News

I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, but every time I prepared to write up the new licenses, some other publisher would announce that they were going to make new announcements in a few days and I’d decide to put it off again. But they’re really piling up now, and what with the con season starting soon I thought I’d best just get in what I have right now. Let me know if I missed anything. If nothing else, we can safely assume that the manga market ‘recovery’ is in full swing.

Two new Shonen Jump licenses. The first is Kagamigami, by the author of Psyren. It’s a supernatural detective series, and thus fits nicely into the rest of what’s currently popular in Shueisha’s shonen titles. It just debuted.

The other license is very unsurprising, as it’s the new breakout Jump hit. Boku no Hero Academia is from the author of Barrage, if anyone remembers Barrage. No? Right, moving on… it’s about a world of superheroes, and a young man who’s one of the select few who DOESN’T have them. Is he bullied? Take a wild guess. There’s a lot of over-the-top hot-blooded shouting, and the whole thing is a pile of fun.

There’s also four new Shojo Beat licenses. QQ Sweeper is a Shogakukan title from Betsucomi, by the author of Dengeki Daisy. I don’t know much about it, but the mere fact that it’s by the creator of Dengeki Daisy makes it a must buy.

Another title is from a very familiar author, it’s the latest from Arina Tanemura. 31 Ai Dream (Idol Dreams for NA) is about a woman who, regretting her choices in life and seeing her high school crush at their reunion with another woman, considers suicide. But then she gets a second chance (as one inevitably does). This is actually running in Hakusensha’s Melody (a shoujo/josei hybrid magazine) rather than her usual Ribon or Margaret stuff for Shueisha, so I suspect it may be a bit darker or more mature.

And recently they announced two more. From Kadokawa’s shoujo magazine Asuka we have Bloody Mary, which, well, vampires.

More interesting to me is Honey So Sweet, despite seeing ‘meek girl, gruff seemingly scary boy’ as the premise. It runs in Bessatsu Margaret.

Crunchyroll has a new digital license, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth. I assume this is based on the Persona series of video games, about which I know very little except that many of my friends and acquaintances are obsessed with it. There seem to be two versions, one for P3 and one for P4, that run in Shueisha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine and Shonen Sirius, respectively.

Seven Seas had a tabletop game announcement, and good luck to them. Moving on: they also announced some manga. Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha (The Testament of Sister New Devil) is based on the light novel of the same name (no, they haven’t licensed that – you do know this company, right?), it features a young man who finds his father has remarried and he has two new sisters – only they’re a demon lord and a succubus. It runs in Kadokawa Shoten’s Shonen Ace, and will definitely appeal to those who read that description and did not roll their eyes.

Jitsu wa Watashi wa roughly translates as “Actually, I’m a…” and the cover features various characters all holding fingers to their mouths in the standard Ssssh! gesture. It apparently features a young man who is known for being unable to lie, and his run-in with various girls who all have secrets to keep, mostly supernatural. If you guessed that a harem ensues, you’re right. Hijinks also ensue. The art is very popular as well, though be warned those are some big mouths. This runs in Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shonen Champion, which rarely gets much attention over here.

Vertical had some new stuff to talk about. Ninja Slayer is a novel series supposedly created by two Americans, though many suspect this is just a cute marketing gimmick on Enterbrain’s part. In any case, it also has several spinoff manga, one of which, Ninja Slayer: Machine of Vengeance, ran in Kadokawa’s Comp Ace magazine. I believe it’s complete in one volume.

Seraph of the End is a manga series that Viz has licensed, which features, you guessed it, vampires. But it’s based on a novel series that Kodansha puts out, and Vertical have licensed the original novels. I wasn’t wild about the manga, but might give the books a try.

Lastly, and most importantly, we have Kizumonogatari, part of the long-running Monogatari series by Nisioisin, creator of Medaka Box, which you may have heard me banging on about once or twice, and Zaregoto, a series I deeply loved that did very poorly indeed over here. This is actually the third of the series, but takes place before any of the others, and the agent recommended starting with it. I absolutely cannot wait for it. By the way, Vertical have said they’ve ONLY licensed this book – they may license more if it sells well. Ergo, please buy this book. I will be pushing it hard. (And we all know how much my opinion drives sales.) I’d give you a cover image, but it’s part of the ‘Kodansha Box’ line, so the covers are all boxed art.

And Yen Press also has a few new things. To my delight, we have a new manga based off of Ryukishi07’s sound novels. This time it’s Rose Guns Days, which is not connected to the same universe as Higurashi or Umineko. Telling an alternate history of post-war Japan, Yen has licensed ‘Season One’, which ran in Gangan Joker. The artist is Soichiro, who also did Alliance of the Golden Witch in the Umineko series.

Final Fantasy Type-0 Gaiden: Hyōken no Shinigami could possibly be a part of the massive Final Fantasy universe. Something about the name suggests that to me. It ran in Shonen Gangan.

Horimiya has an intriguing history. There was a webcomic called Hori-san to Miyamura-kun which GFantasy picked up and released 10 volumes of, and it also spawned an anime. Now it’s getting an official manga with a different (most say better) artist, and that’s 6 volumes and counting and also running in GFantasy. The plot seems to be a sweet and sometimes angsty romantic comedy, and it has the usual ‘is this shonen or shoujo?’ feel you see in many GFantasy titles.

Lastly, Yen On had a new announcement, one many of us have been expecting for some time: The Irregular at Magic High School. This was the #1 light novel franchise over the past year, even managing to beat out Sword Art Online and Kagerou Daze. Its male lead seems to be the emotionless stoic badass, which I suspect may be part of its appeal after years of average schlubs starring in these sorts of vehicles. It’s got quite a few volumes… but honestly, after Index, nothing surprises me anymore. It has a couple of manga spinoffs… oddly, Yen haven’t licensed the Square Enix one, but have instead opted for the Dengeki Daioh version, The Honor Student at Magic High School, retelling the story from a different perspective. This might work out well – I’ve dropped a few manga adaptations that just tell the novel straight up.

That should do it for now. Which of these has you most excited?

It’s the start of 2015, and some publishers are just itching to give us some new titles, even though cons in January are thin on the ground. The solution is, of course, social media. This week Seven Seas and Yen Press/Yen On announced titles. Let’s take a closer look.

