Kuriousity | manga reviews and news

Archive for the Licensing Category

Kuriousity at SDCC: Shonen Jump

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, July 24, 2009

Viz Media’s Shonen Jump panel is happening as I type here at San Diego Comic Con. My first industry panel so forgive that I only have time to share so much right away ;) This post will be updated with a full overview of the panel later this afternoon. Edit: Post updated! See under the cut for the rest of the panel information.

The big announcements of the panel were two new licenses:

Toriko by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro
Originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2008
Toriko a “gourmet hunter” knows that “food tastes better when you have to gather it with blood, sweat and tears.”

Bakuman by Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba
Originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2008
“The mystery behind manga-making revealed!”

The first guest of the panel is Hiroyuki Takei, creator of Shaman King and artist of the currently running Ultimo. Second guest is Stan Lee, the King of American comics himself (creator of such popular series as the X-Men and Spiderman). Excuse me while I try to catch my breath and get back to you!

Yen Press Licenses Kuroshitsuji, Offers 6-Month Yen Plus Subs

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, July 12, 2009

5 Comments »

Early in the week Yen Press posted about their upcoming August 2009 issue of the monthly Yen Plus anthology. Debuting in the magazine is a new licensed series that they had yet to announce.

A reader over on the Mania forums says that they’ve seen a copy of the August issue and the new license is Kuroshitsuji by Yana Toboso. It will be released under the name Black Butler in English. While this has yet to be officially confirmed, it seems a safe bet for a series that not only has a strong preexisting fanbase but is also a Square Enix-owned manga series, by whom Yen Press has multiple series from already.

In their magazine post, Yen Press has also made note that from now on subscriptions to Yen Plus will be for six-months at a time instead of a full year.

“…from here on out, new subscriptions to Yen Plus will be for six months at a time rather than for the full year. The cost will be the same ($25.99 for six months), but you won’t have to shell out for that full year’s subscription all at once. So hopefully that makes things a bit more affordable and convenient for you all!”

Yen Press is also nearing its one year anniversary since the first volume was released in August 2008. Congrats to Yen Press for a successful year! The artist of their series Maximum Ride, NaRae Lee, will be attending the upcoming San Diego Comic Con as well.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing
Tags: Black Butler, Manga, Yen Press

801Media Confirms Yellow 2, Omnibus Edition

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, July 7, 2009

2 Comments »

Fresh back from this past weekend’s Anime Expo, the 801Media blog has been updated with information regarding Digital Manga’s upcoming omnibus edition of Yellow and the semi-mysterious listing of Yellow 2 that popped up on Amazon sometime ago.

I recieved a few e-mails from people asking if I could clarify my own hypothesis regarding the listing, and though I couldn’t offer anything info-wise before, now 801Media has confirmed my suspicions were correct. Yellow 2 will in fact be a sequel series to Makoto Tateno’s Yellow, a set of short stories that have thus far only been released in Japan on cellphones.

“These are called Yellow 2: Episode 1. It’s a sequel to the Yellow series. These have never been published before, but they have been distributed only in Japan via cell phones and hand-held portable devices. DMP is extremely lucky to be able to license these series! Yes, there are many more to come, of course. Episode 2, 3, 4 … etc etc These will be hitting the US market as a short-comic style, containing approximately 60 pages or so. It’s a classic Makoto Tateno!”

These are “tentatively slated for October 2009” and there will be limited copies available at Yaoi Con 2009.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty excited to have something released here so fresh and first-to-print. Even more so excited that it looks like we’ll be seeing it long before another semi-similar project that’s been leaving us fans waiting a long time. Fingers crossed for more projects like this from Digital Manga in the future. Don’t let their efforts be for naught, boys’ love fans :)

Edit: To clarify, it was the 801Media website that confirmed the releases but they’ll both be printed under the June imprint, just as the original Yellow series was.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing
Tags: 801Media, Boys' Love/Yaoi, Makoto Tateno, Manga

Anime Expo 2009 Round-Up

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, July 6, 2009

2 Comments »

Anime Expo 2009 rounds up today down in Los Angeles which means it’s time for a quick news round-up. Industry presence seems considerably less this year, an observation that I make as someone who wasn’t able to attend mind you, and the announcement list is considerably smaller than the whopping 61 manga licenses that Anime Expo 2008 had for us. Goes to show how the industry’s changed over the past year I suppose, right? Anime Expo did continue its reputation as the largest anime convention in North America however with an attendence of over 44,000.

