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Twitter continues to be the cool place to announce new licenses as Project-H steps back up to bat with another new title:
Cute Devil Girlfriend – Hisasi
Cute Devil Girlfriend is a collection of short stories starring big breasted, devil-tailed cute girls that are absolutely not for the kiddies! Adults only, folks, and Project-H ensures its readers that the book will be released censorship free.
The book is scheduled for a print release in September 2014.
Seven Seas continues to add to their 2014 library of titles with another new licenses announced via their Twitter account:
D-Frag! – Tomoya Haruno
D-Frag follows a young man named Kenji Kazama, who is seen by himself and his peers as the school delinquent. His school life changes when he’s forced to join a gamers’ club consisting of girls who’re considerably more out-there than he ever was.
Seven Seas describes it as “Lots of slapstick/gag comedy, a bit of slice-of-life school antics and a dash of (not your average) harem fun.” The company also recently launched an Instagram account where they posted several hints for fans to guess D-Frag! before officially announcing it.
The first volume of D-Frag! is scheduled for July 2014 and priced at $14.99/CAN, $12.99/US. Volume two is listed for September. Both these volumes are currently available for pre-order on Amazon.ca – volume one and volume two.
Seven Seas’ announcement of the license comes pretty well-timed with the premiere of the D-Frag anime, which will have its first episode air this early January.
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.
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.
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.
It’s time to du-… fight! Vertical Inc. announced late this week that they’ve licensed their own card battling series:
Cardfight!! Vanguard – Akira Ito
The series has more in common with the better known YuGiOh than just the card duels they’re based around. The creator of Cardfight!! Vanguard was the artist who handled the YuGiOh R manga series. With that kind of global popularity, can you blame them for wanting to give it their own spin? Or Vertical for continuing to branch out into different demographics.
Cardfight!! Vanguard is also currently being streamed on Crunchyroll, who gives the following summary:
“The card game ‘Vanguard’ has swept the entire world and changed the fate of one boy. His name is Aichi Sendou. To make an impression on Toshiki Kai, a Cardfighter he deeply admires, Aichi begins to play Vanguard and soon becomes caught up in the fun and charm of the game.”
Vertical Inc is releasing two first volumes – one regular edition and one deluxe edition. Both have the same page count and a trading card, but the deluxe edition also includes a fifty card starter deck, game mat and box. Amazon says the titles will be released at the end of March 2014, while Vertical is listing April 2014.
Pre-orders are currently available via Amazon for the regular (Amazon CAN | US) and deluxe editions (Amazon CAN | US).
Cardfight!! Vanguard is one of those series that leaves me feeling out of touch with today’s ‘mainstream’ anime fans. I’m told it’s popular. I’ve seen the Walmart aisles littered with the merchandise and even a giant outdoor billboard. I think I may’ve even seen a snippet of it on television. What I’ve never seen or knowingly met, however, is an actual fan. Where are you, mystical fans? Fans of Pokemon and YuGiOh I still see on a regular basis – battling outside schools, meeting in local game shops, trading and arguing in the comic stores, begging their parents for the newest release. So… what gives?
Maybe the lack of Cardfight!! Vanguard fans is a regional thing. Whatever it is, I hope the series’ popularity I’ve heard such tell about means that it will be asuccess for Vertical Inc. Fortunately it seems to be going well so far.
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
It’s been a while since Amazon has revealed an early Viz Media license. Publishers have really been closing the gap between the timing of their announcements and when the new titles appears on retail sites, which is great for those who us want to order sooner than later. It does always leave little room for error though.
Viz Media missed this one by just a few days as eagle-eyed Amazon spelunkers found this listing (CAN/US) before it was confirmed by Shonen Jump’s podcast crew shortly after:
Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma – Yuto Tsukudo & Shun Saeki
We’ve been told Food Wars is “too racy” to place into the Shonen Jump magazine, so while it will be released under that title banner, it won’t be released simultaneously. Some ‘foodgasms’ gone too far perhaps? The series is about a young man named Sōma who is raised by his chef father and regularly engages with him in cooking battles. When Sōma is enrolled in a renowned culinary institute, he must put his skills up against a school of students where the graduation rate is next to nil.