Seven Seas is gracing us with four new titles. Akuma no Riddle is a newish title from Kadokawa’s Newtype magazine, and it also had an anime series last spring. The most important points about this series, in no particular order, are 1) it’s written by Yun Kouga, the author of Loveless, and drawn by Sunao Minakata, the artist of Pixy Junket. (Oh come now, surely SOMEONE remembers it…). 2) It has a yuri vibe to it, taking place at an all-girls school. And 3) It’s about girls being trained to be assassins. The last may be the most important.

Golden Time is a more comedic title, running in ASCII Mediaworks’ Dengeki Daioh. It’s based off of a light novel, and has everything you’d expect if you hear the words ‘comedy/romance’; childhood friends, one of whom has now forgotten everything; a female lead who is somewhat difficult for fans to like but will clearly be the main romantic option; and lots of angst. It’s by the author of Toradora!, which Seven Seas also releases.

Orenchi no Furo Jijō (Merman In My Tub) is for female readers what Golden Time might be for male readers. It runs in Media Factory’s Comic Gene, which specializes in oddball shoujo, much like Kodansha’s Aria. The premise sounds a lot like Monster Musume or Ane-Imo, only with a BL subtext couple.

And there’s Mushoku Tensei – Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu. This runs in Media Factory’s Comic Flapper, which already gives it a leg up in my opinion. A middle-aged NEET who’s wasted most of his life get killed trying to stop a truck from hitting three high school students, and is reincarnated in a fantasy world, determined to make better choices and live a life with no regrets. The series has a lot of fans, though I have heard the lead character has a lot of perverted talk. But hey, based on a light novel, what did I expect? In any case, should be fun for fans of SAO or Log Horizon.

Next, let’s take a look at Yen Press, which announced four titles yesterday: one purely manga, and 3 where they announced the light novels on the Yen On line, and the manga (already out in one case) on the Yen Press side.

Oh, yes, there’s some Madoka Magica as well. Let’s start with that. Puella Magi Homura Tamura is a cute slice-of-life spinoff series, for those who like the characters but wished they stopped dying tragically all the time. There’s also Homura’s Revenge, where Madoka joins Homura in going back in time to change things, and I expect it will end badly.

Rust Blaster is the debut work from Yana Toboso, and I believe complete in one volume. It has vampires! And is by the author of Black Butler! Can’t imagine why this was licensed, who would buy such a combination? :)

On the LN/manga combo side, we first have Strike The Blood, which also has vampires, one of which is our hero. He’s being watched closely by a teenage sword expert who has been sent to follow (indeed, stalk might be more accurate) the vampire and take him out if he becomes a threat. If you guessed their love story is part of the story, you’re right. The manga runs in Dengeki Daioh, and the author is also known for the g-dropping series Asura Cryin’.

Black Bullet looks far more future apocalypse, detailing the world 10 years after being ravaged by a virus, which is being combatted by Cursed Children and their minders. Basically, he’s a high school student who can do Tendo Style Martial Arts (I’m sure it’s a coincidence), she’s a childhood friend with superhuman powers. Together, they fight crime! The manga ended at 4 volumes, and ran in Dengeki Maoh, a Daioh spinoff devoted to games and light novels.

Lastly, and to the horror of Baccano! fans, who keep waiting for their big day, Yen On announced they have licensed the Durarara!! light novels by Ryogho Narita. Yen Press has been putting out the manga for a couple of years, and I suspect this, along with Index, was their most requested license. The story of Ikebukuro and the truly insane weirdos who inhabit it, the 2nd series of the anime is also set to begin soon. By the way, perhaps the biggest news for me: All three of these light novels will have digital versions. After seeing SAO, Accel World, and Index all print-only, I was worried that Dengeki Bunko was a no-go area for digital reads. It’s great so see this.

So which one of these new titles excites you the most?

Yes, there are no major cons, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been activity. Let’s go in alphabetical order, starting with Seven Seas.

These have been up on Amazon for a while, but I think it’s safe to say (control your shock) that Seven Seas will have more Alice in the Country of ______ licenses for us this summer. Two are from Ohzora Shuppan, and I think are direct to tankobon releases. Given the publisher has a line devoted to ‘Happy Weddings’, I’d expect more romance and less twisted psychology from these releases. Junk Box looks to be along the lines of Toy Box from earlier this year, i.e. an anthology catch all. White Rabbit and Some Afternoon Tea also looks like it may finally give us what many have been dreading but some will no doubt be pleased by: an Alice/Peter romance book. The other new title is from Ichijinsha, Black Lizard and Bitter Taste, and given the title will no doubt feature Gray as the romantic lead.

The next news is possibly the most exciting, especially if you wanted to get that old Tezuka book from Vertical but couldn’t as it fell out of print. Vertical Comics has announced it will be releasing digital versions of its classic Tezuka titles to digital platforms. This will include:

Apollo’s Song – omnibus
Black Jack 1 through 17
Dororo – omnibus
Princess Knight 1 & 2
Ode to Kirihito – omnibus
MW
Ayako
Book of Human Insects
Buddha 1 through 8
Message to Adolf 1 & 2
Twin Knights

This is fantastic news for me, as I tend to read manga on the bus into work, and many of these Tezuka titles have been so large I’ve been unable to. Everyone should pick these up as soon as they are able!

Lastly, let’s talk Viz. In case you missed it, Viz has been quietly digitally rescuing a number of old manga titles from Tokyopop and Bandai and putting them out online. There don’t appear to be plans for new titles (unless they sell well, I imagine), but it’s nice to get some of these old series online in any form. They include:

D N Angel
Chibi Vampire
Fate/Stay Night
Future Diary
Trinity Blood
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Lucky Star
St. Lunatic High School
Suki
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
Mad Love Chase
Lagoon Engine
Million Tears
Kyo Kara MAOH!
Zone-00 (later this month)
Mouryou Kiden – Legend of the Nymphs (later this month)

As you can see, it’s a lot of stuff with a built-in fanbase and potential for new readers, but not enough potential to justify an actual print rescue. It’s also mostly Kadokawa stuff, likely in conjunction with their Comic Walker online site.

Viz also announced a new Shojo Beat title, Komomo Confiserie, from Maki Minami, creator of Special A and Voice Over: Seiyu Academy. For those who worry this may go as long as those two series, it’s already over in Japan as of next month, so I suspect it won’t be that big. It involves pastry chefs and power imbalances, a guilty favorite of all shoujo readers.

