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NYCC 2012: Kodansha Comics Licenses No. 6, Sailor Moon Artbook…

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, October 14, 2012

It was Kodansha Comics‘ turn to impress today at NYCC with a handful of new licenses:

No. 6 – Atsuko Asano & Hinoki Kino
Sankarea: Undying Love – Mitsuru Hattori
Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode – Mia Ikumi
Vinland Saga – Makoto Yukimura

Kodansha Comics is bound to have made many readers really happy today with these titles. I have no experience with any of them myself but I’ve seen rallying cries for No. 6 and Vinland Saga, in particular, for quite a while. These are the two I’m most excited to read by reputation alone (and all the adorable No. 6 fanart that continues to litter art sites doesn’t hurt either). Sankarea sounds bizarre enough to potentially give a try and Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode I’ll likely pick up out of affection for its predecessor, Tokyo Mew Mew.

You can read a synopsis for all Kodansha Comics’ newest titles on their website. Huzzah for new license announcements that include titles, creator credits, release dates and synopsis’s! Volume one of No. 6 and Sankarea are scheduled for a June 2013 release, while Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode and Vinland Saga will be released that following winter.

Along with their new titles, Kodansha Comics also announced they’d be speeding up the print copies of Fairy Tail to one a month in order to catch up with Japan. This will begin in March 2013 with volume twenty-four. The series itself is currently over thirty volumes in Japan.

Air Gear – which Kodansha Comics has released up to volume twenty-six so far – is due to be released in omnibus format from the beginning. The first volume of this new edition will be released in May 2013.

A bonus treat announced today was that Kodansha Comics would be handling the English publication of an upcoming Sailor Moon art book that’s due to be published worldwide in 2013. All editions released globally will have the same paperback trim size, plus dust jacket, and art content including some of the most popular Sailor Moon drawings along with new artwork by the series creator, Naoki Takeuchi. Kodansha Comics also confirmed that after they finish publishing the original manga series, they will be releasing the series of Sailor Moon short stories as well. (Src: A Case Suitable For Treatment)

And last, but not least – though I don’t believe this was announced during their Saturday panel – Kodansha Comics has relaunched their website with a new layout. It doesn’t offer any new content but does load a lot more nicely than their previous site. There is a blog section currently marked as Coming Soon that could offer some interesting new info and insight in the future, much like Vertical Inc’s newly relaunched on-site blog. (Note: Lack of link to Vertical’s blog is due to numerous virus warnings on Vertical’s site in recent weeks; better safe than sorry!)

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Air Gear, Conventions, Kodansha Comics, Manga, No.6, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Omnibus, Sailor Moon, Sankarea

NYCC 2012: Vertical Nabs Tezuka’s Twin Knights, Okazaki’s Helter Skelter

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, October 13, 2012

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It begins! New York Comic Con 2012 is this weekend and there’s been a lot of anticipation that this would be the big news event of the year for comics and manga. It’s a great show, having an audience big enough to be an important promotional opportunity but without all the same Hollywood-suffocation of SDCC. This is the first time in a few years I haven’t attended, but fortunately there’s no shortage of Twitter tweets and news posts to keep us all informed of the news as it breaks.

Vertical Inc. was one of the first to provide us eager readers with manga news. They’ve licensed two new series both due out next year:

Twin Knights – Osamu Tezuka
Helter Skelter – Kyoko Okazaki

Of the two, Twin Knights is definitely the big news for me. It’s a sequel series to Tezuka’s Princess Knight which Vertical released in two omnibus volumes last year. This follow-up story takes place years in the future with the birth of Princess Sapphire’s twin children – Prince Daisy and Princess Violetta. When the two grow older, the son is kidnapped and his sister juggles her own identity while pretending to be him in order to go out and make a rescue. Sounds great to me!

The other series really piques my interest as well. I haven’t heard of Helter Skelter in detail until now but it sounds like a story that fits well in Vertical’s library of books which includes titles like Lychee Light Club, Black Jack and 7 Billion Needles.

“Helter Skelter revolves around Ririko, a model who underwent extensive plastic surgery to attain her beauty. The clinic who performed Ririko’s surgeries goes under investigation for questionable business practices, and Ririko’s body starts to deteriorate. As the model’s prominence in the entertainment industry begins to falter, so does her sanity.” – AnimeNewsNetwork

The first volume of Twin Knights will be released in July 2013 for $12.95/US, $13.95/CAN. Volume one of Helter Skelter will premiere in July 2013 as well for $16.95/US, $18.95/CAN.

