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Digital Manga Licenses New Boys’ Love, Deadlock

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, January 26, 2013

Belated license post time! Late December, Digital Manga announced that they’d licensed a new boys’ love manga:

Deadshot – Saki Aida & Yuh Takashina

Digital Manga previously released Saki Aida’s light novel series, S, though this looks to be the first time Yuh Takahina’s work has been released in English. Based on the covers I see on Amazon.jp though, I hope it’s not the last! Deadshot follows a wrongly accused enforcement offer who accepts an FBI deal requiring him to find a certain criminal in prison in exchange for leniency.

It seems a little odd reading about a new boys’ love license from Digital Manga given how close this came on the heels of their hiatus news. However, given that announced titles don’t tend to see print within 6 months anyway, it works out well for them that they can continue announcing new titles without any immediately foreseeable delay in the new titles’ release. All the same, it’s rather bittersweet as we await those already partially completed on our shelves…

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, Manga

PictureBox Inc Launches New Manga Imprint – Ten Cent Manga

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, January 24, 2013

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The manga won’t cost as little as name suggests, but that does little to dampen the fun of sharing word of a new manga imprint revealed earlier this month. According to AnimeNewsNetwork and The Comics Reporter, the publishing company PictureBox Inc. is launching a new manga imprint called Ten Cent Manga.

Currently there are two books scheduled to kick off this new imprint which will be “focusing on manga straddling Japanese and American cultural influences”:

Last of the Mohicans – Shigeru Sugiura
April 30, 2013 – $19.99/US, $19.82/CAN (Hardcover)
“A 1973-74 classic from a manga master. This (very) free adaptation of the novel employs a range surrealist, collage-like techniuques that engag with contemporary Pop Art and psychedlia, as well as Japan’s modern history of cultural appropriation, to bring to life the great American story. It features combines Sugiura’s signature brand of absurd action and exquisite drawing, veering constantly from lowbrow cartoon spoof to nuanced meditation on American cultural influence.”

The Mysterious Underground Men – Osamu Tezuka
October 2013 (Hardcover)

“Originally published in Osaka in 1948, The Mysterious Underground Men tells the story of Mimio the talking rabbit, as he struggles to prove his humanity while helping his friends save earth from an invasion of angry humanoid ants. Inspired by Bernhard Kellermann’s Der Tunnel (1913) and drawing widely on European and American science fiction, as well as Milt Gross’ own pioneering “graphic novel,” He Done Her Wrong (1930), this full-color edition of The Mysterious Underground Men will not only introduce to English-language readers a founding monument in modern Japanese comics. It will also offer a rare glimpse at the wide-ranging Western cultural sources that made up young Tezuka’s world.”

According the TCR report, we can expect to see more lesser known titles from well known creators. Already having some Tezuka under their belt is a good way to get started I’d say, and I’m curious to see what else comes of Ten Cent Manga. At the very least, their selection of titles so far and the company’s explained intent means we’ll be getting some history lessons with their releases as we read stories from creators that may not have otherwise been considered for license.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Manga, Osamu Tezuka, Picture Box Inc., Ten Cent Manga

Idols, Maids and Not For the Kids – Project-H Licenses 11 New Titles

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, January 21, 2013

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Project-H is starting up their license announcements for the year and kicking things off with eleven new titles all scheduled for print over the course of 2014:

Disciplinarian – Inochi Wazuka (July 2014)
Fruitful Body – Nico-Pun-Nise (June 2014)
Hard Temptation – Ryuichi Hoshino (May 2014)
Her Sensitive Spot – Nikusoukyu (January 2014)
I Am Not Your Maid!! – Rumi Matsunami (October 2014)
I’m Coming With You! – Tadataka Kawasaki (TBA)
My Pretty Idol Girlfriend – Rumi Matsunami (March 2014)
Naughty Wives (Vol.01) – Rumi Matsunami (August 2014)
Naughty Wives (Vol.02) – Rumi Matsunami (December 2014)
Nurse’s Sweet Naked Truth – Shinobu/Masato Yamasaki (July 2014)
Sweet Emotions – Kobato Takahashi (February 2014)
Vagina Manifesto – Kamitani (September 2014)

These licenses were announced via the company’s Twitter account last Tuesday. Talk about planning ahead, huh? If their recent scheduling for hentai titles hold up, than Project-H’s readers will have no want for new books for quite some time. All these books are set for print editions only, with exception of I’m Coming With You!. All the other books could have possible digital editions in the future, but none are confirmed now. All the books are priced at the current standard for Project-H releases, which is $17.95/US, $19.99/CAN. As always with Project-H, all of these books are absolutely not for kids.