But wait, Hakusensha fans! We also have a new print license rescue! Yes, one of the most missed of the late Tokyopop line will be returning in omnibus format with an all new translation. Maid-sama! is an amazingly funny series with a wonderful female lead who takes absolutely no guff but also has no idea how to deal with the guy she’s now fallen in love with. The series ended with Tokyopop’s demise, so I look forward to this re-release to see Viz get to the last 10 volumes – it only gets wilder as it goes on. Expect lots of leaping from tall buildings.

What are you most excited about?

Seven Seas has had a busy week, announcing seven new titles in seven days. The titles ran the gamut from cute slice of life to award winning comedy to some ‘look, boobs!’ works that show their close relationship with Media Factory has not wavered. Let’s take a look at what’s coming out this summer 2015.

The slice of life is Non Non Biyori, one of Comic Alive’s non-fanservice titles. It’s about a young girl who moves to the country and slowly makes new friends and has fun, relaxing times. It’s 7+ volumes, and still running, but sounds like it will be a fun read.

Mahō Tsukai no Yome is a Mag Garden title, as the company has been slowly working its way back into the North American market after Tokyopop’s demise removed their biggest customer. This is a Comic Garden series (the replacement for Comic Blade, which was rebranded last year (supposedly cancelled, but when a new magazine appears that’s exactly the same with a different name…)), seems to be pretty and filled with magic and supernatural stuff, and I suspect is an apology to female readers for the titles lower down on this list. :)

Probably the most intriguing title here is Kōkaku no Pandora – Ghost Urn, a collaboration between legendary “I start series but never quite finish them” author Masamune Shirow and Excel Saga creator Rikdo Koshi. Given it’s Shirow, you’ll be unsurprised to hear that it’s a near-future work with lots of amazing tech. Given it’s Rikdo, expect some ecchi art as well. This is a Newtype Ace series from Kadokawa, and I’ll be checking it out, although I will not be surprised if it gives me mixed feelings.

The title I’m most looking forward to, and have suggested as a license before, is Sakamoto desu ga?, an Enterbrain title from the magazine harta (small caps deliberate). Sakamoto is cool and awesome and amazing at everything, but still finds the time to be helpful and caring, if a tad stoic. This is a comedy along the lines of Cromartie or Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun – if you like seeing weird stuff happening, with a dash of heart, this is a must read, and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s won awards!

When I heard that Mōretsu Pirates was getting a lciense, my nerd personality went over the moon. Not just because it’s a terrific franchise, but because the main manga runs in a magazine from Asahi Shimbun, who do very little business with North America. Sadly, my gushing was cut short – this is the manga adaptation of the movie, and it ran in Comic Alice. Still, Mōretsu Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace -Akū no Shien- is still recommended, as the cast is awesome, and also, space pirates.

This next license was probably the most controversial. I had been tweeting various Media Factory titles I thought SS would license, but skipped this as the cover looked too pornographic. Silly me. Magika no Kenshi to Shōkan Maō is based on a light novel, has swords and fantasy battles, and no one really cares about that because near-naked girl on the cover. While these titles aren’t for me, there’s no denying they sell like hotcakes, and help pay for things like Sakamoto desu ga?.

Lastly, the biggest license was Freezing, a manga by two Korean creators that runs in Comic Valkyrie, which has not seen too many titles over here at all. It’s a big series, being over 20 volumes, and they plan to do omnibus releases. It’s also had two anime series based off of it. That said, if you’re looking for a description, it would not be too far away from the title before this, although I think Freezing is less ‘wacky near-naked fanservice’ and more ‘action-packed, blood-filled near-naked fanservice’. In any case, it’s always nice to see longer series get a shot over here.

They have a big announcement at the end of the month, but that’s it for now. Which Seven Seas license makes you the happiest?

I was away for a few days, so naturally the license DELUGE hit. As such, let me ask you to turn to A Case Suitable for Treatment, for the very last in news. :) Let’s see what 17 million titles are coming out soon, however, and talk about them a bit.

First the non-Yen stuff. Seven Seas has three more Alice spinoffs coming, featuring, I believe, Gray, Elliot, and the Twins. They sell well, and there are PILES of the things, so I see no reason why Seven Seas shouldn’t license them till they run out.

Dark Horse just announced today the license of Fate/Zero, the prequel to Fate/Stay Night that runs in Kadokawa’s Young Ace. It’s based on a couple of light novels that tell the story of the ‘fourth Holy grail War’. I admit I didn’t read F/SN when Tokyopop was putting it out, but it’s certainly quite popular, and Fate/Zero seems to be the most respected of the side projects.

Now it’s time for Yen Press. On the manga front, a big recent license is the Karneval manga from Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero-Sum. There’s over a dozen volumes to date, and it’s been a highly discussed series. Featuring two innocents on the run from forces beyond their control who end up with a defense organization called Circus, it’s the sort of title that defines the words ‘fantasy manga for young women’ and should sell like hotcakes.

There’s more Madoka Magica manga, as we get Orico Magica’s side story which posits a different meeting between its leads, which I’m sure will lead to puppies and rainbows instead of tragedy; and Tart Magica, which features Jeanne D’Arc and three fellow pseudo-historical young women as magical girls in the 15th century, thus showing that Kyubey can ruin EVERYTHING.

And on the Disney front, sort of, we have Big Hero 6, which just debuted in Kodansha’s Magazine Special. Based on the film due out this November, it looks to be geared towards the younger set, and is a rare Kodansha license from this publisher.

Now let’s talk light novels. I’d mentioned that I thought Yen was pursuing a surprisingly aggressive approach to the new Yen On line, and it’s clear that if anything I was underestimating it. Kurt says they’re going to go even further next year, with over 2 dozen books out in 2015 alone, from a variety of series. Sword Art Online sold quite well, and has I expect inspired the licensing of the Progressive novels that will debut in April.

I have whined on Twitter about the lack of ebooks for SAO and the upcoming Index novels, and I suspect judging from Kurt’s response in the interview that this is not something that will be changing anytime soon. It seems to be the Japanese side more than our side, as Yen says that they make an effort to get them when they’re available. So perhaps I should whine at ASCII Mediaworks instead.

As for the new LN series announced, we have four. The first, Log Horizon, has a plot that may seem familiar to fans of Sword Art Online, as it also has a large group of MMORPG gamers who find themselves trapped in a virtual world. Log Horizon seems to have a broader focus, however, and less romance/harem/fanservice elements than SAO does. Yen has also licensed the manga, though we’re not sure yet which manga they have – there are three possibilities, all from different companies. The novel is from Enterbrain, who also do Book Girl, so I’m hoping for ebooks here.