ANN has a full write-up of the event, including this interesting tidbit “…gauging interest in starting a subscription model so that series will stay in print.”. Fantagraphics recently offered a subscription-like service for their series, Wandering Son. Omnibus volumes were a big trend-shift for print manga in North America – could subscription models be next? If it’ll keep printed books in my hands, then sign me up! My only real issue with subscriptions directly with publishers is cutting out the comic-store middle man, but it’s all test-and-see now.

Back to the manga goods in closing – two awesome licenses! Excellent choices, Vertical. I’m eagerly awaiting them both next summer.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: 7 Billion Needles, Conventions, Helter Skelter, Manga, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Osamu Tezuka, Vertical Inc

Seven Seas Adds Swords, Sorcery and Spirits With Three New Licenses

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 4, 2012

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Seven Seas slipped out some more licenses this week, confirming their acquisition of three new series with AnimeNewsNetwork.

Kanokon – Katsumi Nishino and Rin Yamaki
The Sacred Blacksmith – Isao Miura and Kōtarō Yamada
Zero’s Familiar – Noboru Yamaguchi and Nana Mochizuki

A listing for Kanokon originally showed up on Amazon (US/CAN) a couple weeks back. I originally thought it was the release of the light novels which Seven Seas had announced years ago but never released. Not the case. Instead Seven Seas will be releasing this manga adaptation of it as 2-in-1 omnibus editions for $19.99/US, $21.99/CAN each. The first book is due out, according to Amazon, in April 2013.

“Innocent country boy Oyamada Kouta transfers to a big city high school in his freshman year, and from day one, his life enters a world of crazy. First, a beautiful second-year student named Chizuru professes her love to him, then reveals that she is in fact a fox spirit. Frisky and flirty, she suggestively teases naive Kouta in front of his classmates, embarrassing him to no end. If that wasn’t enough, a gorgeous wolf spirit named Nozomu suddenly transfers to Kouta’s class and decides she wants the hapless country boy for herself. As fox girl and wolf girl vie for his heart, does Kouta have any say in this?” – Seven Seas via ANN

The Sacred Blacksmith will be a familiar looking title to manga-license followers. It was licensed by Tokyopop not long before the company was shut down, before they had released any volumes. The series will now be published by Seven Seas in single volume editions for $12.99/US, $14.99/CAN. There are no listings yet to suggest when the title’s first volume will come out.

“Like her father and grandfather before her, Cecily Campbell has entered the knighthood and joined the ranks of the Knight Guards of Houseman. Eager to do her heritage proud and defend her city, Cecily rushes to the marketplace to stop a madman from terrorizing the populace. She quickly realizes, however, that she is hopelessly outmatched and ill-prepared for an actual fight. A lone figure named Luke Ainsworth swoops to the rescue, a swordsman and blacksmith of much renown, who will repair the broken sword Cecily has inherited from her father and take her down a road of perilous adventure beyond her wildest dreams.” – Seven Seas via ANN

And last but not lest, Zero’s Familiar, which is also an adaptation of a light novel like the previous two. Seven Seas will release this series as 3-in-1 omnibus editions for $19.99/US, $21.99/CAN.

“In a world where sorcery reigns supreme, bumbling witch-in-training Louise Francoise le Blanc is known by her classmates at the Tristain Academy of Magic as “Louise the Zero.” During an important coming-of-age ritual, when each student must summon a lifelong familiar, Louise proves herself inept when she mistakenly conjures a teenage boy from earth. Now, whether she likes it or not, Louise “the Zero” and Saito, the ever-whining earth boy from Japan, are bound by the laws of magic as master and servant forever!” – Seven Seas via ANN

Of the three new licenses, I think I’m most curious about Zero’s Familiar. I’m a sucker for almost anything magic and fantasy related, and while The Sacred Blacksmith piques my interest with the more classic fantasy setting, the idea of a clumsy witch accidentally summoning a human boy as her familiar sounds too amusing to pass up.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Manga, Omnibus, Seven Seas

AWA 2012: Dark Horse Expands Franchises With New Trigun and EVA

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, October 2, 2012

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Dark Horse was the second publisher to share some good news at this year’s Anime Weekend Atlanta, announcing that they had licensed two new spin-offs of their popular franchises.

NGE: Shinji Ikari Detective Diary – Takumi Yoshimura
Trigun: Multiple Bullets – Multi-Author Anthology

Shinji Ikari Detective Diary is a Neon Genesis Evangelion spin-off that takes place in an alternate universe where Kaworu and Kaiji are detectives who the lead, Shinji, seeks out for help. Like the other NGE spin-offs, several of which Dark Horse has published already, this series likely won’t have a plot at all similar to its source material but instead utilize the same characters to offer fans the cast in a new setting. I’m not a big Evangelion fan to begin with, but I’ll admit the detective story does pique my interest somewhat.

