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Author Archive for Lissa Pattillo

Digital Manga Adds Wild Honey and Tender Hearts to 2012 License List

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, March 30, 2012

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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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, Hentai, June, Manga, Project-H

PR: Viz Media Names Ken Sasaki President and CEO

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, March 30, 2012

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VIZ MEDIA NAMES KEN SASAKI PRESIDENT AND CEO

Hidemi Fukuhara Elevated to Vice Chairman

San Francisco, CA, March, 29 2012 – VIZ Media, the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga, graphic novels and anime in North America, announced today that Ken Sasaki will succeed Hidemi Fukuhara as President and CEO of the company as of April 1st, 2012.

Sasaki joined VIZ Media in February of 2008 and most recently served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for VIZ Media, where he led the company’s digital content distribution strategy for animation. Sasaki was a driving force behind developing relationships with industry leaders for the digital distribution of anime.

“We have spent the last few years preparing VIZ Media for its digital future,” said Ken Sasaki. “I look forward to expanding our digital distribution channels even further, making manga, graphic novels and anime even more accessible to fans across North America.”

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – March 28, 2012

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, March 28, 2012

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Where did the past week go…? No, really, I haven’t even been out to my local comic shop for over two weeks. No wonder something doesn’t feel right! This week’s comics in combination with those I have waiting for me from last week should be a definite kick in the butt to get out there and buy though. You can see what’s out there new to buy this week at Otaku USA’s On The Shelf article.

With a new volume of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, a new Yoshihiro Tatsumi title to try out, a re-edition of Tezuka’s Dororo so I can finally own it all and Rohan at the Louvre, this feels like an especially classy week for manga releases!

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Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Dark Horse, Kodansha Comics, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Manga, Vertical Inc

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – March 21, 2012

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, March 21, 2012

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It’s new manga time! This week’s edition of On The Shelf has been posted over at Otaku USA. Check it out for the list of titles that arrived in stores today, including my most anticipated of the week: A Bride’s Story (Vol.03), Bunny Drop, (Vol. 05) and Young Miss Holmes!

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Categories: News, Release Lists
Tags: Bunny Drop, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Manhua, Seven Seas, Yen Press

Love & Sex on the Job – DMP Announces Three New Print Licenses

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, March 19, 2012

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Digital Manga Publishing kicked off the recent weekend with another three new manga licenses – when will their licensing streak end!? Not a complaint, mind you.

Their three new licenses are:

Love Makes Everything Right – Sanae Rokuya (BL)
Hot & Steamy – Hiroshi Itaba (Project-H)
Love on the Job (Vols. 1-3) – Harumi Chihiro (Project-H)

All three titles are by creators Digital Manga has previously licensed works from. DMP has previously published Sanae Rokuya’s boys’ love titles Red and King of Debt, while Harumi Chihiro’s better known Velvet Kiss was announced back in November. Hiroshi Itaba’s Three P, another one-short story, was one of Project-H’s launch books. All three new titles are scheduled for print release but there are no dates yet as to when they’ll be published.

Love Makes Everything Right – a oneshot BL – is an office romance where a man finds his new job has landed him at the receiving end of sexual harassment. You can see a few preview pages over at it’s Amazon.jp listing. DMP’s newest multi-volume series and hentai addition, Love on the Job, is of a more consensual-from-the-get-go nature. It follows a young man and woman who each land their dream jobs. When they realize they’ve been hired at rival companies, however, they need to keep their romantic relationship a secret or risk losing everything they have.

Of these new books, I’m most looking forward to Love on the Job. The plot sounds ripe for entertainment and drama while Harumi Chihiro has a really nice looking art style.

In additional DMP related news, boys’ love light novel fans will be happy to see volume seven of Ai no Kusabi is now available for pre-order on Amazon (US/CAN). The previous volume of the series was released back in July 2009. It’s been quite a wait so enjoy the return, Ai no Kusabi readers!

