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Author Archive for Lissa Pattillo

Seven Seas Licenses Magical Girl Apocalypse

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, January 26, 2014

Seven Seas‘ has announced its first new title of 2014, starting off the year with a creepy, creepy cover (with added blood for effect!):

Magical Girl Apocalypse – Satou Kentaro

As the image implies, Magical Girl Apocalypse is not another tale of brightly coloured frilled skirts and cute compacts. The story follows two students whose lives are thrown into chaos when a magical girl appears at their school and begins murdering their classmates.

Volume one is scheduled to come out in October 2014. The series is currently four volumes long in Japan.

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Vertical Inc Helps Us Creatively Kill Time with My Neighbor Seki License

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, January 25, 2014

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Now we’re really ringing in the new year – it’s new manga acquisition time! Today it was Vertical Inc, who has their first official license of 2014:

My Neighbor Seki – Takuma Morishige

Vertical’s marketing director and friend to manga-kind, Ed Chavez, announced the license during his recent appearance on the ANNCast. The timing coincides nicely with the My Neighbor Seki anime adaptation which has just started streaming on Crunchyroll, though Ed describes plans to publish the title have actually be on-going for a couple years.

“Seki is the quite type. Smart and pretty cool-headed Seki is generally your average everyday student. But when he is at his desk way at the back his homeroom, he reveals a creative side that few people get to experience. Hidden from the eyes of his teachers, Seki is often found tinkering on and around his desk, creating the most complicated of projects often stretching the imagination…mainly cause he’s got nothing better to do.”

My Neighbor Seki is scheduled to start late 2014, with a new volume out every 2-3 months. Currently the series is five volumes long in Japan.

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: My Neighbor Seki, Vertical Inc

PR: SuBLime Opens 2014 With The Hotly Anticipated New Story Collection, NIGHTS

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, January 15, 2014

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GLOBAL YAOI PUBLISHER SuBLime OPENS 2014 WITH THE HOTLY ANTICIPATED NEW STORY COLLECTION NIGHTS – AVAILABLE NOW!!

Six Sensuous Romantic Tales From One Of Japan’s Most Acclaimed Yaoi Creators Debut In Print And Digital

San Francisco, CA, January 14, 2014 – SuBLime, the global yaoi manga publishing initiative between VIZ Media and Japan’s Animate, Ltd. (Animate), opens 2014 for yaoi fans with today’s release of NIGHTS, a collection of passionate yaoi stories by creator Kou Yoneda.

NIGHTS is rated ‘M’ for Mature Readers and carries a print MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $14.99 CAN. A digital version is also available for an MSRP of USD $5.99 and offers readers two methods of digital access to the volume on www.SuBLimeManga.com – a DRM-free downloadable PDF that is viewable on any enabled eReader device and computer, and via the online manga viewer found on the web site. A free online preview is also available on the SuBLime website.

NIGHTS is a collection of masterful, sensual stories by one of Japan’s most popular yaoi creators! In the title piece, Masato Karashima is a “transporter,” a man paid to smuggle anything from guns to drugs to people. When he’s hired by yakuza gang member Masaki Hozumi, he finds himself attracted to the older man, and what starts out as a business transaction quickly spirals into a cat-and-mouse game of lust and deception. In “Emotion Spectrum,” a high-school student tries to be a good wingman for a classmate, with an unexpected result, while “Reply” is told from the alternating perspectives of an emotionally reserved salesman and the shy mechanic who’s in love with him.

Seven Seas Celebrates the New Year with Website Launch

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, January 5, 2014

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Seven Seas went out with a strong finish in 2013. In the last couple of months, there was news every couple of weeks for new licenses.

Now the company is leaping into the new year with a fresh face for their website:

Seven Seas Entertainment

The revamped site includes a news section on the front page for their press releases, and tidied up navigation for finding info on their different series. Details on individual volumes still link off-site to MacMillan, however, which is a bit of a headache but at least it’s all there.

The site also has their book releases from now until the end of the year. 2014 looks to be a busy one indeed for Seven Seas.

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Categories: News
Tags: Seven Seas

Massive Bara Anthology Rescued by Fantagraphics

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, January 3, 2014

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It looks like I was mourning the bara anthology, Massive, a little prematurely.

Fantagraphics recently announced that they’ve picked up the license for the anthology, Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It. It features a number of Japan’s best known bara artists, including the previously English-published creator, Gengoroh Tagame.

The late-publisher Picture Box Inc was originally slated to release the collection but announced they were shutting down as of the end of December. You can read more about the book in my original news post about the license and via an interview about it on Robot6, who originally broke this news.

The current release plan is next fall.

Credit for me reading the news first goes to AnimeNewsNetwork.

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Categories: News
Tags: Bara, Fantagraphics, Gengoroh Tagame, Massive Anthology, Picture Box Inc.

Seven Seas Dreams Bigger With New Alice in the Country of… Trilogy

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, December 27, 2013

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Seven Seas delivered some holiday cheer when they confirmed via their Twitter account that they’d licensed a new Alice in the Country of… series:

Alice in the Country of Joker: Nightmare Trilogy – QuinRose & Yobu

As the name indicates, the series will be three volumes long and star Nightmare as Alice’s romantic inclination. The first volume is scheduled for release in August 2014. Pre-orders are already available via Amazon.ca | Amazon.com.

