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Licensing | Press Releases | Release Lists
New comics’ day! Alas that Diamond Comics was a bit behind in releasing a number of the new manga released but I suppose that’s nothing new. If you’re ordering from online retailers or large bookstores though, you should be good to go, buy and read!
Top titles of the week for me are Air Gear (Vol. 25) and the last Tokyo Mew Mew omnibus. You can check out the full list and more of my thoughts over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.
It’s another round of manga license time! With this many new licenses prior to the thick of convention season I hope it means good for the summer months. This time it’s Kodansha Comics who sent out a press release, which in itself came as a surprise considering the silence that usually comes from them outside of book releases.
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order – Yukito Kishiro
Danza – Natsume Ono
Missions of Love (Watashi ni xx Shinasai) – Ema Toyama
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order is a relicense, having been originally published by Viz Media. Viz released the fifteenth volume back in October 2011 and Kodansha Comics will continue from there with volume sixteen in December of this year. The series is currently in tournament mode as its character duke it out to win the Zenith of Things Tournament.
Danza is a title I was surprised to see on the list, if only because Viz Media pretty much has a monopoly on Natsume Ono’s work. It’s great to see more of her work published in English and I’ve always enjoyed her short story collections the most. Danza is a one book release with six different stories. You can read a synopsis of them in Kodansha’s PR if you’re curious for more details on the story specifics. The title is scheduled to be released in December 2012 as well, with an Amazon.ca listing already up.
Last up from Kodansha today was their confirmation of Watashi ni xx Shinasai – or Missions of Love, as it’s now been renamed. At last! I contacted Kodansha Comics about this over a month ago when the listing popped up on Amazon. Alas, I got no response, which is pretty standard from them (busy, understaffed bees over there I’m left to assume). Ema Toyama has had two other series published in English already – I Am Here! (Del Rey) and Pixie Pop (Tokyopop). Missions of Love is about a secret phone novel author who blackmails a popular classmate into performing “daring missions of love” to gain live-inspiration for her work. The first volume is currently scheduled for November 2012.
Viz Media treated us with a couple new licenses this week, announced first via their Shoujo Beat Twitter account and then very shortly after through a press release.
Strobe Edge – Io Sakisaka
Demon Love Spell – Mayu Shinjo
This is the first time Io Sakisaka’s work has been released in English. Strobe Edge has already been published in French though, and was cited by Viz as “one of the most requested titles that our readers have asked to be licensed”. The series is about a teen named Ninako who is looking for love and may have found it with the school’s number one mysterious heartthrob. He already has a girlfriend, however, and Ninako must learn to cope with her first experience with love being her first with heartbreak as well. Currently the series is ten volumes in Japan and has been running since 2007 (still going!).
Demon Love Spell isn’t Mayu Shinjo’s first title released in North America. Her series Ai Ore! is currently being published by Viz Media in omnibus format. Unfortunately Ai Ore! (Vol.01) very easily earned top spot as my Most Gag-Worthy book released in 2011 so my hopes aren’t very high for this new one. The plot, however – about a shrine maiden who finds herself the target of a lusty demon after sealing away his powers – does peak my interest enough to at least give it a try. My fingers are crossed it proves more palatable! Demon Love Spell (“Ayakashi Koi Emaki”) is currently four volumes and on-going.
Both of these new titles will start print publication later this year.
Whoever is causing time to move this quickly had best cut it out for a while – I’ve barely had time to finish reading my books from last week! That certainly doesn’t mean I won’t be indulging in some more this week though. Black Butler, Durarara!!, X, Gantz… need I say more?
You can see the full list of manga titles shipping this week over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.
Kickstarters have really taken off in recent months with creators and organizations using the crowd-sourcing service to collect the funds they need to get projects off the ground that wouldn’t otherwise be funded. I still hold my reservations towards companies using the service but I’m glad it’s worked out so well for creators getting their original works out to a wanting audience.
Just such a project has been started for Roulette, an original boys’ love style story written by Tina Anderson (Loud Snow) and drawn by Laura Carboni (Love Circles). Laura is looking to raised enough money to fund the completion and print of the book, which will be 255 pages long. Via Kickstarter’s often-used reward system, you can also get a number of extra goodies depending on how much you pledge.
“Mafia accountant Riley Leary finds himself blackmailed by an unseen party when he’s caught stealing from his boss. To make matters worse, he garnishes the interest of the dangerous hit man, Anton Colletti. Will Riley manage to get things right, or will Anton make things go from bad to worse?” (Read a preview chapter)
For those who aren’t familiar with Roulette, it was originally published in Rush, an anthology of boys’ love stories by creators around the world and published in print by Dramaqueen. When the company ceased production, so too did Rush come to an end after only a couple issues. There had been problems with DQ and it’s handling of the project practically since the get-go with subscribers and creators alike left wondering where their dues were. As someone who subscribed to the anthology, I was among those both disappointed and rather miffed when the plug was suddenly pulled. It’s unfortunate when projects like this don’t work out.
If curious about the other creators who contributed to Rush, you can see what they’re up to today via the links below (or under the cut if you’re on the main page!):
Magic knights, vampires and supped up samurai – it’s another batch of new manga releases! You can read the list of shipping titles over at Otaku USA’s On The Shelf article for the week.