For the manga news, check out my round-up under the cut.

Summer Predictions for Tokyopop on Amazon.com

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, July 5, 2009

5 Comments »

While many manga fans are enjoying con season for some in-person news, Amazon continues to offer glimpses into the future a little ahead of schedule. Today I came across a few new titles from Tokyopop over on Amazon.com, so enjoy :) But remember, this doesn’t neccessarily guarantee a release until we hear from Tokyopop directly (or see the title in this month’s Diamond previews; yay for Kazusa’s Mad Love Chase!)

Kokaku Detective Story (Vol. 01)
Yoshitsugu Katagiri

Happy Cafe (Vol. 01)
Kou Matsuzuki

Hanako and the Teller of Allegory (Vol. 01)
Sakae Esuno

.hack//CELL (Vol. 01)
Ryo Suzukaze & Akira Mutsuki

Deadman Wonderland (Vol. 01)
by Jinsei Kataoka & Kazuma Kondou

Not much surprise seeing another .hack series but it’s of course good news for the fans out there. The title I’m most interested in however is Deadman Wonderland (pictured above). The artist is the same manga-ka behind Eureka Seven and the plot sounds like a cool combination of gladiatorial battles and supernatural drama.

What about everyone else, looking forward to some of these titles?

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing
Tags: Manga, Tokyopop

Amazon Lists CMX Titles, Stolen Hearts and The World I Create

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, June 16, 2009

4 Comments »

Two new listings popped up on Amazon.ca today, both listed from CMX, the manga imprint of comic-giant, DC. The titles are Stolen Hearts (Vol. 01) by Miku Sakamoto and The World I Create (Vol. 01) by Ayami Kazama. I wasn’t able to find information on either of the titles past what the Amazon listings provide, but based on the name Ayami Kazama I was at least able to provide an adorable cat-kid for the image. It may not be entirely relevant but it sure is cute, right? Both Amazon titles are listed for release in early 2010.

Edit: Stolen Hearts, original name Toraware Gokko, is currently running in Japan’s Hana to Yume magazine with three compiled volumes so far. Japanese Amazon pages for these books in their original release can be seen here and here. Information updates compliments of Toukochan (Twi), Kilthan (Twi) and Michelle Smith.

On a more informative note, the new edition of Battle Royale that Viz Media is putting out in November 2009 (according to Amazon), now has a slick cover design uploaded. On the cover are some of the books’ facts including “Foreward by Max Allan Collins, Newly Revised Text, Interview With Director Kinji Fukasaku and 22 Extra Pages by Author Koushun Takami”.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing
Tags: CMX

Tokyopop Title Tips, New News About Old News

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, May 29, 2009

4 Comments »

A couple new Amazon finds today (feels like it’s been a while, doesn’t it?) and a few updates on some old news. Hold onto your seats, this could prove mildly of interest to you!

First off, Tokyopop has two new series listed over on Amazon.ca, both listed for February 2010:

Portrait of M and N (Vol. 01) – Tachibana Higuchi
Alice in the Country of Hearts – Unknown

Likely related to recent Domo-promotion news, Tokyopop also has a listing for Domo 7/11 Exclusive. No real idea what that is, but it’s atleast being sold to us considerably cheaper than whatever the heck these are: Pop Display — 2009 Volume 3: Chibi Vampire and Pop Display — 2009 Volume 4: Domo 7-11 Box. $431.68 Canadian? Alrighty then.

In updates on older news, Amazon now lists Yen Press’s upcoming omnibus re-release of Azumanga Daioh. The book is dated for December 2009 and with a 672 page-count. You can see the listing on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.