Speaking of fanservices, No Game No Life seems to be the most ‘otaku-oriented’ title that was licensed in this batch. It’s from Media Factory, and involves (try not to contain your shock), an MMORPG. A brother/sister gaming team, who in real life are basically shut-ins, are transported to a fantasy world where they have to use their amazing gaming skills to save humanity.

The Devil Is A Part-Timer!, aka Hataraku Maou-sama!, is a Dengeki Bunko title (i.e., the SAO/Index company). It sounds like the funniest of the new series, as Satan and his lieutenant are on Earth and powerless, and must find work while scheming to regain their powers. To make things worse, the woman who defeated them in the first place is back to finish the job. Luckily, she’s lost her powers as well. This has fantasy elements in it, but the mere fact that it doesn’t involve an MMORPG makes it the most intriguing of these titles for me.

Lastly, for fans of Pandora Hearts, Yen is putting out the novels which contain side stories from the main manga, which are titled Caucus Race. These are also, I believe, from Square Enix.

Judging by their interview, Yen isn’t done yet, and I suspect we’ll have a few more light novels announced at NYCC. Which unlicensed title do you most want? You are not allowed to say Baccano!. Or Durarara!!. Or indeed any title by Narita. But other than those?

When I first looked at Crunchyroll’s new manga lineup back in October, it consisted of about 10 Kodansha titles, and its main purpose was essentially to be the Kodansha equivalent of Viz’s Jump – get the most popular titles out weekly to discourage scanlators. (Which has worked, to a degree – not necessarily for speed but for accuracy. I know a few Attack on Titan readers who wait for CR as it will be coherent.) Now, 10 months later, we have almost fifty different titles on the site. What’s been going on?

Kodansha still has the largest presence on the site, and are still adding new titles that may interest the North American reader, such as the new Onizuka spinoff/continuation. It’s still predominately Shonen Magazine and its subsidiaries, but there has been an effort to add some seinen as well, notably the Morning title Investor Z. (By the way, not all of the licensing is through Kodansha – a large number of the titles on the site seem to be licensed via ‘Cork’, including the Anno ones. Investor Z is one of those.) Most of their titles are ongoing concerns – updated weekly or monthly as their Japanese fellows are. I do note A Town Where You Live has finished, but Vols. 1-11 still seem to be absent from the site – going backwards is not Kodansha’s priority.

Moyoco Anno has agreed to let several of her more obscure titles be translated on Crunchyroll, from a variety of genres. Most originally ran in the josei magazine Feel Young in Japan, which her her primary outlet these days, though The Diary of Ochibi is a short one-pages that runs in a newspaper.

Then there’s the former heavy movers and shakers at JManga, all of whom are now involved with Crunchyroll to some degree. LEED Publishing, which is Takao Saito’s company, has put out four of its already finished volumes from JManga onto Crunchyroll, I suspect with the same translation. They’re good series, though. I particularly liked Doll. Shonen Gahosha has both old and new titles – Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru and Sun-Ken Rock are basically “license rescues” from JManga that are now on Crunchyroll – not a surprise given they’re both two of the companies more popular unlicensed in print titles – Sun-Ken Rock for its violent content, most likely, and Soredemo for its oddness. They also have Arpeggio of Blue Steel, which Seven Seas is releasing in print here, and Spirit Circle, which gives the appearance of being a fluffy comedy, but… isn’t.

And then there’s Futabasha, which now has the 2nd most titles on the site thanks to a big push these past few months. Futabasha was the biggest player in JManga as well, but we’re not seeing any of the content that was on there in the past. These are mostly new, ongoing series that run in their main magazine, Manga Action, which it’s pushing for similar reasons to Kodansha. It’s a very different genre, though – Manga Action is seinen and it shows. Even the one title they have by a shoujo author is that author’s debut in a seinen market. As you can see by the cover image of Inside Mari, which is by the author of Flowers of Evil, there’s a lot more ‘sex and violence’ in Futabasha’s titles – a number of what I’d call ‘sex comedies’ and several violent murder mysteries. Futabasha doesn’t really have much shonen, which may be why they’ve always found it hard to grab a foothold in North America, but it’s good to see them making these titles available for curious readers.

The odd title out on this list is The Tenth Prism, licensed via Cork, which is actually a seinen Shogakukan title, running in Big Comic Spirits. It’s by the author of Firefighter Daigo of Company M, so the author isn’t unknown here. Sometimes with licensing subsidiaries you can see titles in places you’d never expect, which is certainly what I’m seeing here.

What can we see from this list, now that it’s so heavily expanded? Crunchyroll Manga is very much catering to male readers. Almost exclusively, I’d say. There’s only one or two titles on there that might be classed as shoujo, and Kodansha, for all that they’re adding Magazine titles, hasn’t put up any ongoing series from Nakayoshi or Betsufure. Futabasha has a shoujo magazine as well, but we’ve seen nothing from it. And the josei we’re seeing, via Moyoco Anno, is for the adult female reader. I’d like to see a few titles for younger female readers on here. Other than that, the main emphasis for most of these series is simulpub – get them out fast to beat the scanlators. It usually doesn’t beat them, as scanlators work from illegal raws released early, but it’s a better product, so the incentive is to wait.

Will Crunchyroll have expanded even more in 10 months time? And which of their newer titles is your favorite?

I was surprised at a couple of announcements at this year’s SDCC, enough that it deserves a new License Roundup post! I’ll start with Viz, who had no new titles (this is typical; they usually offload new licenses at AX), but who did note that the final Evangelion manga will be simultaneously published with Japan, just as they did with Vol. 13.

Kodansha had two new titles to announce this year, both of which are worth getting a bit excited about. The unsurprising one is Waltz no Ojikan, the new series by Natsumi Ando, creator of Kitchen Princess and Arisa. It’s a ballroom dancing manga, which I am pleased by, and is currently running in Nakayoshi.

On the shonen side, we have a title that you can already find on Crunchyroll, but is now getting a print edition: Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo. I was very fond of the author’s previous series, Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, but it was a bit too long and had a bit too many delinquents for the NA market. This new series is also edging on the long side, but it has supernatural elements to it, and that’s usually enough in this day and age. it’s also funny, and sweet, and you get caught up in its plot quite a bit. Can’t wait.

