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Shonen Jump Alpha Adds Blue Exorcist, Takama-ga-hara Manga
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The North American manga and anime distributor Viz Media announced at its Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha panel at San Diego Comic Con on Sunday that Kazue Katō's Blue Exorcist manga series and Jūzō Kawai's Takama-ga-hara manga series will join the lineup of its digital anthology Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. Takama-ga-hara will run weekly in the digital anthology starting on July 23.
Viz Media will release Blue Exorcist volume 8 (pictured at right) on July 30 as a digital-first exclusive. Shonen Jump Alpha will then host two chapters of the manga past volume 8 in each issue starting on July 30. The speed-up will then catch up with the chapters in Japan on August 20. August 20's issue of Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha will contain the latest chapter of Blue Exorcist two weeks after it ran in Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine. Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha will then host new chapters of the manga monthly two weeks after they are published in Japan.
Kawai launched the Takama-ga-hara manga series in Shueisha's 32nd issue of Japan's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on July 9.
Viz Media published the seventh volume of Blue Exorcist in print in April. The manga was adapted into a 25-episode television anime series last year, and a film adaptation will premiere this winter.
The supernatural manga focuses on Rin Okumura, a boy raised by a famous exorcist named Father Fujimoto. After an argument between the two, Rin discovers he is the son of Satan. Rin decides to fight his fate by joining the True Cross Academy to become an exorcist and defeat demons. However, when he draws his father's sword, it releases a dark power within him.
Update: Background information added.
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