For those who can’t wait to get a hold of Viz’s VizBig omnibus release of Inu-Yasha (sporting unflipped pages), Amazon also has that listed now as well. A 576 page-count with the first volume due out November 2009 can be seen at both Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.

For the Battle Royale fans out there, Viz looks to be re-releasing the novel. Viz originally released a copy of Koushun Takami’s brutal survival drama novel in early 2003. This new listing has the same description and page-count as the 2003 release so it’s likely a reprint over a formal rerelease if the information on Amazon is indeed correct.

And finally, I checked back on a weird listing for something called Yellow 2: Episode 1 that originally popped up on Amazon.ca earlier this month. The listing has been tweaked slightly, including to my memory, the additional information that the book is only 60 pages long. That’s pretty tiny for a graphic novel, and even more curious is that to my knowledge Makoto Tateno (still) hasn’t done a sequel to her popular boys’ love series, Yellow. Until now…?

While this is purely speculation on my end (for a listing that may or may not even be accurate), it reminds me a lot of Dark Horse’s upcoming release of CLAMP’s mangettes, with the smaller page counts released over numerous ‘episodes’. I can’t help but ponder the possibilities: could Digital Manga could be hopping on the simulataneous release bandwagon and could we see some exciting news in the future regarding more potential titles like this from them? Time will tell!

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing
Tags: Alice in the Country of..., Boys' Love/Yaoi, CLAMP, DMP, Makoto Tateno, Manga, Tokyopop, Viz Media

Love Syndrome One of More DM Disappearances?, More Yellow

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, May 9, 2009

5 Comments »

Internet-splunkage today stumbled me upon a post from user saaria on the AarinFantasy forums, that states Digital Manga has confirmed the cancellation of Yura Miyazawa’s Love Syndrome. Amazon has the book marked for a May 2009 release but the title is not present on Digital Manga’s website.

I shot out an e-mail to Digital Manga for confirmation on this, but in the meantime took to looking if there may be other unknown casualities.

Kodansha Comics Appearance, Rereleases Listed on Amazon

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, May 5, 2009

2 Comments »

There’s been lots of speculation about Kodansha’s silence on their plans to publish in North America since it was first announced back in July 2008. Rumours of a cease in their plans due to America’s economic issues seemed to make sense, but still, it was only a matter of time before something new turned up. Could that time be now?

Amazon.ca has listings for Akira (Vol. 01), Akira (Vol. 02) and Ghost in the Shell (Vol. 01), all listed under ‘Kodansha Comics’ as the publisher. Both these titles have been previously released by Dark Horse. Second editions of both Ghost In The Shell and Akira were released by Dark Horse in 2004, both sporting slightly higher page numbers than these Kodansha Comics listings.

Credit where credit is due to Andre and AnimeVice who were quicker on the draw posting this than I. Though in doing so Andre’s new blog: Geekery with Andre, has been discovered. Happy to see it, Andre! Loved your posts over at LiveJournal.

So what do these listings foretell? Who knows at this point exactly, but may it be the start of rereleases to come. Why? Because I’m now on 24/7 Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon watch. Kodansha, you’ve been warned.

Edit: Quick-to-action Gia of AnimeVice has already made contact with Dark Horse’s Marketing Coordinator:

“Marketing Coordinator Aaron Colter informed that while he couldn’t comment on any license expiration, he could confirm that Dark Horse wouldn’t be publishing either of those titles in the future, so if Kodansha says they’re reprinting them, then they probably are.”

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing
Tags: Dark Horse, Manga

Yen Press Confirms Pandora Hearts, Will Run in Yen Plus

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, April 10, 2009

1 Comment »

Over at the Yen Press blog, Kurt Hassler confirms that Yen Press has acquired the license for Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts and Crimson Shell series. While the first graphic novel of Pandora Hearts is slated for release in December 2009, it’ll first be joining the other serialized series in Yen Press’s Yen Plus magazine as of their June edition. Good news for eager fans! Pandora Hearts will be replacing the currently running Bamboo Blade series.

Listings for both Pandora Hearts and Crimson Shell first popped up on Amazon.ca earlier this month.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing
Tags: Yen Press