News

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?

They’re coming fast and furious, folks. Let’s start with Viz, which has two new shoujo titles and one big seinen one, as well as a new shonen license that surprises me.

Honey Blood is from racy shoujo manga Sho-Comi, and as you might guess by the word blood in the title, it features vampires. Normal girl is worried about the recent vampire attacks… could her neighbor be a vampire? Judging by that cover, I’m guessing this is in the ‘if you like Black Bird’ vein…

Kiss of the Rose Princess is from Kadokawa’s Asuka manga, and promises a fantasy reverse harem story. Our heroine is told bad things will happen to her if she ever takes off the rose choker her father gave her. Now it’s gone… and she’s surrounded by hot knights! This is truly terrible. This looks like a lot of fun.

The big news is another Naoki Urasawa series has been licensed. No, not Billy Bat, that’s still only in Japan. No, we aren’t getting any fashionable judo girls yet either. Instead we get Master Keaton, which Urasawa co-created (and there’s a bit of controversy behind that, apparently) and features an archaeologist/ex-Armed forces member who travels the world investigating claims for Lloyd’s. This ran in Big Comic Original for 6 years, and Viz will be doing it as a fancy signature title, with color pages and everything. The anime was also released over here about 15 years ago (so in the ancient age of North American anime).

If this does well, who knows? We might get Yawara after all! Or Happy!, Urasawa’s incredibly angsty and depressing tennis manga. Or Pineapple Army, which Viz put out one volume of waaaaaaay back in the day. The sky’s the limit!

And editing my own post, because Jump has some new announcements as well! In addition to the expected Jaco graphic novel, as it’s by the Dragon Ball creator so DUH, we have the long-awaited release of Assassination Classroom! I had assumed the basic plot of “kill your teacher” made this unlicensable, so it’s great to see Viz picking it up, particularly as I hear an anime is due soon. It’s great fun and heartwarming, GTO with an alien smiley face. Definitely highly recommended!

I swear companies check my blog to make sure I’ve posted, then do announcements.

So yes, 2 new titles from Kodansha today (well, technically 3, they’re putting out Attack on Titan 1-5 in a giant 1000-page omnibus). Let’s investigate.

First, we have another Ema Toyama title. Despite hitting high above its supposed age bracket, Missions of Love has been doing pretty well for the company, and they already did an omnibus of I Am Here!. Now we get a series that cries out for a translated title, GDGD-DOGS (Kodansha will release it as Manga Dogs). Running for 3 volumes in Aria magazine, this series about a teenage manga artist and her pretty boy wannabe students seems to be light and fluffy, and I wonder if Kodansha will do it as one big omnibus or 3 separate volumes.

As for Noragami, that’s 10 volumes and counting, and may be the next big thing to come over here from Monthly Shonen Magazine. This one has an anime currently airing, which is likely a big reason they’re taking a chance on the series. The author is best known over here for Alive, the post-apocalyptic manga that Del Rey put out 8 volumes of before it became part of the Giant Del Rey Title Purge. The plot sounds oddly a bit like Kamisama Kiss. Looking forward to see where it goes.

Also, although I’m not sure Yen has officially announced this, but the 3rd Durarara!! arc, subtitled Yellow Flag Orchestra (that sound you hear is Baccano! light novel fans crying), will be beginning this fall. Like Umineko, Durarara!! seems to be a series that Yen enjoys, but is only licensing in chunks. Makes sense, given it’s pretty much caught up with Japan. This arc focuses more on Kida’s troubled past and wavering loyalties.

I’ve been away the last few days, as you can tell by the lack of content. Naturally, whenever I go away, tons of news and announcements happen. Yen and Vertical are our culprits this time, so let’s see what’s new with them.

Yen had already announced the Accel World light novels last August, so it’s no big surprise that the manga will be coming to our shores as well. It runs in ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko, and is 4+ volumes. In case you missed the novel license, think ‘protagonist falls into RPG world’ plot.

The biggest license of the week in terms of total volumes is Übel Blatt, a 14+ volume fantasy title from Square Enix’s Big Gangan. It seems to be a dark fantasy sword-and-sorcery type story, and has some fanservice judging from that cover. The author, Etorouji Shiono, is best known over here for Brocken Blood, a JManga license that got 3 volumes out.