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, Hentai, June, Manga, Project-H

Chi’s Sweet Home’s Konami Kanata Announced As Guest at TCAF 2012

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, March 17, 2012

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After a couple days of teasing, Toronto Comic Arts Fest has officially announced that the creator of Chi’s Sweet Home, Konami Kanata, will be a special guest at this year’s TCAF! Her visit to the Toronto-based event, marking her first trip to North America, is being arranged with the support of Vertical Inc who is publishing Chi’s Sweet Home in English.

“Konami Kanata will appear at TCAF on Saturday May 5^th and Sunday May 6^th 2012, at Toronto Reference Library. She will have a signing session each day at the Vertical Inc. booth, and will participate in programming each day. In addition, Ms. Kanata will be participating in a special event supporting the Tohoku Region, on the evening of Saturday May 5^th, with details to follow.” – TCAF Press Release

The Toronto Comics Art Festival is a free-to-attend event that brings in comic creators from around the world to display their works and interact with readers. Last year the event had two special manga guests – Usamaru Furuya and Natsume Ono. I’ll be attending the event again this year to stock up on amazing comics and prints, plus now hopefully be able to share a Konami Kanta spotlight as well. See you in Toronto this May, fellow TCAF-ers!

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Categories: News
Tags: Canada, Conventions, Manga, TCAF, Vertical Inc

Love for Loveless and the Orphaned: Viz Media to Release 07-Ghost

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, March 17, 2012

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A listing on the Simon and Schuster website sent Twitter in a mini-buzz late this week with word that Viz Media had licensed Yuki Amemiya/Yukino Ichihara’s 07-Ghost. ANN confirmed the news with Viz yesterday so rejoice 07-Ghost fans!

07-Ghost is a story about an orphan gifted with magical powers who is enrolled as a student in a military-run academy until he discovers his father’s killers are there. The series was originally released by the now defunct GoComi who were only able to publish the first few volumes before dropping out in late 2009. Viz Media’s first volume is currently listed at $9.99/US with a November 2012 release date for volume one, and January 2013 for volume two.

I’ve since sold my volumes of GoComi’s 07-Ghost because it just didn’t interest me very much. I’m still sort of bummed about that fact because of how much I like the author’s illustration work and character designs. The story, unfortunately, just didn’t click with me. It’s been a few years now so maybe I’ll find it more to my liking starting over – we shall see!

Another listing on the Simon and Schuster website also revealed an upcoming omnibus edition of Yun Kouga’s Loveless. Viz Media originally announced the license at New York Comic Con 2011 but had only stated plans to release the series in single volume books starting where Tokyopop had left off (volume nine). The new listing shows the start of 2-in-1 omnibus edition kicking off from the series’ beginning. The first part is listed for $14.99/US and set to come out October 2012.

This new Loveless edition is great news for readers (and potential new fans) who didn’t have a chance to pick up Tokyopop’s volumes one to eight, while still pleasing those who did with the go ahead on volume nine+ in single format. Kudos to Viz Media for the dual release option!

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: 07 Ghost, Boys' Love/Yaoi, Loveless, Manga, Viz Media

PR: Announcing Konami Kanata at TCAF 2012

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, March 16, 2012

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The Beguiling and Vertical Inc. present

Konami Kanata at TCAF 2012
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival welcomes the renowned creator of Chi’s Sweet Home manga!

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2012
At The Toronto Reference Library,789 Yonge Street
Saturday, May 5th, 9am-5pm
Sunday May 6th, 11am-5pm
Free Admission

WWW.TORONTOCOMICS.COM

TORONTO, Ontario– The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is excited to announce that internationally renowned manga creator Konami Kanata, author of the New York Times Bestselling Manga Chi’s Sweet Home, will appear at TCAF 2012 on May 5th and 6th! Kanata will make her first-ever North American appearance at TCAF 2012 in support of Chi’s Sweet Home, and she will be on panels, signing books, and participating in a special benefit fundraiser for the Tokhoku Region of Japan, still hard-hit following the great earthquake and tidal wave in March of last year. Kanata appears with the support of her North American publisher Vertical Inc., and TCAF sponsor The Beguiling Books & Art.

