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Higurashi, Baka to Test, Amagami Get New Manga

Manga creator J-ta Yamada (Asatte no Houkou) launched an adaptation of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Jong, a mahjong game based on 07th Expansion's Higurashi: When They Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) suspense horror visual novel franchise, in the January 1 issue of Takeshobo's Kindai Mahjong magazine on Tuesday. Although the magazine is biweekly, the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Jong ~Tsubamegaeshi-hen manga will run only once a month.

The original game series, which MangaGamer is releasing in English, inspired two television anime series, several video anime projects, two live-action films, and manga adaptations by several artists. Funimation has taken over North American distribution of the first Higurashi television series from Geneon Entertainment, but no announcement has been made yet of future Higurashi anime licenses in the region. Yen Press publishes one of the manga adaptations in North America.

The January issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine announced on November 26 that the artist KOIZUMI is drawing a Baka to Test to Shōkanjū Dya four-panel manga in the next issue on December 26. The manga is based on Kenji Inoue and Yui Haga's Baka to Test to Shōkanjū (The Idiot, the Tests, and the Summoned Creatures) romantic comedy light novels about a lower-rung classroom that fights for supremacy in a school with fantasy creatures. Another artist, Mōsuke Mattaku, is already serializing an earlier manga adaptation in Shōnen Ace. Media Factory's anime version will premiere in Japan in January.

KimiKiss ~various heroines~ artist Tarō Shinonome is drawing a second special manga spinoff based on Enterbrain's Amagami high school romance simulation game in the 10th issue of Hakusensha's Young Animal Island magazine on December 9. Shinonome has already been serializing the Amagami precious diary manga in the flagship Young Animal magazine since November 27.

Source: Comic Natalie (link 2), Chuosha

Images © 2007 Kenji Inoue, Yui Haga © Enterbrain, Inc.