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News > Licensing

Vertical Licenses Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako

Vertical Inc is adding another Osamu Tezuka title to their growing catalog, this time with their license of, Ayako.

Originally published in 1972, ANN has the following synopsis:

“Jiro Tenge, the second son of what used to be an influential Japanese family, returns home after being a POW in an American camp during the Second World War. He finds his family corrupted by the terrible social aftereffects of the war. His elder brother, determined to keep what remains of the family patrimony after the Government’s forced land reallocation, has prostituted his wife to his father to secure his blessing, while other members of Jiro’s family have been drawn into similar corruption, and he himself is being forced to spy for the Americans after being broken as a POW. Now the family’s youngest daughter Ayako will have to bear the brunt of the family’s sins.”

In the past week Vertical has posted several hints on Twitter to eager eyes including “It’s gonna be a whopper! 704 pages. Great female lead. Cover design by P Mendelsund!!”. Though the license was repeatedly said to have an embargo on it, the book never-the-less appeared on Amazon late-Tuesday afternoon with the newly designed cover (the cover is actually for a previously released book, not Ayako – thanks for the correction, calaggie!).

(Editor note: Out of respect for the initial intended-surprise, I personally made the choice to withhold this information until Vertical confirmed it at their recent event Wednesday evening. Vertical representatives have yet to publicly speak about this title online.)

At 704 pages, this release of Ayako is likely a single omnibus collection of the original three books. Ayako is scheduled for tentative release in October 2010.

About the Author:

Lissa Pattillo is the owner and editor of Kuriousity.ca. Residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia she takes great joy in collecting all manners of manga genres, regretting that there's never enough time in the day to review or share them all. Along with reviews, Lissa is responsible for all the news postings to the website and works full time as a web and graphic designer.



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8 Responses

  1. Shannon says:

    This is awesome news, except October is so far away!

  2. Denshou says:

    The most dramatic Tezuka´s Work!

  3. […] Pattillo figured out Vertical’s newest license: It’s Osamu Tezuka’s […]

  4. strobe_z says:

    I've read the French edition. It'll be worth the wait.

  5. […] Lissa "Kuriousity" Pattillo has sussed out what Vertical's next big Osamu Tezuka translation project is, following their […]

  6. […] Kuriosity:  The identity of Vertical’s next manga license has also leaked: Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako, a heavy drama about a Japanese family torn apart by World War II. […]

  7. […] of JAL’s new Doraemon plane… Lissa “Kuriosity” Patillo has the skinny on Vertical’s latest Tezuka license, Ayako… Brigid “Mangablog” Alverson shares her list of the best online comics criticsm […]

  8. […] yet, then I wouldn’t run it. But if other sites Amazon leak the story, and other news site or Kuriosity runs with the story, then I would stay away. There is a fine line of respecting the […]

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