“Kanata-sensei’s work is really wonderful,” says TCAF Director Christopher Butcher. “While Chi’s Sweet Home is, on the surface, a series about an adorable kitten, in Japan it runs in a somewhat-edgy magazine aimed at adult men and women. The stories have a surprising resonance. While kids have immediately taken to this cute little Japanese cat, Kanata-sensei’s skill really makes these stories unique, and even occasionally profound. It will be an honour to meet her.”

Konami Kanata is a 25+ year veteran of Japan’s manga industry, with dozens of volumes of work that have sold millions of copies, and the characters of Chi’s Sweet Home alone have been adapted into two daily animated TV series, a number of merchandise lines, and even video games! Chi’s Sweet Home was also nominated for the Best Youth Comic Award at the Angouleme Festival in 2011. 8 volumes of Chi’s Sweet Home have been published in English by Vertical Inc., 7 of which are New York Times Bestsellers.

“Ms. Kanata was interested in coming to TCAF to meet all of her many North American fans, and to speak in support of the devastated Tohoku region of Japan,” continued Butcher. “This is also a very important cause to me personally, and so we are planning a number of initiatives including a special evening event to help raise funds on the weekend of TCAF.”

Konami Kanata will appear at TCAF on Saturday May 5th and Sunday May 6th 2012, at Toronto Reference Library. She will have a signing session each day at the Vertical Inc. booth, and will participate in programming each day. In addition, Ms. Kanata will be participating in a special event supporting the Tohoku Region, on the evening of Saturday May 5th, with details to follow.

Manga Is Not A Crime: Canadian Crown Drops Charges In Customs Case

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, March 16, 2012

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Some of you may have noticed the Manga Is Not A Crime banner on my sidebar during one of your visits and the story of Ryan Matheson is a prime reason for my support of the work the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund does. Back in 2010, he was arrested trying to cross the border from the US to Canada when Canadian Customs official searched his laptop and found anime/manga imagery that they deemed child pornography.

CBLDF announced yesterday that all the charges against Ryan Matheson have since been dropped, which comes as fantastic news. Of course he’s not out of the woods yet with legal fees and some very unpleasant memories to follow him but it’s a big relief to see his immediate fight has finally ended.

Speaking out for the first time, Matheson says, “I’m glad to finally put this awful ordeal behind me. Ever since the beginning I knew I had committed no crime, so I was never willing to accept a plea to any criminal charge. The entire legal process is very traumatizing, and the overzealous bail conditions imposed on me were very difficult to endure. Although my defense was extremely strong, all trials are inherently risky and I value my life too much to risk a potential minimum mandatory sentence. I am very grateful for the spectacular work Michael Edelson and his team put into my case, and to all the generous people who supported me and contributed to my defense. I was able to stand up to the very last day and fight for something I believe in.”

As a Canadian, I have immense pride in my country as a place that values peace and equality. There’s no where in the world I’d rather live and I get homesick quick ever being off Canadian soil. Unfortunately nowhere is perfect and the pit in my stomach I feel crossing the border from trips to the US on my way home is a stern reminder of that. That I could be arrested for my bags full of comics is terrifying – it’s scary because it’s unfair for material that hurts no one, it’s scary because it could happen to anyone at anytime and it’s scary because if it happens, as Ryan Matheson’s case shows, there’s nothing you can do should someone else decide that what artwork you choose to look at is wrong.

MangaBlog’s Brigid Alverson has a really informative write-up on the case along with some history of other similar occurrences over at Comic Book Resources. It’s well worth a read and I hope gives you a good idea why supporting a group like CBLDF is such an important thing to do for comic readers everywhere.

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Categories: Misc, News
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, Canada, CBLDF, Manga

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – March 14, 2012

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, March 13, 2012

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This week’s On The Shelf went up a couple days early but that just means more time to plot and plan your manga buying trip tomorrow! Sailor Moon (Vol.04) is an easy decision for top pick but I can’t ignore all those new boys’ love books either. The full list for this week’s shipping manga is available over at Otaku USA – enjoy!

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