Udon surprised a few of us. While they have made some entries in the manga market, primarily their focus has been on large, expensive artbooks, usually tying in with Capcom. This time, though, they have manga. And not just any manga: Kill La Kill, the hot new anime series from last year. the manga adaptation runs in Kadokawa Shoten’s Young Ace, and I have no doubt will be filled with action, yelling, and fanservice. Udon also announced three more of their ‘manga classics’ series, the first two of which debut next month. We’ll see The Scarlet Letter, Great Expectations, and Emma.

Digital Manga Publising unfortunately had to cancel their panel, but it does remind me that I forgot to mention on the AX roundup that they said the first digital Tezuka they’ll be doing is Mr. Cactus, a 1950s cowboy adventure.

Lastly, Drawn & Quarterly continue their excellent partnership with Shigeru Mizuki, as we see the release of Hitler, his biography of the Nazi leader, sometime in spring 2015. The other title is Trash Market, a collection of short stories by Tadao Tsuge, the brother of more famous avant-garde mangaka Yoshiharu Tsuge. If you like Garo-esque titles (or even know what Garo is), you should pick this one up.

Which of these interests you most?

There was a lot of stuff going on at Anime Expo 2014, and who better to bring it to you than someone who wasn’t there at all? Probably for the best, as I hear many manga bloggers were trapped in endless lines, unable to get into panels. As is the nature of large cons; I’m sure I’ll have similar issues at NYCC.

Let’s start with the largest set of new announcements, from Viz Media. Amazon had already blown the secret on the re-release of the new JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, but it’s now official. We get the first arc in omnibus format, here in NA for the first time, with color pages and new cover art. The 2nd arc will debut digitally at the same time. The 3rd arc, which was the only one previously released over here, gets a digital release starting this week.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is probably the one major, heavily influential Shonen Jump series we still hadn’t really seen over here, 3rd arc aside. It’s known for its fights, its ultraviolence, its homoeroticism, but most of all, it’s known for being weird. The Bizarre isn’t just for show. It also has most of its major cast named after rock bands to a greater or lesser degree though, given what happened with Bastard!!, we may see some of those names romanized differently to avoid attention being paid. (What, no one remembers Bastard!!? Just me? Right, moving on…)

Viz also announced Baraou no Souretsu, AKA Requiem for the Rose King. From the creator of Otomen, this does not look like it will be nearly as silly as that title, but should have a bit more depth. It runs in Akita Shoten’s shoujo magazine Princess, and is a retelling of the Richard III story, with Richard being intersex. Which is quite interesting given many of the themes of Richard III. I assume, like most retellings, this will follow Shakespeare’s history rather than genuine history.

There are new omnibuses coming for Yu-Gi-Oh and Gyo. Nothing to add there.

Later in the con, Shojo Beat had its own panel to announce things. The biggest news there was probably that a new, one-off chapter of Vampire Knight will be released by Viz digitally this fall. A lot of series, particularly Hakusensha series, have these one-shot or ‘after the end’ stories, and they aren’t always picked up by the licensor, partly as they may not actually be collected in Japan as they’re only one or two chapters. So this is very nice to see.

Omukae Desu was a suitably odd shoujo title from the CMX days, and Pearl Pink was put out by Tokyopop. Now we get a 3rd short but sweet title from Meca Tanaka, who may be better known to fans as the creator of Faster Than a Kiss, her most popular series. That was likely never licensed here due to its student/teacher romance. We are getting a cute new series, Otome to Meteo, which will be two volumes. Translating to Meteor Prince, it would appear to feature an eccentric male lead and a heroine who has to keep up with everything, like many shoujo series. It sounds fun.

Lastly, Momochi-san Chi no Ayakashi Ouji (The Demon Prince of Momochi House) is by Aya Shouoto, author of the upcoming Kiss of the Rose Princess. That ran in Kadokawa Shoten’s Asuka magazine, and so does this title. It appears to contain everything that’s hot these days: it has very attractive yokai, it has a reverse harem, it has exorcisms and spirituality. If you enjoyed Demon Love Spell, Kamisama Kiss, or any of the ‘sexy yokai boyfriend’ genre, this seems to be right up your street.

Next up, Dark Horse had a manga panel. The biggest announcement here was not a new acquisition, but more of a reassurance. It’s been a year and a half since we last saw Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and fans with long memories (Translucent, anyone?) were getting worried. We now know that not only will we get a 14th volume soon, but that the first 12 will also come out in omnibuses for those who never saw the series in the first place. It can be squicky and horror filled, but it’s also really terrific, with an oddball sense of humor and a surprisingly political bent. This is news to get excited about.

The new license of note was Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt, a one-shot manga based on the cult classic anime. It ran in Kadokawa’s Young Ace, and certainly has a core audience who will be excited. I never did get around to seeing the anime, perhaps I should. There will also be a Satoshi Kon artbook (DH licensed two Kon mangas recently), and an omnibuses re-release of Oh My Goddess, which may be the first one that I don’t end up getting, because I’ve now bought this series four times, and I really don’t need a 5th. But for newbies who wonder how this got to 46+ volumes, it’s a great entry point.

Taking a brief break from manga to discuss a visual novel dear to my heart, which is to say Higurashi: When They Cry. Mangagamer had a panel at AX to discuss the upcoming re-release of the game on the Steam platform. The first arc should be available by the end of the year, and will apparently feature all-new sprites making their debut. A comparison between the original sprites drawn by Ryukishi07 (and used by Mangagamer in the initial release), the PS2 sprites, and Mangagamer’s new sprites was quickly done.

As you can see, the original sprites are a bit crude, but filled with emotion. They also feature the famous “mitten hands”. The PS2 sprites look more polished, but were also thought to be a bit dull compared to the originals. (Also, Mangagamer likely is unable to acquire the rights to use them – they also don’t have the rights to the ‘PS2 Exclusive’ arcs with the alternate, more bittersweet ending.) The new MG sprites look a bit overly cute – ‘big head small neck’ syndrome is at work here – but honestly, all three are designed to look adorable in that moe anime way. No doubt everyone has their favorites, but we shall see how it goes when we get the actual release.

