Seven Seas Takes A Different Trip Into Wonderland with I Am Alice Series

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, November 27, 2013

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Seven Seas has added a new Alice in Wonderland manga series to their growing library, but this time they’ve switched things up with a title that may look familiar, but is actually a different take on the original story than the usual Alice in the Country of…:

I Am Alice: Bodyswap in Wonderland – Ayumi Kanou

I Am Alice is a body and gender-swap story staring a young male protagonist who finds himself magically transported into the world of Alice in Wonderland. On top of that, he’s been transformed into Alice. Now he needs to defeat the King of Hearts if he’s ever to get home, not to mention deal with the aid and advances from the world’s inhabitants.

The series is multiple volumes, and still on-going, but it isn’t completely clear from Seven Seas’ announcement if they’ll be releasing it as omnibus or single editions. They do however show the titles’ first volume cover. The current release date is September 2014. This will be Ayumi Kanou’s third series licensed for English translation after Seven Seas’ recently released Dictatorial Grimoire, and Bandai Entertainment’s Tales of the Abyss: Jade’s Secret Memories.

If you’re curious about this title, AnimeNewsNetwork has a detailed news posting with full body images for all the characters. It’s a very colourful cast and neat seeing new designs after we’ve become so accustomed to those in Alice in the Country of… (granted the art style itself is very similar). I’ve no doubt this series will find itself a lot of overlapping fans.

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: I Am Alice, Seven Seas

Leapin’ Lizards! Seven Seas Licenses The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, November 19, 2013

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The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer? I have no idea what to think of a series with that name. Even after I read the synopsis, I’m still not entirely sure what to think of this series. Seven Seas recently revealed it as their newest license via a teaser video:

The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer – Satoshi Mizukami

This series was originally distributed digitally by the now shutdown, JManga who gave the following for a description:

“Asamiya Yuuhi was an ordinary college student… until the day a lizard showed up and asked him to help save the world. The next thing he knows, he’s been given a ring and special powers, plus an enemy stalking him. However, he’s saved in the nick of time by the girl next door, Samidare, who’s planning… WHAT kinds of things?! This is an unconventional story that mixes ordinary life with the bizarre and supernatural!”

So lizards, rings, mysterious next door neighbour planning… things?! The plot doesn’t do much for me, but I’m a pretty easy win-over with art that cute. Biscuit Hammer‘s creator – Satoshi Mizukami – also had a story in Dark Horse’s anthology, Trigun: Multiple Bullets. That combined with their short time on JManga’s makes them a returning creator to the North American manga scene and hopefully one whose book will find its way into the hands of fans new and old.

As for when? That’s a mystery! Seven Seas has yet to comment on when they intend to release the first volume of this series. The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer is complete in Japan at ten volumes.

Credit for the news details goes to AnimeNewsNetwork

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: Seven Seas, The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer

Seven Seas Is On the Yuri Case with Milk Morinaga’s Gakuen Polizi

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, August 10, 2013

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Seven Seas handed out a treat to manga readers yesterday with news that they’ve licensed a new yuri series:

Gakuen Polizi – Milk Morinaga

This currently two volume series is about a girl named Sasami Aoba who has always dreamed of becoming “a defender of justice”. Now an adult, she’s become a police officer and is given her first assignment – enter into a high school and look for troublemakers. When she arrives, her first culprit turns out to be another undercover police officer. Is she friend, foe or something more?

I’m already a big fan of Milk Morinaga, after reading her books Seven Seas’ has already released – Girlfriends and Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossom Pink (adapted by our own Shannon Fay!) – so Gakuen Polizi instantly becomes a must-buy for me. Her other works have been very high-school-romance-centric, and while this new one obviously has the same theme, the additional story of being undercover police officers makes me all the more curious. It sounds like a lot of fun!

Volume of Gakuen Polizi is scheduled for June 2014, with the second following in the Fall.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Gakuen Polizi, Milk Morinaga, Seven Seas, Yuri

On The Shelf: August 7, 2013

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, August 9, 2013

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Happy Birthday to me! Well, belated. Sort of. This week’s shipping day, August 7th, just so happened to be my birthday, and what a birthday it was! This week was a huge one for new manga – thanks predominantly to Viz Media – and among the spoils were some of my favourite series still running.

