Thanks to a tip from a generous commenter, we’ve just heard the news that Kazuya Minekura’s Wild Adapter, subject of our recent Manga Moveable Feast has been given new life, thanks to a rights transfer from Tokuma Shoten to Ichijinsha.
News on this development is available in Japanese here in Minekura’s blog, and summed up by generous fans in English. According to these fans, Ichijinsha will begin re-releasing the series’ tankobon with new covers and limited edition drama CDs beginning in October, with the series eventually resuming serialization in Comic Zero Sum (home of Minekura’s Saiyuki Reload). Ichijinsha’s “teaser site” announcing the upcoming releases can be found here.
Though this series’ lengthy hiatus has generally been chalked up to Minekura’s health problems over the past few years, fans have long speculated on whether the delay might also be due to the series being (as our commenter put it) “not BL enough” for its publisher, and some of what we see here seems to support that theory.
While there is no date yet set for the series’ return to serialization, this move does provide hope for American fans as well, as the promise of new content may increase the chances of the series being re-licensed for English release.
Michelle Smith says
July 29, 2011 at 8:39 amI… I can’t really believe it. Is it really coming back? Also, man I wish I could understand Japanese because those are some drama CDs I would actually shell out cash for! And I am totally buying volume 7 in Japanese, even if just to look at the purty pictures.
Melinda Beasi says
July 29, 2011 at 10:02 amYes, I suspect I’ll buy volume 7 in Japanese, too. It’s just been TOO LONG.
Michelle Smith says
July 29, 2011 at 10:04 amIt looks like it’s been licensed in German, and they are pretty quick with licensing new volumes, so they might also have v7 pretty soon. And it’s definitely easier to feed German into Google Translate than it is Japanese. :)
Melinda Beasi says
July 29, 2011 at 10:06 amOh, good call! And my (admittedly rudimentary) German skills will come in handy as well. Much less daunting for me than all those French releases you’ve been picking up lately! :)
Michelle Smith says
July 29, 2011 at 10:09 amHeh. Well, French is easier for me but most of the things I’ve acquired are also available in German. In fact, I switched to German for Silver Diamond after volume 13 ‘cos I learned they’re up through 18. They list v19 in October and v20 in February, too, which will put them only 3 volumes behind the Japanese. For that quantity of my beloved Silver Diamond, how could I resist?
Miss Smilla says
July 29, 2011 at 10:21 amI’m hopeless in both French and German, so I’m desperately hoping Ichijinsha lets Chuang Yi carry on with the WA English license for Singapore. THE LENGTHS I WILL GO TO FOR MY MINEKURA FIX… ;_;
Michelle Smith says
July 29, 2011 at 10:23 amI have a couple vols of the Chuang Yi Twinkle Stars and they are indeed very nice. They’re just so pricey to ship!
Miss Smilla says
July 29, 2011 at 10:33 amYeah, the shipping for my Chuang Yi edition of Reload 10 was only two bucks less than the book itself. The things we do for love…
Miss Smilla says
July 29, 2011 at 9:31 amWA went on hiatus back in August 2009, a full year before Minekura had to put her remaining titles on hold in preparation for her surgery; her remarks at the time were also extremely indirect and diplomatic as to the reasons, but there was no mention of health issues as a factor, and very specific disclaimer that it wasn’t due to the demands of her other ongoing series.
And Michelle, if you’re interested in the forthcoming new WA drama CDs, some of the existing ones are still in print and available from importers; there are some fan translations floating about to go with them, so with any luck there may also be some kind bilingual fans putting out similar script translations when these new ones come out…
Michelle Smith says
July 29, 2011 at 9:34 amAh, that’s good to know. Thank you! :)
Melinda Beasi says
July 29, 2011 at 9:54 amThanks for the extra info! I do know that Wild Adapter went on hiatus earlier than the others, but (at least in the mainstream manga press) the official story has always rather leaned towards the health concerns as the reason why it was *still* on hiatus after all this time. It’s nice to have more current information.
Justin says
July 29, 2011 at 5:43 pm“…fans have long speculated on whether the delay might also be due to the series being “not BL enough” for its publisher—”
If the first two volumes are an indication, then that’s probably right :D
judi(togainunochi) says
July 29, 2011 at 8:18 pmBest news today! Thanks for letting us know.
Mason says
July 30, 2011 at 1:53 amThis is really awesome news to see!
Logan says
July 31, 2011 at 4:23 amI’m not holding my breath for an english license rescue, but I’d be surprised for a scanlator didn’t atleast pick it up. I don’t think I could enjoy reading a manga by google translate, but I so want to read more of this series somehow.
P-chan says
August 1, 2011 at 1:52 pmNew Covers?! Crap. Now I have to rebuy the whole series in Japanese starting from volume 1 . . . . Even so, WA restarting is more than enough to make up for the expense. I STILL don’t own the original drama CDs, but now I want to hear them so I can compare them to the later releases.
Still, it comes as a surprise to me that Wild Adapter would be the first series to resume. I had always assumed it would Bus Gamer, since Minekura seemed to be putting out BG art like crazy before her hiatus. On the other hand, WA is the furthest into its story than any of her other series, with the exception of the Saiyuki saga.
Miss Smilla says
August 2, 2011 at 1:22 amWell, we don’t really know yet just when WA (or the Saiyuki titles, or Bus Gamer) is going to resume serialization with new manga chapters — this re-release lets Ichijinsha keep her name out there in front of the public and work up anticipation from the existing fans and bring in new readers, etc., without her needing to produce as much in the way of new manga content just yet. That seems to me like it goes fairly well with the “Dice of Destiny” and “Crossroaders” stuff she’s been doing in recent months for their website and her usual magazines — serialized short prose side-stories and smaller pieces of illustration work to tide the Saiyuki readers over and keep them engaged while the primary manga storyline is still on indefinite hiatus; between those and the Saiyuki Gaiden OVA series that’s been coming out this year, Ichijinsha has been doing a pretty good job of releasing a steadily-paced trickle of new material related to Minekura titles, even though the actual manga have all been on hold for nearly a year.