And from SE’s Gangan Online site we have Barakamon, a slice-of-life comedy by Yoshino Satsuki. This seems to be a fish-out-of-water type plot, as a city boy has to move to an island and finds life is totally different around these parts. It’s 8+ volumes so far, and has an anime coming soon.

As for Vertical, I’ll start with Witch Craft Works, which Random House sort of spoiled by throwing it on their site a couple of weeks ago. This is a Kodansha title from good! Afternoon, a spinoff of the main Afternoon magazine, and is 7+ volumes. The description seems to indicate ‘average boy, exceptional girl’, and as you’d guess from the title, also has a fantasy aspect to it. The anime is currently running.

Also from good! Afternoon is Ajin, which seems to be a horror/thriller title, 3+ volumes. The co-author, Tsuina Miura, is currently writing High-Rise Invasion from Mangabox. Hopefully this series will have a bit less survival game to it.

Lastly, from regular old Afternoon comes The Garden of Words, an adaptation of the anime film which is complete in one volume. The author also wrote 5 Centimeters Per Second, which did better for Vertical than they expected, I believe, so this new license makes sense. I hope for a happy ending, but given the author’s prior works (he also did Voices of a Distant Star), suspect ‘deeply bittersweet’ will be what I get.

Which of these are you most looking forward to?

We have another entry into the ‘release manga on an online platform’ sweepstakes this week with Mangabox, a project put together by Dena, with assistance from a few manga publishers in Japan, primarily Kodansha. The goal is to release daily manga chapters of various series, some of which may be familiar to English-speaking readers, either because they know the anime, they know the series it’s spun off from, or they’re familiar with the author. It launched last week with about 22 titles available in English, and it’s also available on the Japanese side as well (with a few more titles – more on that below).

All the titles have now had at least one chapter, so we’ve gotten a basic look at the fare we’ll be seeing. It reads very much like a young men’s magazine, with some dumb comedy, some romance, some horror, and some adventure. The daily feed of 2-3 new chapters means that no one series overwhelms the other (again, with one irritating exception), and the app itself is easy to use and very readable (it was initially incredibly bright, but they seem to have toned that down a bit in an update).

So, what are we seeing over here? Let’s do a bullet point list:

The Knight In The Area is actually a spinoff of the ACTUAL Knight in the Area, a popular soccer manga that runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine and is almost 40 volumes and still going (i.e. unlicensable). This is actually a prequel, though, examining the life of one of the coaches from the main series when he was in middle school. It’s quite well done if you like sports manga.

Can’t Ride A Bicycle! is a comedic school life manga about a club composed of young men who all love the idea of riding bikes but have very poor bike riding skillsets. If you like K-On! or Free, this should interest you, though it’s even fluffier than both of those so far.

High-Rise Invasion is a survival game manga starring a young girl who finds herself in a deserted school being pursued by a chainsaw killer. it turns out her brother is around there as well, and she is in a world of high-rises with bridges between them. It hasn’t grabbed me so far, but I am weary of survival game manga.

High School Ninja Girl, Otonashi-san is a 4-koma school comedy about a ninja trying to fit in at high school. It’s slight, but cute. I smiled.

The Great Phrases Women Fall For. Sigh. Every Japanese magazine seems to have an out-of-left-field short gag manga that runs at the end of their magazines, and this is Mangaboxes. It’s composed of definitions of words given by smug men. Not particularly funny, its biggest fault is that it is the only serial here that runs daily. There’s only 2 definitions per day, but that’s 4 pages of my life I will never get back.

Kindaichi Case Files: Takato’s Side is a spinoff of the very popular everywhere but here (where it tanked) mystery series. This side story features Kindaichi’s adversary in school, dealing with his own grisly murder. I suspect it may get rather dark. Well done so far, though.

Billion Dogs shows why I hate judging series with only one chapter. The first chapter of this series made itsound a bit Medaka Box-ish, with the adventures of a proud student council president looking to improve things. The second chapter shows us a darker side, though, and I suspect this may get even more twisted before we’re done. Who are the good guys here? I’m really enjoying this.

