Manga
New chapter of ‘Highschool of the Dead’ gets simultaneous release [Updated]
As the trend accelerates toward publishing manga simultaneously in Japan and North America, Yen Press has scored a coup: This week, the company released the long-awaited 30th chapter of Highschool of the Dead digitally on the same day it came out in Japan.
That’s big news for fans of the series, which follows a group of high-school students and their nurse through a zombie apocalypse. It’s serialized in Dragon Age magazine but has been on hiatus for two years, which has given Yen Press time to catch up with the Japanese releases; the seventh volume was released in the United States in July.
Chapter 30 was published Tuesday in Japan, and Yen quickly made it available on a number of e-book platforms: iTunes Bookstore, Kindle, Nook and Google Play. Interestingly, they didn’t put it in their app, although the first seven volumes are available there. UPDATE: Yen Press publishing director Kurt Hassler says that the chapter will be available in the app shortly.
Highschool of the Dead is one of Yen’s more popular manga, so the decision to make the new chapter widely available at a reasonable price on release day makes an enormous amount of sense — especially with the long break since the last chapter. Thanks to Shonen Jump, there seems to be a mini-trend toward chapter-by-chapter, rather than volume-by-volume, releases. This makes a lot of sense, as that’s how most series come out first in Japan.
Yen has also been releasing Soul Eater NOT simultaneously with Japan, within its monthly Yen Plus magazine.
‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ will soon be a manga
The animated cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is already a hit in Japan (where the title is My Little Pony ~Tomodachi wa Mahō~), and now it’s coming to the pages of the children’s manga magazine Pucchigumi as well. The news was revealed at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, where, according to Anime News Network, a flyer was passed out with the news. A representative from the Japanese company Bushiroad told ANN that the artist for the manga will be named sometime this spring.
Pucchigumi sounds like the sort of magazine that kids love and parents loathe; it runs a lot of licensed series based on properties such as Barbie, Tamagotchi, and Jewelpet. A glance at the cover of the current issue reveals a crowded layout, an excess of pink, and lots of big-eyed, super-cute characters, so Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle should fit right in.
Pucchigumi is published by Shogakukan, one of the parent companies of Viz, so if the manga were ever to be licensed in the U.S., that’s who would probably publish it—and indeed, it would be a logical addition to their VizKids line. Of course, IDW already has a serialized My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic, so the relationship could be complicated.
First look at manga biography of Steve Jobs
Yahoo! Japan has excerpted the first chapter of the serialized manga adaptation of Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, debuting today in the josei anthology magazine Kiss.
Based on Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of the late co-founder of Apple, the manga is Mari Yamazaki’s follow-up to her acclaimed historical comedy Thermae Romae, which concluded earlier this month. Publishing giant Kodansha, which owns Kiss, published Isaacson’s 2011 book in Japan.
There’s also a new nearly minute-long promo spot, featuring Yamazaki, which you can see below, along with some pages from the manga’s first chapter.
Steve Jobs gets manga biography from ‘Thermae Romae’ creator
Japanese publishing giant Kodansha will debut a serialized manga adaptation of Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography in the May issue of Kiss magazine, out March 25, Anime News Network reports.
The manga will be Mari Yamazaki’s follow-up to Thermae Romae, her acclaimed historical comedy that comes to an end March 12 in Monthly Comic Beam. Yen Press publishes that manga in North America. Appearing Tuesday on the talk show Hello from Studio Park, Yamazaki revealed a peek at her rendition of Jobs, and said she felt sympathy for the computer pioneer.
Released in October 2011, less than three weeks after the death of the Apple co-founder, the authorized biography by Walter Isaacson is based on more than 40 interviews conducted with Jobs as well as with family members, friends, colleagues and competitors. Kodansha published the book in Japan.
Gotta catch ‘em all! Viz to release three new ‘Pokemon’ manga
Viz Media will release three new Pokémon manga titles as part of its Viz Kids imprint, beginning next week with the debut of the tie-in to Pokémon the Movie: Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice. That will be followed in July by Pokémon Adventures: Black & White and in August by Pokémon Adventures: HeartGold and SoulSilver.
“From the exciting release of the tie-in manga to the latest feature film, Pokémon the Movie: Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice, to the debut of the new Pokémon Adventures: HeartGold and SoulSilver manga series and the publication of a new edition of the critically acclaimed Pokémon Adventures: Black & Whiteseries, there will be plenty of imaginative adventures to look forward to throughout the spring and summer,” Beth Kawasaki, Viz Media’s senior editorial director, said in a statement.
Israeli diplomat criticizes ‘Mein Kampf’ manga, gets Bible series
The Israeli ambassador to Japan was shocked to discover a manga adaptation of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf on the shelf of a Tokyo bookstore, so much so that he arranged a meeting with publisher East Press to express his dismay.
Ynetnews reports that while the publisher apologized and said he didn’t realize the book would offend anyone — it was released in 2008 as part of a series of historical adaptations that included Karl Marx’s Das Kapital and Tolstoy’s War and Peace — he explained that Mein Kampf had already sold out.
And so Ambassador Nissim Ben-Shitrit came up with a solution that, in his view, would provide a bit of balance: three manga adaptations of Bible stories, illustrated by some of the Mein Kampf artists. The books are now available in Japanese and in English from Easter Press.