I purchased quite a stack from the books out this week with a number of series I’m collecting having with new volumes – 20th Century Boys, Cross Game, Replica and a few more must-haves. I’ll be giving my short thoughts on my recent purchases in the soon-to-return Swag Bag column. I hope readers will take the time to let me know what you bought also!
This past weekend kicked off the Spring/Summer convention season with both Sakura Con and Anime Boston taking place. Several manga publishers were in attendance at them (generally one or the other) and they came bearing news of manga licenses! You can read more about each individual title, and see some corresponding images, by clicking on the provided AnimeNewsNetwork links.
Dark Horse (at Sakura-Con via ANN)
Blood-C – Ranmaru Kotone
Emerald and Other Stories – Hiroaki Samura
Evangelion: Comic Tribute – Multiple Artists (Anthology)
Ore no Imōto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (Oreimo) – Sakura Ikeda & Tsukasa Fushimi
Of Dark Horse’s licenses, I’m looking forward to Hiroaki Samura’s Emerald and Other Stories. I really like his Blade of the Immortal series and his one-shot released by Dark Horse comics, Ohikkoshi, was also a great read. Emerald and Other Stories looks especially interesting with the old West designs of the image ANN is using to promote it.
Vertical Inc. (at Anime Boston via ANN)
Paradise Kiss – Ai Yazawa
Paradise Kiss was previously released by Tokyopop many a manga-reader year ago and the books have long since been out of print. Vertical Inc’s manga ‘rescue’ of the title will be released as a multi-volume omnibus set that include a new translation and colour pages. I’m not a fan of the series myself because of a hair-pulling worthy ending (not my idea of a romantic end!) but the character drama and fashion aspects of the story still made it a good read. The first Paradise Kiss book will be out this fall.
Yen Press (at Sakura Con via ANN)
Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit – QuinRose & Delico Psyche
Anything and Something – Kaoru Mori
Blood Lad – Yūki Kodama
The Misfortune of Kyon & Koizumi – Multiple Artists (Anthology)
Thermae Romae – Mari Yamazaki
Triage X – Shoji Sato
Umineko When They Cry – Ryukishi07 & Kei Natsumi
Edit: You can read synopsises for all of Yen Press’s new title announcements via their website. They also announce via that post they’ll be releasing the last three volumes of their manhwa series, Chocolat, as a single omnibus book late this year.
Yen Press has a great assortment of different titles in this list, something for just about any of their readers based on their existing library. Of the batch the most interesting to me looks like Kaoru Mori’s Anything and Something because of how in love I am with A Bride’s Story (which Yen Press is currently releasing). It’s going to be a collection of stories released in a large trim, hardcover edition similar to how they’re already doing A Bride’s Story. It’ll also include some full colour illustrations.
It’s interesting seeing another Alice in the Country of Hearts license. The series gained popularity when Tokyopop began releasing it and has since been picked up in various of its incarnation by both Seven Seas and Yen Press. With what looks like a lot of scrambling to grab a hold of whatever parts of this franchise is available, I hope it works out as a strong seller!
Not a bad year for manga licenses so far and it’s only April. Good signs, right?
Reminiscent of how odd it was seeing Tokyopop titles on release lists months after their shutdown, so to will manga readers get that with two Bandai Entertainment volumes on this week’s shipping manifests. The last of their new books are trickling out, today seeing the last books of their two Code Geass fan-service series.
You can see the full list of this week’s shipping books at Otaku USA’s On The Shelf article which also includes Viz Media‘s big monthly blast of shonen and shoujo (so many does-wants!), and GEN Manga‘s collected edition of VS Aliens.
It’s new manga license time-! Again! Digital Manga sent out an e-mail about two new manga licenses, continuing their recent trend of revealing new licenses in pairs or trios of hentai and boys’ love. This week’s new licenses are:
See Me After Class (Vol.01) – Munyu (Project-H)
President Momoi Kun – Higashi Nishida (June)
Both books are scheduled for a print release in Spring 2013. See Me After Class will be $17.95/US, while President Momoi Kun is being listed at $12.95/US. You can see a few preview pages for President Momoi Kun over at its Amazon.jp page.
Digital Manga also recently sent out press releases announcing two new partnerships to release more manga digitally – Papyless (publisher of young woman’s comics) and Leed Publishing (hentai titles). I’m still not very keen on reading manga digitally but some of those Papyless titles are certainly tempting me to make some exceptions. We shall see!
Kuriousity may have some posting lulls but Digital Manga hasn’t hit one yet, announcing another two new titles destined for print. Both titles were announced on DMP’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Wild Honey – Sei Takenaka (June)
Tender Hearts – Konomi Shikishiro (Project-H)
Both of the titles are one-shots with no specific release dates announced yet, though Digital Manga did say readers can expect Tender Hearts in Spring 2013. This will be the first time either artist has been published by DMP.
Via their Project-H account, a representative also stated: “…the new website is almost ready so please be patient while we run the final tests. Thank you!”. The Project-H website has had temporary placeholder pages since they launched back in July 2011. They also added that consumers can expect to see some release dates for their titles announced over the past couple of months.
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