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'Manga 2.5' English Motion Comics Debut with Karasuma Kyōko
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The entertainment trading company Happinet Corporation and the Inception Media Group have launched the "Manga 2.5" distribution service, which is releasing a line of English-language "motion comic" versions of Japanese manga in video form. Manga 2.5 videos take a Japanese manga and add English voice acting, sound effects, animation, motion, and coloring. The manga titles are available only on the iTunes Store in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and South Africa.
The distribution service launched on Tuesday with two titles: Sakura Kinoshita's The Mythical Detective LOKI, and Ouji Hiroi and Yuusuke Kozaki's Karasuma Kyōko no Jikenbo.
Kinoshita's seven-volume The Mythical Detective LOKI manga tells the story of the Norse God Loki who must act as a boy detective and cleanse humans of evil in order to return to the world of the gods. JManga is also releasing the series digitally in English. ADV Manga published part of the sequel series The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok in English, and ADV Films released the anime adaptation of that sequel in North America.
The 10-volume Karasuma Kyōko no Jikenbo manga follows Kyoko Karasuma, a security officer with near-superhuman speed, and her partner Raymond Kumano, as they investigate cases involving supernatural beings and paranormal phenomena. Kozaki is credited as the original character designer on Speed Grapher and Intrigue in the Bakumatsu - Irohanihoheto, and Hiroi is the original creator of Sakura Wars and Moeyo Ken.
Both The Mythical Detective LOKI and Karasuma Kyōko no Jikenbo are available to download to own or to rent, in both standard definition and HD. The first Karasuma Kyōko no Jikenbo video is 73 minutes long and covers the first eight chapters, and the first The Mythical Detective LOKI video is 62 minutes long and covers the first five chapters. The service has also revealed the voice cast for both series.
Manga 2.5 is currently streaming the first chapters of each of the manga for free.
The service will also release a motion comic version of Yumi Amachi's Otogi Soushi fantasy manga starting in March. SoftBank Creative released the second volume in that series last March. Happinet Corporation and Inception Media Groupy are working with Japanese publishers to release more titles monthly throughout the year.
