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Monday, 6 July 2015

Industry News: Anime Expo 2015 Announcements Round-up (Part 4) - Manga Publishers, NIS America & Extras

The expo has finally ended and this post will cover what's been announced for the manga & light novel publishers who attended (or announced during that time). The publishers include Crunchyroll Manga, Kodansha Comics, Seven Seas, Vertical Comics, Viz Media and Yen Press. In addition some extra news that I haven't yet covered will also be mentioned in this post including Aksys Games, NIS America and.. Tokyopop.


Let's begin.

Crunchyroll Manga


Yesterday I covered what the streaming service had announced for anime but they also held an manga panel the next day. Only five manga titles will be coming to the service but it's not to say they aren't worth mentioning, in fact one of them is highly popular.

Crunchyroll have announced they'll be adding The Morose Mononokean (Fukigenna Mononokean), Princess Jellyfish (Kuragehime), Scum's Wish (Kuzu no Honkai), Sweetness and Lightning (Ama to Inazuma) and Takahashi-san (Takahashisan ga kiiteiru) to the service. All of them are pretty much available worldwide outside Japan. Princess Jellyfish will have four volumes available first and then more will be added later on.

Kodansha Comics


Kodansha didn't have many titles to announce in contrast to Yen Press but they did have some new additions to their catalogue.

The manga publisher announced they will be releasing Maga-Tsuki (Magatsuki), Princess Jellyfish (Kuragehime) and Real Account. Maga-Tsuki and Princess Jellyfish will be available in February 2016 with Real Account following the next month after.

Kodansha also announced that Noragami: Stray God will be released monthly starting October 2015 due to successful sales.

Seven Seas


Seven Seas didn't actually attend the Anime Expo, but they did announce one title that they will be releasing next year. The manga distributor announced they will be releasing the manga adaptation of Angel Beats: Heaven's Door. Heaven's Door is a proper ongoing manga spin-off of the main anime series. The manga will be released in February 2016.

Vertical


Vertical has impressed me with the titles they had acquired over the years; Ajin, Flowers of Evil, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin and even the Kizumonogatari light novel. Now they did it again with one title that I am so looking forward to.

NICHIJOU. THEY HAVE NICHIJOU. THEY HAVE NICHIJOU!!!

Ahem. Yes, Vertical will be bringing over the Nichijou: My Ordinary Life manga to English! The first volume will be released in Spring 2016 and will have at least 200 pages.

Other titles that have been announced include another Attack on Titan light novel spin-off (Vertical handles the light novels while Kodansha Comics handles the manga titles in the franchise). The spin-off Lost Girls will cover stories about the characters Mikasa and Annie. It will be available in Summer 2016 and will have 220 pages.

In addition FukuFuku: Kitten Tales (Fukufuku Fu-nya~n: Koneko da Nyan) was announced which is from the creator of Chi's Sweet Home, Kanata Konami. The spin-off to Fukufuku will be released in Spring 2016 with the 180 page first volume. And lastly, Sushi Chef Sukiyabashi Jiro (Sukiyabashi Jirō Jun o Nigiru) was also announced. Unlike the other titles announced, this one is a non-fiction book from Shinzo Satomi and Jiro Ono. Jiro Ono was also part of the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. The 240 page book will be given the hardback treatment and will be available in Spring 2016.

Viz Media


Viz Media didn't announce any titles for their own prints besides the Shojo Beat label (and Haikasoru novel label which I've covered in the first part). Shojo Beat is celebrating its anniversary this year and for that they have announced two new additions to their catalogue; Behind the Scenes (Urakata!!) manga from Ouran High School Host Club author Bisco Hatori, and Shuriken and Pleats (Shuriken to Pleats) manga by Vampire Knight author Matsuri Hino. Both series are to be released in 2016.

Yen Press


Yen Press had a lot of titles to announce. Some of them which I'm looking forward to reading!

Starting off with the manga titles coming to print. Handa-kun, a spin-off of the Barakamon manga and was announced as a digital title will be coming to print form in January 2016. It's been said that the spin-off is more popular than the main series.

Other incoming print manga titles were all new announcements. They announced Demonizer Zilch (Kamigoroshi-hime Zilch), How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata) ~ the manga version of the light novel, Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade (Log Horizon: Nishikaze no Ryodan), My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected (Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. @comic) ~ the manga version of the light novel, Sword Art Online: Phantom Bullet and Mother's Rosario ~ manga versions of the main light novel series, and Taboo-Tattoo. All of these will be available sometime in 2016.

The next lot of announcements will be starting off on digital first. They confirmed that they haven't ruled out print versions and that doing it this way will get the titles out there as soon as possible. Handa-kun is an example of this occurance so let's hope these lot will get the same!

Digital titles include Aoharu x Machinegun (Aoharu x Kikanjuu), Aphorism, Black Detective (Kuro no Tantei), Corpse Princess (Shikabane Hime), Crimson Prince (Kurenai Ouji), Renaissance Eve, Saki and Sekirei. These lot will be available in November and December respectively.

The next set of digital announcements are actually part of Square Enix's catalogue in Japan. In addition to their catalogue titles; Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji), Handa-kun, Today's Kerberos (Kyou no Cerberus) and The Royal Tutor (Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine). New titles will also be part of Yen Press' catalogue; Kakegurui, My Monster Girl's Too Cool For You (Ore no Kanojo ni Nanika Youkai) and Demon King Ena-sama Goes to a Manga School (Mansen Maou Shoujo Ena-sama). All of these titles will be available digitally in October.

And finally we have the Yen On imprint for light novels. This to me was the best part of Yen Press' announcements. The distributor have managed to acquire Another S, Baccano! and My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected (Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru.)! Another S will be given the same treatment as the main novel did by which it will have a hardback treatment, as a bonus the Another 0 one-shot manga will also be included. Baccano! has been a cult favourite amongst fans so it's nice to finally see what happens next after the main anime series ended. My Youth Romantic Comedy was a nice addition considering the recent anime season just ended so fans can get a nice treat.

NIS America


I can't believe I left out NIS America by accident in my other posts so I should at least mention it here. The company didn't announce anything new in terms of licenses but they did provide a release date for one of their titles; The Pilot's Love Song, a sequel to the Princess and the Pilot film. The series will be available on Blu-ray in a Premium Edition on September 22nd and the set itself is near identical to the Japanese Blu-ray Box with wrap-around art and similar art on discs/covers.

Extras: Aksys Games


Other panels were also going on and I figured it would be cool to reveal the news that Zero Escape 3 will be coming to the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita in Summer 2016. The series has been a cult it on the Nintendo DS, 3DS and Vita with 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward so it's cool to see Spike Chunsoft return to make this next instalment. Details are short but the game will feature Japanese and English audio options.

Extras: Tokyopop


And finally we have this. Tokyopop is returning in 2016 with the same content that caused them to rumble in the first place - original western content. Many people aren't looking forward to their return which is understandable considering they have botched translations for various titles, numerous titles end up being incomplete and the quality of the books are not up to scratch. Most of their titles have expired and went to numerous publishers including Viz Media via their Viz Select print.

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