Spoof on Titan is what you’d expect, a 4-koma gag manga based on the breakout hit series Attack on Titan. It’s cute and fun, playing on the character’s broad stereotypes. Note that this is not the same as the high-school AU comedy that’s coming out over here in March.

District Hakkenshi (code:T-8] seems to be a retelling of The Hakkendan in a modern setting, starring a lazy yet intelligent high school student. It’s by the creators of Getbackers, so is definitely worth checking out, though I want to read more before committing.

NadeNade ShikoShiko is a comedy about a guy who dreamed of a magical caveman girlfriend, only to find that she’s actually there at his house one day. Could get funnier, but I’m not optimistic.

Schoolgirl Landlord Honoka, from the author of Pastel, is about fanservice. And also a young girl who arrives at her late grandfather’s boarding house and meets the eccentric tenants, yes, but mostly fanservice. Get ready to see a lot of underwear.

Peephole is possibly the most explicit title we’ve seen on here (it really needs a warning), and is equal parts creepy and horrific. Featuring a suicidal young man who finds new life by peeping on his next-door neighbor pleasuring herself, it takes a much darker turn near the end. Needs another chapter for me to get a handle on it. Again, slightly wary.

Girl and Car on the Beat is a police comedy about a new officer and her relationship with the old, beat up police car the station has. The car narrates, and is not all that happy to be saddled with a young woman. No, it’s not a magical car – only the readers hear the narration. Needs more chapters to get a feel for it.

The Chronicles of Akoya is an action-adventure series set in Ancient Times, and starring a young sword-wielding woman who I suspect may be orphaned soon. Some very jarring fanservice at the start, but otherwise a decent opening.

My Grandpa’s Stories Can’t Be This Weird! is a gag comedy that pretty much is what it sounds like, and is in no way related to any Little Sister series, despite the title. If you recall the old Jump gag comedy Bobobobo-Bobobo, this is along the same lines.

GREEN WORLDZ is another action-adventure horror story about a world where plants seem to be killing everyone. And I mean suddenly – it just starts to happen. It’s just gotten started, so we’ll see what happens, but there’s some striking imagery in the first chapter.

Araidoki is another school comedy with supernatural elements, that suffers from mediocre art more than anything else. Some of the gags were vaguely funny, but overall I wasn’t impressed.

Man’s Bestest Friend features a leading man you want to beat to death with a bat, and a heroine who is a dog turned into a human. She’s even called Wanko. I have no desire to read any more of this.

Horizon was the best to date of the action-adventure manga, detailing the life of Genghis Khan as a young man. A lot of gore, as you might expect given the hero, but it’s well handled and I’d like to see more. Fans of Berserk or Vinland Saga will like this.

First Love Suicide Pact is another “this has barely gotten started, needs more chapters” story, but its view of what mindset leads a person to the point of suicide is interesting, and I want to see how it resolves everything. It looks like a teacher-student romance here, though, be warned.

Stra the Warlock is a fantasy series taking place in a world where humans re enslaved by demons. The story so far is meh, but the art is sort of interesting – it has a Masamune Shirow feel to it.

In a Heartbeat is about a young man who has come to the realization that he’s gay, but is generally too shy and nervous to do anything about it. Then he runs into his old childhood friend and first love. Again, only one chapter is far too early to judge this, but BL fans should take a look.

Mangabox is also available in Japan, and has a few extra series there. The untranslated series all seem to have one thing in common: they’re out in Japan in other formats, such as in Young Magazine or Futabasha’s Manga Action. Whereas all the titles we’re seeing translated here are web-only so far. Helps to avoid scanlations. For the curious, Japan also has two Ghost in the Shell: SAC titles (one of which is out over here already); Slave District, which seems to combine gambling and rape, and I would think is VERY unlikely to come out over here; Gainax’s Sudden Death, from the artist who gave us the borderline H harem series Love Junkies, which is all about tea ceremonies; Shoot!, a very old soccer manga, though I’m uncertain if this is reprinting the 1990 series or a spinoff of that; and King’s Game, a survival game manga that seems to trend a bit darker than High-Rise Invasion.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with Mangabox so far. The daily dribbling out of chapters is a good way to keep people coming to the site, and also helps you to not get bored with a specific title. Well, except the Great Phrases Women Fall For manga. That’s boring. But skippable. Definitely recommended so far, and I’ll be interested to see if they bring in new content in a month or two.