In a recent interview with Digital Manga’s Yoko Tanigaki (which shall be posted soon, so stay tuned!), she said that sales for Project-H books were doing well via the direct market (ie: ordering via retailers through Diamond Comics). I have to think, though the names are definitely amusing, it must be an experience going into a store to order a copy of Nurses’s Sweet Naked Truth or Vagina Manifesto – but at least you and the clerk already have a pretty good idea of what you’re gonna get!

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Hentai, Manga, Project-H

Seven Seas Returns to Wonderland With Two New Alice Licenses

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, January 10, 2013

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Alice in the the Country of Hearts was a really pleasant surprise to me when I reviewed Yen Press’s omnibus edition last year. Since then, there’s been several spin-offs of the series released and there seems to be no sign of them stopping now. It’s great to see a series doing well, and even more interesting that two publishers are able to work to bring it out to fans.

AnimeNewsNetwork confirmed two new Alice licenses from Seven Seas that originally popped up on Amazon early December:

Alice in the Country of Clover: Ace of Hearts
Amazon US|CAN – July 2013, ($13.99/US, $15.99/CAN)

“Ace, the Knight of Heart Castle, is known throughout Wonderland not only for his master swordsmanship, but for his tendency towards cruelty. Can the charming Alice Lidell mellow Ace and his violent ways? Perhaps Ace will even fall in love with Alice…if he doesn’t kill her first.”

Alice in the Country of Hearts: Clockmaker’s Story
Amazon US|CAN – August 2013, ($13.99/US, $15.99/CAN)

“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?”

Both these relases are written by the story’s original creator Quinrose, and drawn by Mamenosuke Fujimaru who is the artist for most of the Alice spin-off stories.

Of the two one-shots, I’m looking forward to the Clockmaker’s Story in particular. While reading the original multi-volume series, my favourite character was Julius and he was also one of the characters with some of the most unique responsibilities in the strange world of Wonderland. Granted, Ace was interesting though albeit prone to being pretty scary sometimes. I’m not sure how much I want to read about either of them getting romantically involved with Alice, but that is the purpose of these books so we’ll see who I end up preferring! It’s a really interesting opportunity for fans to get to pick and choose which books they want to read based on what couples they’re most interested in seeing played out.

Seven Seas has previously released two other series under the Alice in the Country of Clover arc of stories – Bloody Twins (starring the story’s Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum equivalents) and Cheshire Cat Waltz (starring the Cheshire Cat, Boris). They also have the first volume of their upcoming series Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game due out this February. Yen Press released the first volume of Alice in the Country of Hearts: Fanatic Rabbit (starring the March Hare) this past December.

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

Fantagraphics Publishing Inio Asano’s Horror Series, Nijigahara Holograph

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, January 9, 2013

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Fantagraphics is hitting off the new year with a new license already, announcing though Robot 6, that they will be releasing Inio Asano’s Nijigahara Holograph.

Viz Media has released two books by Inio Asano – What A Wonderful World and solanin. Both are great reads that have a keen sensitivity and sympathy to being a young adult and struggling with the decisions that will define and effect your life. Because I know Inio Asano writes for characters so well and feeling so grounded, I’m all the more curious about reading this new book because unlike those previous two, this is a horror story. Sometimes stories of the human mind are easily the scariest of all! And then toss bugs in the mix? Eep.

“Even as butterflies ominously proliferate in town, the rumor of a mysterious creature lurking in the tunnel behind the school spreads among the children. When the body of Arié Kimura’s mother is found by this tunnel’s entrance, next to apparently human traces, the legend seems to be confirmed. Is the end of the world coming? In order to appease the wrath of the beast, the children decide to offer it a sacrifice: The unfortunate Arié, whom they believe to be the cause of the curse, is shoved into a well that leads to the Nijigahara tunnel — an act that in turns pushes Komatsuzaki, the budding thug who has carried a torch for Arié for a while already, entirely over the edge.

But this is only the beginning of the complex, challenging, obliquely told Nijigahara Holograph, which takes place in two separate timelines and involves the suicidal Suzuki; Higure, his stalkerish would-be girlfriend; and their teacher Miss Sakaki, whose heavily bandaged face remains a mystery; and many more — brothers, sisters, parents, co-workers, teach- ers, aggressors and victims who are all inextricably linked to one another and all will eventually — ten years later — have to live with what they’ve done or suffered through.”

