Vertical had a panel at Anime Weekend Atlanta, and Ed Chavez was quick to note that he was saving most of the new license announcements for NYCC/NYAF, but he did have one new book they’ll be releasing in the Spring of 2012.
Aku no Hana, which will be released over here as Flowers of Evil, is a Kodansha shonen title, currently being released in the monthly Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, and was one of the series that debuted with the magazine itself in 2009. The author, Oshimi Shuzou, isn’t very well known over here, but does have another series that has begun to appear in English: his seinen adventure Hyouryuu Net Cafe has the first volume up at JManga. Aku no Hana will be at least 5 volumes, and is still running in the magazine today.
As for the plot, it apparently involves the girl on the cover blackmailing the somewhat weak male lead. Not an entirely uncommon plot in Japanese manga, and I imagine it will live and die on how weak the male lead actually is. The cover design looks very striking as well – though, as with many or most Vertical releases, we may get entirely new covers for the North American market.
This is another ‘mainstream’ release after they announced GTO Shonan 14 Days earlier in the year. Although it does seem somewhat eccentric for a shonen title, and I suspect may be more along the lines of what Genkaku Picasso was for Jump Square. Let’s see what it does to try and grab us!