Seven Seas has put out so many press releases lately that I kept waiting for it to stop before I could do a post summing it all up. Luckily, we seem to be in a lull, so let’s see what they have in the way of 2014 manga for us.

D-Frag! is a Comic Alive title from Media Factory, and seems to combine several popular otaku elements. Young man gets shanghaied into a club with four very strange women and has to deal with their wacky antics. Clearly there will be some harem stuff going on, and with the hero being a delinquent type it’s hard not to think of Haganai when seeing this one, especially as this also involves playing a lot of games.

Speaking of Haganai, after having been on Amazon for several months as a preorder, Seven Seas finally admits they have licensed the Shobon side-story volume, which is going out under the title “Now With 50% More Fail!” because, y’know, translating is good. (I think Shobon is an emoji or something? Totally untranslatable, I suspect…)

Yes, of course there’s a one-shot sequel to the one-shot, with more side-story madness. Given Haganai doesn’t have much of a plot to begin with besides the harem antics, side stories seem a bit odd, but hey, I still enjoy the series. This is called Haganai Hiyori in Japan, and comes over here as Club Minutes.

This title may have been seen before by a few people back in the JManga days, and I’ve always been a huge fan of it. The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer is a rather twisted Japanese take on superheroes, and at 10 volumes (which Seven Seas will be publishing as 5 omnibuses), is just the right length. The hero, in particular, has a certain horrible mindset that makes me smile (and occasionally wince). Of all Seven Seas’ new licenses, this is the one I most recommend. (It’s also a Young King Ours title. We need more YKO over here.)

Looking at that picture, and the fact that this is called “I Am Alice – Bodyswap in Wonderland”, you might be forgiven for thinking this is the latest QuinRose spinoff series in the Country of Hearts. But no, Alice in Wonderland is to 2014 what Survival Games were to 2013. Ore Alice runs in Media Factory’s Comic Gene, meaning it’s appealing to shoujo readers. Given that Alice is in reality a young boy, and that the Wonderland Inhabitants look to be just as bishey as Country of Hearts, I expect there may be BL content in here somewhere, but who knows? I’ll admit this is the title I know the least about.

Lastly, we have three more Strike Witches manga spinoffs, with the cover above being for the story “One-Winged Witches”. We also get “1937 Fuso Sea Incident” and “The Sky That Surrounds Us”. They’re all Kadokawa series, from either Nyantype or Comp Ace, which is to say they are marketed solely to young men with lots of money who want cute girls. None of the Strike Witches manga have come out over here yet, so I can’t really say for sure if this will be another Haganai or another Monster Musume for me. Time will tell. In the meantime, fans of the series have to be happy at seeing all of these.

And that about covers it, at least until next week when they may announce nine more series. Seven Seas has come a long way in just one or two years. Is this all thanks to Country of Clover and Vampire Bund? Well, more licensed manga is always a good thing.

I hate doing these for only one title, but the other one that’s on Amazon already hasn’t quite been announced, so it will have to be content with a tweet or two. In the meantime, we have another Shonen Jump series, though this one is not going to be featured in the weekly online magazine.

Shokugeki no Soma, which is getting the prefix Food Wars added to it for North America, is a Weekly Shonen Jump series that’s about 4 or 5 volumes so far. It is another manga about food creation but, like another Jump series, Toriko, I suspect this is not so much for the foodie manga reader as it is for the typical Jump manga fan. A young man is challenged by his chef father to go to an elite chef high school where it’s all battles all the time. It has very few graduates. Oh, and the head of the school’s granddaughter hates him. Can he survive just by being the hero of a Shonen Jump manga?

This sort of series has been called Food Porn, and apparently this particular series takes that wording a bit literally. Like many manga artists before they hit it big, Saeki Shun got his start in hentai doujinshi, and it shows in the abundant amounts of fanservice that this title has. Indeed, I was rather surprised at the announcement, not because it’s a battle manga – indeed, that’s likely the lure. It’s because ecchi harem series had been on the decline in North American recently. Strawberry 100%, an earlier Viz Jump title, is on permanent hiatus. Nisekoi is a romantic comedy, but its main thrust is not so much “panties!” the way the classic shonen harem title is. Food Wars (and I haven’t read it, so please correct me if I’m wrong) is combining a cooking manga with harem fanservice in much the same way Toriko combines it with One Piece-esque shonen ludicrousness.

