NYCC was the spotlight show this past weekend but on the other side of the US, another convention was also taking place – Yaoi-Con! For those who aren’t familiar with it, Yaoi Con is an annual convention dedicated to the boys’ love genre and all it’s colourful fandoms.

SuBLimeManga – Viz Media’s BL publishing partner – was at the show, marking the one-year anniversary of their original start-up announcement and greeting fans with a nice list of new titles:

Blue Morning – Shoko Hidaka (May 2013)
Embracing Love (Omnibus Editions) – Youka Nitta (April 2013)
False Memories – Isaku Natsume (July 2013)
Hide and Seek – Yaya Sakuragi (July 2013)
Sleeping Moon – Kano Miyamoto (June 2013)
Spiritual Police – Youka Nitta (October 2013)

The most notable title on the list would be Youka Nitta’s Embracing Love which was originally licensed, and partially released, by the now done-and-gone BeBeautiful back in 2005. SuBLime is going to be releasing the series in a set of 2-in-1 omnibus volumes. I was surprised to see this title licensed. I didn’t know there was much interest in this title, which doesn’t seem to have nearly as much feverish fan-begging as other yet-to-be-licensed titles, plus the tracing scandal that surrounded Youka Nitta a few years ago that led many to think her work would no longer be licensed because of potential copyright issues. Yet here it is, so a big yay for the fans. Though I own the first five volumes that BB put out, I don’t actually recall anything about the series. I’ll need to do a revisit to see if these omnibus editions will end up on my bookshelf.

Having previously enjoyed titles by Isaku Natsume and Yaya Sakuragi quite a bit, their newly announced books will be must-buys for me when they’re released next summer.

SuBLimeManga also licensed a number of titles for digital-only. Ah, digital-only, one of the banes of my manga reading existence  It’s better than no legal license, of course, but I cry a little every time they’re announced.

Boys, Be Ambitious! – Saburō Nagai
Egoistic Blue – Mio Tennohji
The Match Seller – Sakae Kusama
The Ravishing of the Crown Prince – Wang Yi & Feng Nong
Sword and Mist – Hayate Kuku

Titles like these make me keep my fingers crossed for a viable print on demand offer someday as of all the titles SuBLime announced at the convention, a new book from Hayate Kuku (creator of Love Sickness) and The Ravishing of the Crown Prince are easily the two I’d most look forward to. I may have to wipe the dust off my iPad in the New Year! Digital isn’t my preferred reading method but SuBLime definitely offers it with the most convenience, allowing PDF downloads that you can read on just about any device.

You can see cover images for all the new titles over at ANN’s write-up of the licensing announcements.

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