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Tokyopop Announces New Manga Releases

Tokyopop today announced via press release today the June releases of several new manga series. The first volumes of Comic Party, Deus Vitae, Immortal Rain, Remote and The Seikai Trilogy: Crest of the Stars are all to be released on June 4th.

Comic Party and Crest of the Stars are previously announced licenses, while Immortal Rain and Remote were among the licenses leaked from Amazon UK. Deus Vitae however is a completely new license for Tokyopop.

To date, the following manga licenses have not yet been confirmed:


Excerpts from Press Release (full press release here):

Comic Party (Comedy, Volume 1 Release: 6/4/04)
Manga fans and creators alike will get a laugh from this story by Sekihiko Inui that reads like a wacky, behind-the-scenes look at The Rising Stars of Manga. With a breakneck pace, Comic Party's over-the-top plot centers on Kazuki, who has a passion and talent for painting and drawing that propels him into the world of Doujinshi (amateur manga). Soon, Kazuki's everyday life is consumed by manga... reading it, drawing it, living it at convention after convention. Sure, his new career as a struggling artist has begun, but at what cost to his friends and family?

Deus Vitae (Sci-Fi, Volume 1 Release: 6/4/04)
In a world powered by machines, are humans even necessary? That's the question posed in this futuristic manga by Takuya Fujima, sure to appeal to fans of the Matrix and Terminator franchises. The action takes place in 2068, after mankind has developed a "Brain Computer" to manage all machines on Earth. Unfortunately, this ultra-sophisticated CPU has detected a virus-humans!-and has eradicated most of the race. Now, the only thing preventing humanity's complete annihilation may be the forbidden love between a man and an android.

Immortal Rain (Fantasy/Drama, Volume 1 Release: 6/4/04)
Kaori Ozaki (Hitsuji-No-Hana, Honeymoon) delivers a unique spin on the predator-prey relationship. For centuries, the eternal Methuselah Rain has escaped assassins and eluded bounty hunters determined to kill him and expose his secret. Even the Grim Reaper Zol died without uncovering Rain's fountain of youth. Now Zol's 18-year-old granddaughter Machika vows to end Rain's immortality once and for all. What stands in her way is the line between love and hate that becomes blurred when she actually discovers she needs him.

Remote (Action/Horror, Volume 1 Release: 6/4/04)
From the creative minds of Seimaru Amagi and Tetsuya Koshiba comes this wildly compelling and ultra-violent manga that inspired a top TV drama in Japan. Kurumi Ayaki is a police officer who needs extra money to pay for her wedding. Seeking serious overtime to earn the cash, she takes on a host of crimes previously classified as unsolvable. Kurumi's partner is a mysterious young genius who is not only emotionless, but is also confined to his room. Acting as his eyes and ears, Karumi begins the frustrating task of piecing together the most elusive of clues while her personal life succumbs to business.

The Seikai Trilogy: Crest of the Stars (Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure, Volume 1 Release: 6/4/04) Aya Yoshinaga and Toshihiro Ono's three-part sci-fi manga series is an exciting and insightful adaption of the hit anime series, which was inspired by Hiroyuki Morioka's bestselling novel series. This epic tale of romance against a backdrop of ethnic politics, cultural clashes and interplanetary war is sure to delight fans of franchises such as Star Wars and Gundam. In Volume 1, Crest of the Stars, the home world of a boy named Jinto is taken over by the Abh, a space-faring race whose form of government is at once authoritarian and representative. When Lafiel, an Abh princess, is charged with taking Jinto to the imperial academy, they become entangled in a massive galactic war.

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Errata: Mikan no Tsuki is Crescent Moon, which TOKYOPOP has already confirmed. As is ANN's policy we do not remove mistakes from our news articles, but rather correct them and admit the mistake, even if it only ocurred a few minutes ago.

We have also confirmed that DV and Deus Vitae are one and the same.

More corrections and updates in the followup article.