As for whether it succeeds, well, I admit I’m intrigued at what the future will bring if it does. We shall see.

For those wondering what I mean, here’s Crunchyroll’s presser.

Kodansha not having a weekly digital equivalent to Viz’s Shonen Jump was always a major stumbling block, and this should fix that right up.

So… what are we getting? Attack on Titan and Fairy Tail you already know. UQ Holder! and The Seven Deadly Sins were announced at NYCC by Kodansha for next year.

That leaves 8. Let’s take a look.

The biggie here is definitely Space Brothers, which has an anime to its name, and which Kodansha Comics has already admitted they’d love to put out if it wasn’t 20+ volumes and seinen. If it does well digitally, perhaps we can see it in print. I once heard this described as “Twin Spica for MANLY MEN”, and that’s not far off. It’s called Uchuu Kyoudai in Japan, and runs in Weekly Morning.

Mysterious Girlfriend X (Nazo no Kanojo X) runs in Monthly Afternoon, and also has a tie-in anime. It’s 10+ volumes, and is sort of a weird romantic comedy. It also has an obsession with drool that I recall made me avoid it, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

A Town Where You Live (Kimi no Iru Machi) has everything a modern manga publisher doesn’t want: it’s 20+ volumes (and weekly – it runs in Shonen Magazine), a harem comedy, and its author had a prior series get cancelled for low sales over here (Suzuka). That said, it has a very active online fanbase, and let’s hope they pay to see it coming out over here.

Back a long time ago, I license requested Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, aka Flunk Punk Rumble. Sadly, it was one of my license requests that did not get fulfilled. But now we have the author’s new work, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo)! It has bodyswaps, it’s funny, and it has a female creator. Can’t wait.

As the Gods Will (2nd Series) (Kami-sama no Iutoori Ni 2) is, as you might imagine, the sequel to As the Gods Will 1, which is (oh dear) a survival game horror manga that runs in Shonen Magazine. Despite picking up with the sequel, and my utter boredom with this genre, I hope it does well.

My Wife Is Wagatsuma-san (Wagatsuma-san wa Ore no Yome) is one of the more interesting romantic comedies Kodansha’s putting out these days. A loser guy (no, wait, come back) who really wants the cute girl he likes to (no, really come back!) like him wakes up one day, 10 years in the future, married to his dream girl! But he has no memories of the last 10 years. He has to figure out how they got this way. The author also writes a prison horror comic, so this must be the light relief.

…oh wait, here is the comic in question! Fort of Apocalypse (Apocalypse no Toride) is by the author of Wagatsuma-san but with a different artist. It runs in Shonen Rival, and has prisons AND zombies. I suspect it may be the darkhorse hit of this whole deal.

Coppelion, a Young Magazine title, is one of those series everyone expects to be the announcement at every single con but it never is. Genetically modified cute girls plus post-apocalyptic Japan, who can possibly resist? It’s 19+ volumes, which explains why Kodansha resisted. But now… digital!

Which of these has you most excited? For me, it’s Space Brothers and Yamada-kun.

The final day of New York Comic Con, I had only one planned panel. I took some time to walk around the show floor some more, now that the crush of Saturday was gone. Picked up a 2000AD book after their excellent panel the night before (though it ended up being none of the titles they had recommended). Got Summer Wars from Vertical, which I had missed the first time around. Discussed the one-week delay on Random House manga with Diamond Distributors – they’ll look into it. Quite productive.

Then, after lunch, I decided to go to Main Events. My panel wasn’t for 2 1/2 hours, but hey. Luckily, I was able to walk right in. No lines at all. Hooray for huge rooms! What I ended up seeing was the network FXX advertising its wares. They had a fantasy football sitcom called The League, which is in one of my least favorite genres (group of horrible people are all friends and are horrible every week – see It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as well), but I will admit made me laugh a few times. The cast were all quite personable, and it’s clear they love making the show.

