News
The Story of Saiunkoku Manga Listed by Viz's Distributor (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
The North American book distributor Simon & Schuster is listing the first volume of The Story of Saiunkoku book series, written by Sai Yukino and illustrated by Kairi Yura, for a November release by Viz Media. The listing does not specify if this 176-page paperback release is of the original fantasy light novels that Yukino wrote and Yura illustrated, or of the manga that Yura based on the light novels. Simon & Schuster's listings do not necessarily indicate definite release plans or dates.
Yura's story follows Shūrei Kō, a destitute girl of noble birth who "has always dreamed of working as a government offical in the imperial court, but women are barred from holding such offices. Shūrei becomes a consort to the emperor Ryūki in an attempt to persuade the ne'er-do-well ruler to govern."
There are currently 15 main volumes of the light novel series and 4 volumes of side stories from the Japanese publisher Kadokawa Shoten. The manga version launched in Kadokawa's Beans Ace magazine in 2005 and then moved to Kadokawa's Monthly Asuka magazine in 2009. The fifth volume of the manga shipped last month. Besides Saiunkoku, Yura also designed the characters and drew the manga adaptation of KOEI's Angelique franchise for female gamers.
The light novels inspired two television anime series which Jun Shishido directed at Madhouse in 2006-2007 and in 2007-2008. Geneon Entertainment released part of the first anime series in North America in 2007, and Funimation agreed to distribute the series after Geneon ceased in-house sales and distribution of its own DVD titles.
[Via Tanbishugi, Saiunkoku Community]
Update: More information about Yura added.
Update 2: Viz editor Nancy Thistlethwaite confirmed that the company's release will be the manga version. Thanks, kel aka gandy.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history