I haven’t heard of this series before, but I really like the look of the art style. One of my current favourite series is also Toriko, so maybe that’s a good sign! In either case, the first print volume of Food Wars is scheduled for August 2014 with a digital edition intended for release a few months prior.
You thought we were done with NYCC didn’t you?! Even weeks late, licensing news is great news indeed. Call us refreshers for all your manga convention news! Along with their Attack on Titan titles, Kodansha Comics also had a few other series under their sleeves to reveal that weekend:
Seven Deadly Sins – Nakaba Suzuki
UQ Holder – Ken Akamatsu
Kodansha Comics is touting Seven Deadly Sins as the “next Dragonball Z“. Those are some pretty big boots to fill! In this fantasy story, the manga’s lead Princess Elizabeth is searching for the seven deadly sins instead of the seven magic dragon balls. The sins are all legendary warriors and she hopes to use them to defeat the murderous Holy Knights, putting a twist on the usual who’s good, who’s bad stereotypes.
UQ Holder is a new series from Ken Akamatsu, best known to most as the creator of Negima!. Good thing too, since UQ Holder takes place in the same magical world many years later. The story begins in a small village where a group of boys dream of one day leaving and seeing the big city, and its’ giant constructed spire that leads into space. But, before they’re allowed to leave, they have to defeat their beautiful, and conveniently immortal, teacher.
Volume one of Seven Deadly Sins is scheduled for March 2014 (Amazon CAN/US), with UQ Holder (Vol. 01) right on its tail (Amazon CAN/US).
For those who’re curious and would like to read the series now, you currently can! Both these series are available via Crunchyroll’s new digital manga program. You can expect more on that news here at Kuriousity as soon as I make my way through the series they’re currently offering.
Kuriousity just got a new face-lift, so now it’s time for some new content! In the on-going journey to catch up on a lucrative season of manga-news, we look to Project-H who recently announced four new hentai licenses:
Aqua Bless – Yamatogawa
Nametate Apple Pie – Ashita Morimi
Princess Lucia – Kouji Seo
Witchcraft – Yamatogawa
They start with a collection of short stories in Aqua Bless, ones which “…reveal the adventures of telepathic beauties, frustrated couples escaping to paradise, skimpy cow girls, twins falling for the same man, scandalous happenings at a ski resort, and more.” This one-shot assortment is scheduled for Fall 2014 as both print and digital editions. Those plots all sound good to me~
Ashita Morimi’s Nametate Apple Pie is a one-shot comedy scheduled for January 2015. Project-H smashed our hopes by saying “…it looks like a yuri manga .. but it’s not.” Alas! The story actually stars a man who uses his professional tongue-skills as an acupuncture-like replacement. Who needs needles? His skills are highly sought after but things get complicated when he reunites with an old crush. Dun, dun, dun…
Princess Lucia is a romantic comedy with I’m guessing an extra-pervy side if its in Project-H. It tells us the tale of a demoness who’s determined to have a child with a young man born on the devil’s hour, believing they’ll create powerful offspring. Opposing her are two equally attractive and interested angels. Princess Lucia is scheduled for release in both print and digital starting in Summer 2015. Project-H has announced they own the license for the first three books of this on-going series.
And last up, a second title by Yamatogawa – Witchcraft. The story follows a hapless young man and his run-in with “curvy and curious fortuneteller” who’s eager to test the limits of her hypnosis skills. Project-H has said that the series may be released with censorship, depending on what the original publisher provides for files. Whether it does or doesn’t, Witchcraft will be published in Winter 2014. I’m always up for some supernatural manga so I can’t complain to a genre crossover with my pornier purchases.
For those looking for some hentai now, Project-H has also been adding lots of their recent titles to their eManga platform. Remember, adults only!
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