This is the second series Seven Seas has licensed that’s dedicated to the character, Nightmare. The first was Alice in the Country of Clover: Nightmare, which will be released a few months prior in April. In all of the Alice in the Country Of… stories, Nightmare is an enigmatic figure who comes to Alice in her dreams. While he has offered helpful hints about her time in Wonderland, he most often speaks in vagueness to confuse her and makes clear in Alice’s absence that he knows much more than he tells her.

It was already a pleasant surprise to me that Nightmare had a one-shot, so I’m especially thrilled to see he gets a trilogy as well. I’ve been crossing my fingers that a focus on him might finally reveal a few more truths about the series hanging plot threads.

Both Nightmare titles are drawn by the same artist, Yobu. Their cover artwork for Nightmare looks great but I’ll need a bit more optimism for the eye-candy after seeing how they drew Alice on volume one’s cover. Hmm…

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

TCAF 2014: Manga Artist est em Announced as Featured Guest

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, December 19, 2013

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One of my most anticipated yearly events – TCAF, the Toronto Comics Art Festival, has just announced their featured guests for 2014. Among them is manga artist, est em!

This is really exciting news for fans of est em. Thanks in part to several of her series being licensed in English, there are quite a few of us! Known predominantly for her boys’ love series, est em’s English-released titles include Age Called Blue, Kine In!, Red Blinds the Foolish, Seduce me After The Show, Tableau No. 20 and ULTRAS.

I love est em’s artwork which errs on the side of more realistic than the usual willowy boys’ love characters, and her strong characterization makes for great drama that plays out in unique scenarios. Not all of her books hit it off with me, but her work is always something I’ll pick up when it’s released. I’m currently awaiting the arrival of her most recent work, Tableau No. 20, from SuBLime.

You can read my review of Seduce Me After The Show, and Shannon Fay has reviewed Age Called Blue and ULTRAS.

est em isn’t the only talent on the list I’m excited to see there, so I encourage all comic lovers to check it out and plan their attendance! TCAF organizers will soon be announcing the 300+ other comic creators who will be exhibiting at the free event which takes place at the Toronto Reference Library in Toronto, Ontario on May 10th – 11th.

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Categories: News
Tags: Conventions, est em, TCAF

PR: Viz Media Announces Print Debut of Nisekoi Manga Series in January 2014

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, December 19, 2013

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LOVE TRIANGLE!! ROMANTIC COMEDY!! GANG WARFARE?! MANGA FANS ARE INVITED TO CATCH THE PRINT DEBUT OF NISEKOI FROM VIZ MEDIA
IN JANUARY

It’s False Love And Hate At First Sight In This Hilarious Manga Series About A Pair Of Mismatched Lovers That Kicks Off 2014

San Francisco, CA, December 18, 2013 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, delivers laugh-out-loud fun as it announces the print debut of Volume 1 of the comedy manga (graphic novel) series NISEKOI on January 7th, 2014. The hit series by creator Naoshi Komi will be published under the company’s SHONEN JUMP imprint, rated ‘T’ for Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

It’s hate at first sight – or rather, a knee-to-the-head at first sight – when Raku Ichijo meets Chitoge Kirisaki! Unfortunately, Raku’s gangster father arranges a false love match between Raku and their rival gang leader’s daughter, who just so happens to be Chitoge! Raku’s searching for his childhood sweetheart from ten years ago, however, with a pendant around his neck as a memento…but he can’t even remember the girl’s name or face!

NISEKOI, Volumes 1-6 are also available for digital download for $6.99 (USD/CAN) each on VIZManga.com and through the VIZ MANGA App for the Apple iPad®, iPhone® and iPod® touch, Android-powered smart phones, and also for NOOK, KOBO, and KINDLE tablets and devices. With one account, registered VIZ Manga users are able to view digital manga purchases across even more devices than ever and the platform currently features over 2,000 volumes across 170 different series.

Review: Alice in the Country of Hearts – The Clockmaker’s Story

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, December 12, 2013

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Alice in the Country of Hearts - The Clockmaker's Story

Author: Quinrose
Manga-ka: Mamenosuke Fujimaru
Publisher: Seven Seas
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2013

Synopsis: “Julius Monrey is the grim Clockmaker of Wonderland, responsible for controlling the world’s time from his lonely Clock Tower, not to mention fixing the stopped clocks of the dead. When the beautiful Alice Liddell comes to live with and rely upon him, will her warm personality melt through his cool, apathetic heart – and bring about romantic feelings he never knew he had?”

There’s a certain stubborn streak required to keep up with all the Alice in the Country of… books. Some are good and some are awful, but they all leave us wondering if maybe, just maybe, the next one will answer all those looming questions. Why was Alice brought here? Has Nightmare been telling the truth about the vial? How is Alice’s sister involved? Sadly, The Clockmaker’s Story doesn’t address any of these points but it does give us something that’s been sorely lacking since the beginning – a genuinely touching romance.

Read more…

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Alice in the Country of..., Seven Seas

Project-H Gets A Cute Devil Girlfriend With New Hentai Title

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, December 11, 2013

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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.

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: Hentai, Project-H