Back to manga. Vertical had a panel on Friday, and had one announcement, but it was a good one. A 400+-page collection of Satoshi Kon’s short stories, Yume no Kaseki (A Fossil of a Dream) is due out in the summer of 2015. Tropic of the Sea was an offbeat, hard to get into, but ultimately rewarding read, and I anticipate this will be equally thrilling.

Lastly, we have two new titles from Kodansha Comics – though one of them you can already see on Crunchyroll’s manga site. First off, we have Junketsu no Maria, a series by the author of Moyashimon that ran in good!Afternoon, one of Kodansha’s many seinen titles. Titles Maria the Virgin Witch over here, it takes place during the Hundred Years War, and has a girl our to make peace by dint of magic, seductive succubuses, or any other means at her disposal. An archangel, Michael, is sent to stop her and keep history on its proper course. Likely with 100% less bacteria than his other series, hopefully it has as much oddball humor and heart.

And A Silent Voice, which as I said has been running on Crunchyroll’s online site, will get a print release this sprint. Koe no Katachi is about a deaf girl who is bullied in elementary school. Now a little older and a little wiser, the bully wants to apologize to her in high school. The word heartwarming was made for manga like this, and it should be a real treat to see.

So what are you most excited about from these announcements?

Seven Seas has this odd habit of waiting till I do a post talking about new licenses and then revealing their own, partly to ensure they get noticed but mostly I suspect to annoy me. Still, they’ve announced four new titles for late this year into next year, so let’s see what they have.

First, and least surprising, is the sequel to dance in the Vampire Bund, Scarlet Order, which runs in comic Flapper. Along with the alice books, Vampire Bund has been one of Seven Seas’s moneymakers, so it was a no brainer to get this one. It has vampires. And lolicon. And lolicon vampires!

Clay Lord is a relatively recent title from Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero-Sum, which means it’s sort of josei but technically sui generis. The story of a boy and his golem, this one may appeal to fans of Black Butler and similar stories.

Evergreen is probably the title I’m most excited about, mostly because I’m very fond of Toradora!, which is by the same author. (As for the artist, after glancing through her other works, I think I will merely whistle and pass gracefully by.) I had actually expected to see Golden Time next, also by Takemiya, and also running in Dengeki Daioh, which serializes Evergreen and Toradora!. The plot description reminds me a bit of Book Girl, as it stars a male lead who’s closed off and reclusive due to some tragedy in his past. Instead of Touko, though, we get the class beauty helping him out.

Lastly, we have Hitomi-sensei no Hokenshitsu, which runs in the dreaded Comic Ryu. Given the monster success of Monster Musume, it’s not hard to see why Seven Seas went looking for other titles in this magazine, particularly this one, which also involves monsters and comedy. This looks a bit less skeevy than Monster Musume, and involves a cyclops nurse at a monster high school helping kids out with their problems, and the emphasis seems to be firmly on the comedy. I’d give it a shot.

What interests you most?

Yen Press had a lot of license announcements today, and this post is mostly going to talk about those. But first.

Amazon blew a couple of Viz licenses the other day, though they were quickly taken down. One was not commented on, so I won’t either. The other, which Viz was forced to admit “Yes, we have it, wait till AX for details”, was the first arc of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. This legendary Shonen Jump manga has long been known over here in the States for its ridiculous powerups and battles, its sheer weirdness, the musical name jokes, and a truly ridiculous amount of not-quite-BL, to the point where the female fandom is huge, and it may even have been more influential than Slam Dunk or Saint Seiya in bringing in those fans to Jump. Viz had published the 3rd arc of the series (considered to be the most accessible) a while back, but it didn’t really sell well. But recent anime adaptations have brought it back into the limelight, and Viz is now going back to release the “Phantom Blood” arc, the first JoJo’s adventure. I suspect it will be the 3-volume re-release from the early 2000s, but we’ll wait for more details. In the meantime, get hyped. JoJo’s is addictive, fun, tragic, and ridiculous.

Now, let’s talk Yen Press and Yen On. First off, in already released news, I was pleased to see that the 2nd Magical Index light novel is scheduled for February 2015. This would point to the series being on a quarterly release, as opposed to SAO’s three times or Book Girl’s twice a year. Given the sheer SIZE of Index, this is likely necessary to keep fandom invested.

There are some more volumes of the Kingdom Hearts franchise that Yen is putting out! I’ve never really kept up with this series, but I know it was huge when Tokyopop put out the manga, and my guess is it’s still huge. Secret was also officially announced; it’s been coming out digitally in chapter format recently. it’s the latest from the author of Judge and Doubt, so my guess is it has a lot of dead teens.

Akame ga Kill! hails from Gangan Joker, a favorite target of Yen Press. Featuring an idealistic young man getting caught up in a hideous international conspiracy, it apparently has a very high body count, lots of assassins and psychopaths, and is filled with shonen GUTS. Sounds like it will fit right in alongside Higurashi and company.

Sword Art Online is just getting started, with its 3rd light novel, the first part of Fairy Dance, coming out this December. But Yen On has also just announced their license of the Progressive series, which began to come out 10 years after the original. This apparently retells the events of the first two books from Asuna’s perspective, showing a lot more of how she developed into the badass we bet at the start of the first SAO novel. They’ve also licensed the manga adaptation, which runs in Mediaworks’ Dengeki G’s magazine.

Kagerou Days is selling like hotcakes, which is less surprising when you realize it’s a spinoff of the insanely popular Vocaloid franchise. Based on a series of songs, it’s been adapted into a light novel and a manga (which runs in Media Factory’s Comic Gene), its plot is about a shut-in who is forced to leave his apparently after getting sent a cyber-girl though an email. It is apparently far more interesting than it sounds, and an anime based off of it aired this spring.

Lastly, Yen have already licensed Sword Art Online (and Progressive) and Accel World, now we her they’re getting a new series of novels by the same author, which is not even out in Japan yet. It’s called Absolute Solitude, and will no doubt be exciting, whatever it is.

No, there’s no Baccano! license here, but lots of exciting stuff. Anything you plan to pick up?

We interrupt this manga blog to bring you important anime news.

Viz Media announced today at Anime Central that they have won everything ever and are our new gods, provided we pay them the appropriate tribute.

(cough)

What I meant was that viz Media announced at Anime Central that they have the license to the Sailor Moon anime, and will be releasing remastered Blu-Ray/DVD sets (season half-sets) starting this fall. It will also start streaming on Hulu Monday with the first four episodes subbed, with 2 per week to follow.