Notables for me included Toriko (Vol. 17), the final volume of Bakuman, A Devil and Her Love Song (Vol. 10), Kamisama Kiss (Vol. 13) and the very long awaited Kaze Hikaru (Vol. 21), a title that only comes out once a year! Plenty to choose from. Seek, read and enjoy~

A Certain Scientific Railgun (Vol. 08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
A Devil and Her Love Song (Vol. 10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Clockmaker’s Story [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Bakuman (Vol. 20) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Dance in the Vampire Bund Omnibus (Vol. 03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Happy Marriage!? (Vol. 01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kamisama Kiss (Vol. 13) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kaze Hikaru (Vol. 21) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kimi ni Todoke (Vol. 17) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kitaro [Amazon CAN, Amazon US]
Knights of Sidonia (Vol. 04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Library Wars: Love & War (Vol. 10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Naruto (Vol. 62) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Vol. 16) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Otomen (Vol. 16) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pokemon Adventures: Heart Gold and Soul Silver (Vol. 01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pokemon: Black and White (Vol. 11) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Rosario + Vampire Season II (Vol. 12) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Slam Dunk (Vol. 29) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tegami Bachi (Vol. 14) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
The Sacred Blacksmith (Vol. 02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
The Wallflower (Vol. 31) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Toriko (Vol. 17) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
World War Blue (Vol. 02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]

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Categories: On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: A Certain Scientific Railgun, A Devil and her Love Song, Alice in the Country of..., Bakuman, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Drawn and Quarterly, Happy Marriage?!, Kamisama Kiss, Kaze Hikaru, Kimi ni Todoke, Kitaro, Knights of Sidonia, Library Wars, Manga, Naruto, Nura Rise of the Yokai Clan, Otomen, Pokemon Adventures, Rosario + Vampire, Seven Seas, Shonen Jump, Slam Dunk, Tegami Bachi, The Sacred Blacksmith, The Wallflower, Toriko, Viz Media, World War Blue

Seven Seas Deals Out More Wonderland Romance with Four New Alice in the Country of… Series

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, August 1, 2013

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Alice’s adventures in Wonderland, and her heart’s desire while doing so, resume in English as Seven Seas‘ newest batch of licenses – which they announced via Twitter – are more series set in the Alice in the Country of… franchise.

Alice in the Country of Clover: Knight’s Knowledge – QuinRose / Asai Sai
Alice in the Country of Clover: March’s Hare – QuinRose / Iwaki Soyogo
Alice in the Country of Clover: Nightmare – QuinRose / Job
Alice in the Country of Hearts: Love Labyrinth of Thorns – QuinRose / Kurihara Aoi

Every story is an alternate telling, or a continuation, of the same general story – Alice is a young girl spirited away to the world of Wonderland where she traverses its strange countries, meets an assortment of people, learns the weird ways of their culture, and inevitably falls in love with one of the many individuals already immediately in love with her. The different series or one-shots each tend to follow one of these individuals and focus on a budding romantic relationship between them and Alice.

I’m still a little Alice-shy after my most recent experience with Yen Press’s Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit, and the last Seven Seas’ instalment I read – Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz (Vol. 01) – failed to move me. None the less, I’m still on a bit of a high from how much I enjoyed the original story arc.

March’s Hare is the one book in this new batch that I will actively make a point to avoid. Sorry Seven Seas, but after My Fanatic Rabbit, I’ll be leaving the March Hare character, Elliot, on the sidelines. This book is scheduled for March 2014.

I’m at least curious about In Knight’s Knowledge – due out in July 2014 – which follows another really scary split-personality character, Ace, who bounces between being either being hopelessly lost or viciously homicidal. He hasn’t yet given me a reason to cringe at the thought of being with Alice romantically, in the context of the story anyway (killing people is a debatable offence there. Sort of.). In Knight’s Knowledge is the only multi-volume series in today’s licenses.

Nightmare is the book I’m most curious about however. This book follows Alice’s relationship with the mysterious figure, Nightmare. In previous books, he’s only appeared briefly and is the only character who is fully aware of what’s going on in regards to Alice’s appearance in Wonderland and what it means. This book could finally explain some of the plot points we’ve been left pondering since the original story. Fingers crossed! This one shot is due out in April 2014.

And as for Love Labyrinth of Thorns, I’m looking forward to reading this one almost as much since it stars the clockmaker, who was my favourite character in previous books. This one is due out in May 2014. Seven Seas is releasing another book starring him and Alice this coming week with The Clockmaker’s Story, which I plan on checking out for the same reason.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Alice in the Country of..., Manga, Seven Seas

Seven Seas Surfs the Skies With Girls, Guns and Invaders

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, July 29, 2013

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It’s license catch-up time! And just when I’m about to get caught up on some new titles Seven Seas announced a couple weeks back, they announced today that they’ve got a new batch as well. No complaints from me! But first things first as we take a brief look at four titles announced via press release earlier this month:

Arpeggio of Blue Steel – Ark Performance
Girls und Panzer – Seisaku Iinkai & Saitaniya Ryouichi
Girls und Panzer: Little Army – Seisaku Iinkai & Tsuchii
Strike Witches – Shimade Fumikane & Tanaka Yuuki

Arpeggio of Blue Steel definitely has one of the more unique plots you’ll read about. The story is about an invading force attacking Earth with girls as battleships. In retaliation, Earth sends against them a girl who can turn into a submarine. Sound logic under the circumstances, right? Volume one is scheduled for July 2014.