Nijigahara Holograph will be released as a single, 200-page hardcover book for $26.99/US, which should be around $33.99/CAN based on their past releases. You can see some sample pages provided by Fantagraphics over at Robot 6. Currently there’s no set release date that’s been publicly announced.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Fantagraphics, Inio Asano, Manga

Mature Farewell to 2012: Project-H Licenses Two New Titles

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, December 18, 2012

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Digital Manga‘s hentai imprint, Project-H, is ending the year as they lived it – with new licenses!

Nyotai-Ka! (Vol. 01-04) – Ru-en Rouga
Sexless Friend (Vol. 01) – Kakei Hidetaka

Both titles are scheduled for print releases, likely in summer 2014. Personally it’s a little weird getting these license announcements this early. There’s over a year and a half’s wait for the first book! At least by then the news will be fresh again… right? The current prices are listed at $19.99/CAN and $17.95/US, per volume.

Nyotai-Ka! is about a young man who wakes up one day to discover he’s suddenly been turned into a woman, and a very attractive completely-irresistible-to-all-others sort of attractive too. He learns that the only way to turn back is to become aroused, but the ‘condition’ comes with a unique set of exceptions and loopholes. This series is complete at four volumes.

Sexless Friend, which is currently only one volume but on-going, follows a student who is troubled by the pushy romantic advances he receives from the girls at his college. His interest lies in the more shy and reserved but he doesn’t want to hurt the girls by telling them so. All the same, he can’t help but be attracted to one of his teachers. After helping her home one night after too many drinks, he learns much more than he expected about her.

Digital Manga’s online store, Akadot, currently has some good deals on a number of their Project-H books, while RightStuf has a hefty sale on their non-hentai titles (boys’ love galore!).

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: DMP, Hentai, Manga, Project-H

Yaoi Con 2012: Digital Manga Deals Out New BL, Pups and eManga News

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, October 28, 2012

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Along with being the host for this year’s Yaoi Con, Digital Manga Publishing was also present still as publisher with licenses to announce and word of big changes coming to their online digital manga store, eManga.

Digital Manga’s new for-print license announcements were:

As Many as There Are Stars – Matsumo Miecohouse
Does the Flower Bloom? – Shoko Hidaka
Kinoko Inu, the Mushroom Pup – Kimama Aoboshi
(A) New Season of Young Leaves – Venio Tachibana & Akeno Kitahata

Admittedly I was surprised by how little Digital Manga Publishing how to announce, especially at what is now pretty much their convention. It wasn’t even all boys’ love they announced either, and while that’s not in itself a bad thing, this was Yaoi Con after all. And then there’s the fact that what is likely their biggest announcement – Shimotsuki Kari’s Brave 10 (pictured above on the left) – will be digital only and published via their quality-inconsistent, Digital Manga Guild.

As Many as There Are Stars is a boys’ love one-shot by an artist being published for the first time in English. I can’t say much about it except for a really cute cover staring a very androgynous looking lead (Amazon.jp). A New Season of Young Leaves is another one-shot boys’ love book (Amazon.jp), which I can’t say anything about concretely past there’s likely students, one has glasses and they very, very likely will be romantically involved. Yep!

Does The Flower Bloom is a multi-volume boys’ love series by Shoko Hidaka, who has had two books released by DMP in the past (Restart & Not Enough Time). Currently the series is three volumes long and stars a budding relationship between a college student and older salary man who bond over a magazine they both read.

The two series DMP announced that aren’t boys’ love are Kinoko Inu and Brave 10. Granted, Brave 10 does seem ripe with boys’ love subtext and is also by the same creator of BLU’s Madness. I would be most interested in this one if not published via DMG, which combines two of my very few pet-peeves about manga publishing – digital only and poor quality control. Kinoko Inu is a one-shot title (though it does look to have a follow-up volume) starring a chubby little dog with a mushroom head decoration. And it’s… pink? Said ‘mushroom pup’ pictured in this post’s header image and that’s all I’ve got on it (DMP – please start including synopsis with all your licensing announcements, please and thank you!). Cute though, definitely looks cute.

DMP also announced new volumes of titles they’re currently publishing – Depression of the Antiromanticist (Vol. 02), Hey, Class President (Vol. 05), ZE (Vol. 08-11) and Itazura na Kiss (Vol. 12).