It is getting a new dub, cast to be announced.

It will be all 5 seasons, including Sailor Stars, as well as the 3 movies and assorted TV specials.

It is uncut.

It will come with various DVD extras.

They promise Haruka and Michiru will not be cousins.

Oh yes, they also announced… Sailor Moon Crystal, the reboot airing in Japan this summer. They have that as well.

So yes, as I said at the start, Viz Media announced today at Anime Central that they have won everything ever and are our new gods, provided we pay them the appropriate tribute. And by that I mean money. SPEND ALL THE MONEY ON SAILOR MOON.

Well, we’ve had another con, and this time three big publishers were there to say things about manga: Viz, Yen, and Dark Horse. What did they say?

Not much from Viz, which usually saves its big announcements for the summer. They did indicate that one of their recent Weekly Jump digital series, World Trigger, would be getting a physical release this fall. With a plot that features high school students with superpowers taking on invaders from another dimension, it’s hard for me to think of it as anything but ‘Precure for guys’, but I will be interested to see what it’s like – Jump’s really been hitting its stride lately.

The big announcements were from Yen Press, and not just in the manga department. Let’s start with manga, though, as I have a feeling that most of the fandom will be focusing on one particular license, so I’ll save that for the end. King of Eden is by the author best known for collaborating with Naoki Urasawa on Billy Bat and others Takashi Nagasaki (aka Richard Woo). Well, Billy Bat is still unlicensed, but we do have King of Eden, a new horror series with art by SangCheol Lee, who I am totally unfamiliar with. This one looks to be worldwide digital, so my guess is it’s starting in Japan at the same time it does here.

Pandora Hearts is getting an artbook, Odds and Ends, which will be hardcover and have a slipcase, like many Japanese artbooks these days. Everything’s going upscale.

Gou-dere Sora Nagihara is the ecchi title of the con. It’s by Suu Minazuki, creator of Sora no Otoshimono. Our hero is an otaku in love with a fictional character. One day she comes to life before him, but her personality is not quite what he was expecting. She apparently decides to get her new master a harem, or at least help him get some action. This is from Hakusensha’s Young Animal Arashi, as if the description didn’t already tell you that (it was either that or Champion Red). We shall see.

Also from Hakusensha, from their sort of unclassifiable magazine Rakuen Le Paradis (think of it along the lines of Manga Erotics F), we get 14-sai no Koi, which I have been reliably informed is ‘excruciatingly adorable’. It features two 14-year-olds who are very wise and mature for their years… but they’re still 14, and falling in love with each other is going to bring all the awkward that this entails. The author, Fuka Mizutani, is best known here for several yuri stories in various anthologies. This isn’t yuri, but I feel her fans will want to seek it out anyway. It certainly sounds great to me.

Lastly on the manga front, we have a new title by Aki, whose Olympos Yen had previously brought over here, and perhaps best known for Utahime. Elhanburg no Tenshi ran in Shodensha’s Haruca, one of their more obscure josei magazines. Two childhood friends take over a castle supposedly haunted by an angel, but things quickly turn south when a woman becomes involved. Given my experience with Olympos, my hope is to have a better handle on what’s going on with this plot.

And then there’s light novels. Yen has had more success with this genre than any other publisher, something that they did not hesitate to bring up at the con. They’re putting out an omnibus hardcover of the Another novel, which had been released digitally a year or so ago, and whose manga they also released. However, they’re also creating a new imprint just for light noels, Yen On! What will debut from it this fall?

It wouldn’t be a light novel imprint without an awkward, long title that ends in a question mark, so let’s introduce ourselves to Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?, aka DanMachi, which Yen is releasing over here as ‘Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?’. This seems to be another fantasy series along the lines of Zero’s Familiar, with a boy who wants to be an adventurer meeting a goddess who has trouble getting worshippers. I’ll bet you two to one it’s zany.

However, this was all a prelude to the big announcement.

Yes, you’re not seeing things. To Aru Majutsu no Index, aka A Certain Magical Index. I’m not sure if Yen has licensed all 32+ novels right at the moment… my guess is about 6 with an option for more. But it’s certainly been one of the most requested titles of the last several years, and its spinoff series, A Certain Scientific Railgun, is selling quite well for Seven Seas. (As for the Index manga… trust me, read the books, it’s better.) I’m very interested to see how this sells. The lead male, Touma, is a divisive figure who acquires a harem yet makes no moves on any of them, and also has a story-breaker power he uses at least once per book. The heroine, Index… well, even that’s arguable, as Index may not actually be the series heroine so much as the series mascot. She also has a personality that Western fans have not exactly taken to their bosoms. That said, I really hope that everyone who demanded this series be licensed actually goes out and buys it, because this is a big investment, and kudos to Yen for going for it. Also, it has lots of cool things happening.

Lastly, we have Dark Horse, who added quite a bit of manga, to my surprise. Their continued re-release of CLAMP continues with the Legal Drug series coming out as an omnibus this fall. They’ve also licensed the sequel, Drug & Drop. Both series are published whenever CLAMP feels like it, so it should be easy to catch up with Japan. They’re also starting to digitize the bigger CLAMP titles, such as Card Captor Sakura and Chobits, later this spring.

There’s also the OreImo spinoff Ore no Kouhai ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (My Kouhai Can’t Be This Cute), which Dark Horse is sensibly retitling OreImo: Kuroneko. This ASCII Mediaworks series runs in Dengeki G’s, and is, as you might guess, focused on Kuroneko’s storyline in this series. Given the way the light novel series recently ended, I will be interested to see if its fandom is still around to get this, but hey, it’s cute and moe as heck.

And we have not one, but TWO titles from Satoshi Kon, whose Tropic of the Sea was released by Vertical recently. Opus came out in the mid-90s right before the author directed Perfect Blue, and was never finished in Tankobon form, though Tokuma Shoten published the ending in in the volume collection, which we’ll be seeing here. There is also Seraphim: 266613336 Wings, which was written by Mamoru Oshii, a creator that I have a lot of issues with. It’s also a mid-90s manga, from Animage magazine, and may I just note that that is an awful lot of wings in the title. If I were an angel, I’d want to cut back to maybe 4, or even less.

So that’a a lot of new stuff. What appeals to you the most?