I then saw the world premiere of a new animated cartoon called Chozen, which stars the odd combination of Bobby Moyhihan from Saturday Night Live and Method Man from the Wu-Tang Clan. It’s about rappers, and I liked the episode far less – it read like a rap version of Family Guy, which I despise. The Q&A was more interesting, particularly when folks were asking Method Man about a Wu-Tang reunion (their 20th anniversary was this week) rather than about the actual show. Again, not for me, but everyone involved looked really hyped about it – this doesn’t have the feel of bringing in folks to cash a paycheck.

Then came what I had been waiting for – the Big Finish Doctor Who panel, with Nicholas Briggs, Jason Haigh-Ellery, and Colin Baker. Honestly, a lot of people in the room (now filled to capacity – my choice to camp there early was a good one) weren’t really all that familiar with Big Finish, being New Who fan types, but this may change their minds. The panel started with a costume parade – there were a huge number of Who costumes at the con, and not just Smith/Tennant stuff either. Lots of kids, who looked adorable. They all walked around to the KLF hit “Doctorin’ The TARDIS”.

Then came the panel proper, livened up greatly by Colin Baker, who knows how to work a crowd. We heard a preview of Big Finish’s 50th anniversary story, which stars Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann, along with various companions. Called The Light At The End, it was written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, and will be in standard CD, deluxe CD, and super deluxe LP editions. Colin notes that on audio, he can look the same as he did in 1984 – the power of imagination!

Big Finish was discussed as a “proving ground” for many young writers, and of course two Big Finish dramas were rewritten into the TV series – the Sixth Doctor story “Jubilee” became “Dalek” from Christopher Eccleston’s season, and “Spare Parts” was made into the Cybermen 2-parter in Tennant’s first season. Indeed, pre-Doctor Who, David Tennant did loads of Big Finish audio dramas, particularly in the miniseries Dalek Empire.

The company only has the rights to the “Classic” series, so can’t use the Silence or the Weeping Angels – which aren’t really fitting for audio in any case. Colin, discussing the episode Blink, wondered why winking wasn’t an option! He also noted that we never saw him regenerate (due to the nasty way the BBC let him go), therefore all the Doctors after him are imposters!

Colin dislikes using the word “favourite”, as it implies a ranking system, which he avoids. That said, the audio drama Arrangements for War was noted as being a highlight of his series with Big Finish. He did feel the new series had a leg up on the classic one as it can avoid the bad special effects that plagued the series – Colin describes being unable to walk off as he was holding up the wall at one point. And he wanted to not only be able to do the “Everybody lives!” scene from The Doctor Dances, but wanted Eccleston’s costume – his original idea had been for the 6th Doctor to wear a leather jacket.

There was some amusing bashing of other Doctors – Colin quickly noted this is a tradition amongst them, and not to read too much into it. He hasn’t seen Sylvester’s episodes (everyone tends to avoid the one that comes after them), but feels that if you are a good actor, anyone can be the Doctor. Nicholas Briggs also discussed how his Big Finish work got him the role of “Dalek voice” in the TV series, and how he was once cast as the Cyber voice without actually being booked – he was simply asked “Why aren’t you on set?”.

There was an amusing anecdote about an actress who shall not be named (though it’s obvious in context) who had trouble being scared by the Dalek in its titular episode, as she thought it looked ridiculous. The director sighed and shouted at her “It’s been killing people!” They all discussed their great love of Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, and are excited to see what Peter Capaldi brings to the role – Capaldi is a Doctor Who fanatic, with toys and everything. Colin was also quick to note Nicola Bryant was his favorite companion in her role as Peri.

Lastly, as a reader of the BBC Doctor Who novels, my favorite anecdote of the night was when they were casting Fitz, one of the 8th Doctors book companions, for an audio project, they almost cast Matt Smith! He was thought to be too young for the role. Little did they know…

And then I tapped out for the last time and left Comic Con to go stand in an even longer line at the hotel to collect my suitcase. But it was a lot of fun. Yes, the lines were abysmal, and I think some of the room choices showed an astonishing lack of foresight, but this is one of the dangers of having a con with over 100,000 people. Overall, it’s a great unifying experience of fandom.