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American Artist Assists on New Prince of Tennis Manga
posted on by Egan Loo
Jamie Lano, an American artist and columnist who has been living in Japan since 2004, is assisting Takeshi Konomi on his New Prince of Tennis (Shin Tennis no Ōji-sama) manga, which just launched in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine on Wednesday.
Lano answered a notice that Konomi posted for new assistant artists last September. At the time, Konomi had not officially announced that he was restarting The Prince of Tennis manga after ending it last March. During parts of the six months leading up to the new manga's launch, Lano and the rest of Konomi's staff would work in marathon sessions and not step foot outside the studio for up to a week or longer. (Lano qualified this to ANN, "Though the longest stay has been 10 days, the norm is roughly a week, then a break, and another week. We go out for dinner or to parks or events and things like that on occasion. Once even to an onsen [hot spring].")
In addition to contributing to the actual art, Lano translated the English dialogue in the manga. (The story's first chapter takes place in New York, although the story then moves back to Japan.) She speaks English, as well as Japanese "but not fluently."
The New Prince of Tennis story is set in the fall, several months after the national tennis tournament that ended the original manga. While the main character Ryōma Echizen is honing his skills in America, a crucial letter arrives that changes his plans. Viz Media is publishing the 30th volume of Konomi's original manga run in North America this month.
Thank you to Adrian Lozano (Otaku2) for the news.