Last month, Kadokawa announced a new online comic portal, Comic Walker, that would debut this week. It has 116 titles in Japanese, of which 18 are also available in English. It also has an iPad and Android app, though I was only able to access the English titles on that, whereas on the website I can also see the Japanese titles. The content is downloaded to your device, similar to Viz’s app store, rather than in a Cloud setting, so you should be able to read it offline (though I didn’t test this.)

The site has a bit of fractured English when you sign up/log in and look at the Contact Info. The translations I checked, however, seem reasonably fine. So what have we got? We get the first chapters (mostly, some had 2 or 3) of 18 titles, 8 of have been released over here in North America in some print form or other – or will be soon. They are:

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (Vertical)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (Viz)
High School D&D (Yen, in May 2014)
Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends (Seven Seas)
Kyo Kara Maoh! (Tokyopop)
Takasugi-san’s Obento (DMP)
Sgt. Frog (Tokyopop)
The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya (Yen)

As you’ll notice, some of these already have digital editions over here from their respective companies. I spot-checked some of the titles, and they seem to be using the same text/translation that we’ve seen before. Fans of the Tokyopop titles will be interested, as both of those are out of print here now.

So, what’s as yet unlicensed over here?

Anime fans will be familiar with Log Horizon, which is just finishing up and has already had a 2nd season announced. This is the manga version, which runs in Enterbrain’s Comic Clear. The ‘sucked into an RPG’ plotline may seem a bit over-familiar to folks, but I know it has fans.

There are two other Gundam titles from Kadokawa’s Gundam Ace. Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin: Special Edition seem to take place after a lot of the current origin comic, and I’ll warm you, there’s a spoiler that I was unaware of, though I imagine most Gundam fans knew it already. (It involves a romantic pairing.) It seems to be in the style of the original, and takes place in Japan (so far – remember, all these are just brief chapters.)

And for the wackier side of Gundam, there’s Gundam-san, the superdeformed 4-koma version, similar to Haruhi-chan. This is for Gundam fanatics only – I admit I didn’t get a lot of the otaku humor. But it looks funny, so I will pretend I get it. LOL!

Kagerou Days comes from Media Factory’s Comic Gene, a magazine I expect to see more titles from in the future. This intriguing title deals with a social shut-in who stays on his computer, who meets a cyber-girl named Ene. Can she convince him to go outside? This is apparently based on a series of songs by the artist Jin.

Tokyo ESP is a Shonen Ace title, and if Tokyopop was still around it would surely have licensed it by now. It features a girl who develops psychic powers after seeing a flying fish, and how she adapts to being telekinetic, especially as it transpires she’s not the only one to gain superpowers. This seems like something X-Men fans would enjoy.

The second-best title in terms of verbiage goes to New Sister Archfiend Testament, aka Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha. It is also a Shonen Ace title, and is based on a light novel. Indeed, the premise SCREAMS light novel. Average high school student ends up with two new sisters, who are a demon lord and a succubus, and he invariably ends up as the master of one of them. Ecchi shenanigans no doubt ensue.

Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya Drei! is the sequel to two other Fate/Kaleid titles, which are themselves part of the giant Fate/Stay Night multiverse. This runs in Comp Ace and is also, I suspect, quite ecchi. It’s a pseudo magical girl title.

Nobunaga the Fool is a brand new title running in Kadokawa’s Niconico A, and also had an anime coming out this past winter. I wonder if this fool is anything like The Irresponsible Captain Tylor? Probably not.

Non Non Biyori runs in Media Factory’s Comic Alive, a magazine that you never know when you’re going to get pure fanservice or something really worth your time. (Usually, it’s the former – its fellow magazine Comic Flapper has the same problem, but reversed.) It’s the slice of life seinen manga that you KNEW a rollout like this had to have, involving an elementary school girl who moves to the country from Tokyo, and has to adapt to rural life.

Lastly, and by far the longest title, goes to Archenemy And Hero – “Be Mine, Hero” “I Refuse!”, a Comp Ace title based around a franchise called Archenemy and Hero (Maoyuu Maou Yuusha). This seems to be an alternate telling of the basic premise, so hopefully won’t be too obscure for those who don’t know the series. Similar to Spice & Wolf, this seems to mesh together high fantasy and business economics.

That’s it for now. I briefly looked at some of the Japanese titles. A few I’d love to see. Bodacious Space Pirates has a manga there, as does Full Metal Panic!. There’s also Tonari no Seki-kun, which may show up after Vertical releases it here.

How will this do? No idea. Unlike JManga, it seems geared more to Japanese readers. That said, the titles they have are pretty good, and there’s some actual bestsellers, as opposed to the all new series approach of Manga Box. What do you think, plan to give it a try?

These are coming in so fast that I honestly can’t keep up, and I’m so glad that I’m not a news site.

Viz had one more title I missed in the last roundup, which is Biohazard – Marhawa Desire, a Shonen Champion title that Viz will release under the Resident Evil name that North America uses. Given the tie-in, you can likely expect some horror here. It’s 5 volumes long.

The doujinshi anthology has done pretty well for companies in the past few years, as we’ve seen Dark Horse do one for Evangelion and Bandai do several related to Code Geass. Yen already had The Misadventures of Kyon and Koizumi. This one from Yen Press will actually be three from the same company fused together, and I suspect lots of comedy will ensue. It’s a good value for money, in any case.

I’d seen this up on Amazon a while ago, but wanted to wait for confirmation as the info I could find suggested it was a light novel. But wait, I said. Seven Seas? Didn’t Adam Arnold say he’d rather gnaw his own leg off rather than publish another light novel? And yet there it is. This is what happens when you have access to a cash cow franchise. In any case, this novel is in the Alice in the Country of Diamonds series, whose premise I seem to recall is that Alice arrives in the new country but no one knows who she is. My guess, judging by the cover, is it’ll be another Blood pairing.

As for Crunchyroll, they’ve announced so much I’ve gotten ridiculously far behind. 3 YKO titles, including the old JManga favorite And Yet The Town Moves. Some digital editions of manga already licensed for print, such as Heroic Legend of Arslan and Ajin. Lots of Moyoco Anno titles, including mature josei from Shodensha’s Feel Young and cute slice-of-life newspaper comic manga. A Morning manga that likely would not make it over to print anytime soon in Investor Z. And most exciting to me, Koe no Katachi, coming out as A Silent Voice, a Shonen Magazine title about a deaf student and the boy who bullies her then tries to atone for it years later. This may be the keeper of the group.

So, got any favorites in here?