Digital Manga also announced that eManga will be going through a big transformation that will include being able to download their manga after you purchase it, giving readers a lot more control over how and where they read it. I don’t purchase digital manga often, but when I have purchased manga volumes it’s only been via DRM-free files that I can read freely on my iPad without internet dependence . Plus, no more point system! I’m a lot more likely to explore DMP’s digital-only library when they relaunch eManga this way, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they roll out in November.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, Conventions, Digital, DM Guild, DMP, June, Manga, Yaoi Con 2012

YaoiCon 2012: SuBLimeManga Embraces BL Love With New Titles

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, October 17, 2012

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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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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, Conventions, Manga, Omnibus, Sleeping Moon, SuBLime, Yaoi Con 2012

NYCC 2012: Viz Media Announces Tiger & Bunny, Pepita and Alpha Prints

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, October 15, 2012

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The last big manga panel of NYCC 2012 was Viz Media‘s who had a couple exciting titles to cap-off one of the year’s biggest conventions.

Pepita: Takehiko Inoue Meets Antonio – Takehiko Inoue
Sunny – Taiyo Matsumoto
Tiger & Bunny – Mizuki Sukikobara
Tiger & Bunny (Anthology) – Multiple Artists

Along with these titles, they’ve confirmed that two series currently running in Shonen Jump Alpha will be brought to collected print editions as well:

Barrage – Kōhei Horikoshi
Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration – Nobuhiro Watsuki

Easy pick for the titles I’m most eager for are the Tiger & Bunny books. I still haven’t even seen the original anime series – not available to stream in Canada – but I’ve heard so many good things about it that I’m immensely curious to experience it in any form. I also purchased a volume of the Tiger & Bunny anthology series for a friend so I’ve first hand how fun that is. The first of the two T&B licenses is a manga adaptation of the series, while the anthology collection is a series of books collecting an assortment of short stories from a variety of creators.

Pepita sounds like a very potentially worthwhile read as well, described by Viz Media as such: “Antoni Gaudi was the world leader of Catalan modernist movement in architecture. Takehiko Inoue is one of the premier manga artists in the world. Inoue’s journey to Spain and to the world of Gaudi is half travel memoir, half art book, and all beauty.” Meanwhile Sunny is a new title from Taiyo Matsumoto, the creator of Tekkonkinkreet, so that in itself makes me intrigued.

Viz Media also announced they’ll be releasing 3-in-1 omnibus volumes of Dragonball and D.Grayman starting June of next year. I’m not sure what the difference will be with these new Dragonball omnibus compared to their previously released VizBIG versions, but we shall see. I’m pleased to see D.Grayman getting the omnibus treatment; it’s a series I’ve been meaning to start. Each volume of these omnibus edition will be priced at $14.99/US, $16.99/CAN.

You can read all the nitty-gritty details and extra tidbits at ANN’s write-up of Viz Media’s panel.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Conventions, Manga, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Omnibus, Rurouni Kenshin, Viz Media

NYCC 2012: Yen Press Announces New Madoka, Alice and Artbooks

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, October 15, 2012

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Yen Press took the stage – quite literally it sounds – this past week at NYCC to announce a handful of new manga licenses and upcoming releases. For new titles, behold the following:

Are You Alice? – Ai Ninomiya & Ikumi Katagiri
K-ON! highschool – kakifly
K-ON! college – kakifly
Puella Magi Kazumi Magica ~The innocent malice~ – Takashi Tensugi
Puella Magi Oriko Magica – Chloe Mura

The two K-ON books are sequels to the original K-ON manga, which Yen Press is currently publishing, while the two Puella Magi series are spin-offs of their origin story, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. As two of Yen Press’s most popular titles, it’s no surprise to see their franchises get further title exploration. Good news for the fans!

The solo entirely-new series in this batch is Are You Alice?, a story based on Alice in Wonderland but that sees a young man don the name of Alice and become embroiled in a sinister, non-nonsensical game of kill-the-white-rabbit. The story sounds neat though not especially gripping by synopsis alone. The art though really caught my eye when I was looking it up. I see some eye-candy on the horizon at the very least.

Other neat news of the panel was word that Yen Press will be releasing a Soul Eater art book next year including colour pages from the original manga and a bunch of character illustrations. Down the road they also plan to release an art book based on Highschool of the Dead. It likely goes without saying that you can expect plenty of blood, boobs and butts from that one.

I was hoping for a little more from Yen Press at NYCC, but spin-offs or not, five new titles is still something to be appreciative for and I’ll very likely be picking up Are You Alice? when it’s released next year. Of the announcements, I’m actually most excited to see them delving into art book territory. I love manga art books!

For more coverage on Yen Press’s panel, including news about their digital ventures, I recommend ANN’s full write up of the show.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Conventions, Manga, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Yen Press