Trigun: Multiple Bullets is an anthology of short stories all done by different artists, including the series’ creator, Yasuhiro Nightow. You can read more information about the creators involved at AnimeNewsNetwork’s post about the acquisition. Dark Horse announced a similar book, Evangelion: Comic Tribute, back in the Spring.

Dark Horse also stated that they’ll be releasing the original Trigun series in omnibus editions, and will be doing the same for Lone Wolf and Cub. Lone Wolf and Cub has been published by Dark Horse for over a decade (while first being published in English back in the eighties by a now defunct company) in small mini volumes. These new omnibus editions will be more the standard manga volume size, which is a great development to see. I always thought the artwork in the series would be better served with a larger trim cut.

No information was given as to when and for how much these new books will be released.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Conventions, Dark Horse, Evangelion, Manga, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Omnibus, Trigun

AWA 2012: Vertical Inc Announces Omnibus Release of Utsubora

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, October 1, 2012

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Anime Weekend Atlanta took place this weekend and the first manga licensing announcements of the event came from Vertical Inc as they revealed their license for Asumiko Nakamura’s Utsubora.

This is Asumiko Nakamura’s first time having a series licensed for print in English (she had a one-shot published in Tokyopop’s Gothic & Lolita Bible), but she’s got some popularity as a manga artist for all sorts of different genres including boys’ love, supernatural and comedy. Utsubora is a mystery series that seems ripe with the dark psychological twists that are a good fit in Vertical Inc’s library.

A synopsis from AnimeNewsNetwork:

“The story begins when Aki Fujino, a beautiful girl who the novelist Mizorogi knew, dies under mysterious circumstances. Then a girl appears before Mizorogi, and although she introduces herself as Aki’s twin sister Sakura, her true identity is a complete mystery. As Mizorogi’s past ties with Aki come to light, people begin to suspect him of plagiarism. Mizorogi’s life spirals deeper into darkness as his editor and the police probe further into Aki’s death and Mizorogi’s connection with her.”

While originally two volumes long, Vertical will be releasing the series in one omnibus volume in June 2013.

It feels like it’s been forever since I first pondered if omnibus editions were going to become a manga-industry normality in North America. I think it’s safe to say that’s now the case. A lot of new manga licenses are being announced in this format, not to mention all the re-releases of older series. No complaints from me! Aside from a few bookshelf discrepancies, the money saved and lots-of-manga-one-go aspect of the omnibus editions makes me happy indeed.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: AWA 2012, Conventions, Manga, Vertical Inc

Seven Seas Announces License of Milk Morinaga Short Story Collection

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, September 30, 2012

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New manga licenses! While Anime Weekend Atlanta is taking place this weekend, Seven Seas preempted the convention with a manga license they confirmed with Anime News Network – Milk Morinaga’s Kisses, Signs, and Cherry Blossom Pink.

This is the second title by Milk Morinaga to be licensed in English, the first being her series, Girl Friends. KSCBP is another yuri series, but instead of the linear Girl Friends, is a collection of fourteen short stories. Seven Seas will release them all in one book (approx. 320 pages) in June 2013.

“Sakuraki Girls High—an all girls school where interrelated tales of love occur. In “Even if We’re Not Friends,” Nana and Hitomi have been dear friends since childhood, but when Nana gets into the exclusive Sakuraki High while Hitomi doesn’t, their true feelings for each other emerge. In “The Summer Closest to Heaven,” Natsuka is a ghost who resides at the school, still in love with one of the living students who is now the school nurse. In “A Kiss, Love, and a Prince,” Narumi gets her first kiss from Tachiba in the school play, and is shocked at being kissed by a girl.”

Having just recently finished Seven Seas’ very shortly upcoming edition of Girl Friends (Vol.01), this announcement makes me doubly excited. I really loved Milk Morinaga’s writing – it was definitely one of the more emotionally thought out and ‘real’ works I’ve read in manga. Ah the internal dramatic s of love. I’ve long since been a fan of her artwork thanks to a couple Japanese editions I own (and alas could not understand until now!), and let me assure you that it’s wonderful. Seven Seas also did a great job with the book, barring a few unfortunately placed little typos, so I’m happy to see this new Milk Morinaga title in their hands. It’ll be a long wait until next June!

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Manga, Seven Seas, Yuri

Project-H Bids Farewell to Summer with Four New Hentai Licenses

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, September 20, 2012

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Autumn is upon us! The rapidly dropping temperature is proof enough for me. This has been a busy summer for Digital Manga‘s hentai imprint, Project-H, and earlier this week they ended the season with an additional four new licenses.