The series Strike Witches hits a similar story vein as it re-imagines the second World War with nations teaming up to fight aliens utilizing magical girls with rockets for legs. This announcement is an elaboration of the previously licensed Strike Witches series, Strike Witches: Maidens in the Sky. That first series will begin in February 2014, with other Strike Witches stories beginning later that year. Little girls as war machines certainly seems to be a thing- who knew?

Seven Seas of course, and they wrap up this first wave of licenses with Girls und Panzer which is about a team of young girls who pilot large tanks while attending their all-girls school. The first volume of this series will debut in June 2014, while it’s prequel series, Little Army, is planned for the following Fall.

Along with these announcements, Seven Seas has also been asking for readers’ opinions on what changes we’d like to see on their website. If you’ve got some updates you’d like to see on a revamped GoManga.com, you can let the company known via their Twitter account.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Girls Und Panzer, Manga, Seven Seas, Strike Witches

PR: Seven Seas Launches on Air, Land and Sea

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, July 16, 2013

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LOS ANGELES, July 15, 2013 – Seven Seas Entertainment is delighted to announce a trio of military-themed manga series, each focusing on a different aspect of combat. The three licenses are Strike Witches, which zeroes in on aerial dogfights, Girls und Panzer which targets terrestrial tank battles, and Arpeggio of Blue Steel, which spotlights submarine and battleship duels. All three action-packed series are slated for publication in 2014.

Strike Witches (story by Shimade Fumikane, art by Tanaka Yuuki)

Strike Witches reimagines World War II as a confrontation between allied human forces and invading aliens, pitting super-powered human girls against alien aircraft. Strike Witches combines the popular “dieselpunk” genre with moe-styled characters.

Strike Witches has become a massive franchise, spanning novels, manga, video games, anime and other merchandising. The franchise has received two anime seasons, along with a movie that premiered in Japan last year. North American anime distributor FUNimation has released both seasons on home-video.

Strike Witches: Maidens in the Sky Vol. 1 will be released in February 2014. Volume 2 will follow in April 2014, and further related titles in the Strike Witches franchise will be released in summer and fall.

Girls und Panzer (story by Seisaku Iinkai, art by Saitaniya Ryouichi)

Girls und Panzer is part military tactics, part cute-girls-doing-cute-things…in tanks! Girls und Panzer brings an immensely entertaining experience to readers, juxtaposing an all-girls academy with a military backdrop.

Girls und Panzer has been adapted into an anime, which aired last fall in Japan and is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. In addition, Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime and will release it on home-video later this year. The anime has also spawned a theatrical animated film, which is set to debut in 2014.

Seven Seas will publish the first volume of the Girls und Panzer manga series in June 2014, with volume two to follow in September 2014.

In Fall, 2014, Seven Seas will launch the series prequel Girls und Panzer: Little Army.

Arpeggio of Blue Steel (story & art by Ark Performance)

Arpeggio of Blue Steel is set in the near-future, where humans must wage a war of survival against a mysterious invading force whose battleships are sentient girls. Humanity’s only hope is to launch its own sentient superweapon: a girl able to transform into a deadly submarine.

Arpeggio of Blue Steel, known in Japan as Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio, has recently received an anime adaptation, which is currently in production from renowned animation-studio SANZIGEN.

Arpeggio of Blue Steel is a beautiful, yet stark manga that displays humanity’s courage against overwhelming odds, and is sure to appeal to fans of Attack on Titan.

Volume 1 of Arpeggio of Blue Steel will be released in July 2014 and volume 2 will follow in October 2014.

On The Shelf: July 3, 2013

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, July 3, 2013

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The upside to being staff at a con and never having a moment to visit the dealer’s room, is that you don’t end up spending much money. It doesn’t mean I’m rolling in dollar bills, alas, but I am always grateful to have a little budget wiggle room when new release day comes around.

My must-have buy this week is the first volume of Vertical Inc‘s new series, Wolfsmund. This past weekend at Animaritime, Ed Chavez spoke about the artist’s work as assistant to both the creators of Emma and Berserk, as well as showed us some interior artwork. This is a book I definitely need to have.

Little Fluffy Gigolo PELU (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US]
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order (Vol.18) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Blue Exorcist (Vol.10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
D.Gray-man 3-in-1 (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Gunslinger Girl (Vol.15) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Jiu Jiu (Vol.05) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kanokon Omnibus (Vol.03-04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Mayo Chiki! (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Natsume’s Book of Friends (Vol.14) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Oresama Teacher (Vol.14) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pokemon Adventures: Ruby & Sapphire (Vol.17) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pokemon Adventures: Black and White Collected (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Psyren (Vol.11) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Skip Beat! Omnibus (Vol.05) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Strobe Edge (Vol.05) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Vampire Knight (Vol.17) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Wolfsmund (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
World War Blue (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]