Bust to Bust – Yasuiriosuke
Pink Bunny Play Time – Alice Sid
PuruPuru Hearts – Satsuki Kanna
A Sensual Ladies Man – Hitoshi Kino

All four books are one-shots priced at $17.95/US, $19.99/CAN and will be released as both print and digital editions, a new but growing trend for PH books it seems (which were primarily print-only at first). Project-H also noted that all four of these titles would be uncensored and, of course, will all come with a warning for mature readers only (no kids allowed!).

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

Don’t Pet the Bunny – Yen Press Licenses Yoshiki Tonogai’s Doubt

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, September 11, 2012

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It’s new manga license time! AnimeNewsNetwork reported last week that Yen Press has licensed Yoshiki Tonogai’s manga series, Doubt.

Getting past my initial ‘holy-cripes-that’s-a-scary-cover’ reaction, it sounds like an interesting series. Very suspense-heavy potential and I like that it isn’t too long a series. With only two volumes to commit to, it’s more than safe enough to satisfy my curousity with!

“A Japanese cell phone game called Rabbit Doubt has gone viral in Tokyo. In it, players are rabbits who must do everything in their power to uncover the wolf in rabbit’s clothing before it kills them off. The wolf, a randomly selected player, must use his wiles to create mistrust among the rabbits and knock his adversaries off one by one. When five fans of this game decide to meet offline for fun, the last thing they expect is to lose consciousness and wake up trapped in an abandoned building with a corpse strung up in front of them, a mysterious barcode tattooed on each of their bodies. Will the virtual friends be able to pull it together in the real world and figure out what’s going on in time to avoid ending up the wolf’s dinner?”

The series, which was originally four volumes long, will be released in two 2-in-1 omnibus editions for $20.99/CAN ($18.99/US) each. The first book is due out April 2013. A listing for volume one appeared on Amazon.com earlier this month.

This is Yoshiki Tonoga’s second time published in English, with the first being Yen Press’s editions of Higurashi When They Cry: Time Killing Arc for which Yoshiki Tonoga was the artist.

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Tags: Yen Press

Stocking the Mature Shelves – Project-H Announces 20 New Hentai Titles

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, September 7, 2012

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Manga news has been a bit slow lately as con season wraps up, schools re-open and everyone who was away for shiny summer vacations returns to their work desks. Itching for signs of new title life from the manga publishers? Never fear, Project-H is here! …again!

With the imprint having only just passed it’s first year in existence, they’ve just passed a whopping 82 licenses. Say what you will of the individual titles, but 82 books licensed for print in a year is a pretty nice number indeed. This random interesting tidbit of hentai manga news was prompted to you by Project-H’s newest Twitter spree of licenses this past Wednesday:

Boing Boing – Yamatogawa
Dinner At The Shimoedas – Ayumu Miyahara
Fetishisms: Gone Wild – Takumi Adachi
Fetishisms: Gone Wilder – Takumi Adachi
Fetishisms: Virgins – Takumi Adachi
Her and Her Uniform – Hiroshi Itaba
How Good Was I? – Yamatogawa
How to Get Dumped in Style – KUBUKURIN
Makunouchi Deluxe (Vol.01-03) – Joji Manabe
(The) Moon And The Sun – Syatikamaboko
Naughty Boobs – Yumeiro Gurasan
Nurse’s Paradise (Vol.01-02) – Rei Arou
Nurse’s Secrets – Takuma Harazaki
Power Play! – Yamatogawa
Puppy Lust – Toshi
Splash to Love (Vol.01-02) – KUBUKURIN
Teach Me A Lesson – Hiroshi Itaba

Each of the books will be released in print at a cost of $17.95/US, $19.99/CAN. None have release dates announced yet. A rarity in Project-H’s steadily growing library is Puppy Lust, which is also due for a digital release. Suffice to say, as hentai titles, all the aforementioned books will be rated 18+.

For information about when Digital Manga titles will be released, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on their website which lists title information as it becomes available. It’s recently been updated with a number of their summer announced Project-H titles as well. Via their Twitter account, Project-H has also posted current production schedules for 2012 and 2013.

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

Project-H Continues License Lap-Up with Four New Hentai One-Shots

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, August 12, 2012

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Another day, another list of Project-H licenses. Great news for hentai fans because 2013 is going to have some hefty release lists for the 18+ genre. This convention season has been pretty weak for manga licenses, excluding Project-H’s – can anyone possibly compete with Digital Manga’s current for-print titles? The clock is ticking!

These new titles were announced on Friday via the Project-H Twitter account:

Late Bloomers – Okano Ahiru
Sex Toys – Sho Aoi
Fetishisms: Sexy Wives – Takumi Adachi
Fetishisms: Immoral – Takumi Adachi

All four books will be released in 2013 and at the new standard Project-H price of $17.95/US, $19.99/CAN.

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