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Matsuri Special, High School Debut Manga Spinoffs in May
posted on by Egan Loo
The May issue of Shueisha's Deluxe Margaret magazine has announced on Saturday that Yōko Kamio will draw a Matsuri Special SP manga spinoff (pictured at bottom right) to her ongoing series, Matsuri Special. The spinoff will appear in the July issue, which will ship on May 28. The main Matsuri Special manga has been running in Jump Square magazine since the magazine's inaugural issue in November 2007. Unlike Kamio's more traditional shōjo heroines in the past, Matsuri Special's female lead Matsuri is an ordinary schoolgirl with ordinary romance issues — and a secret afterschool career as a masked professional wrestler. Kamio has previously drawn side stories to her Boys Over Flowers and Cat Street manga in Margaret and Bessatsu Margaret magazines, respectively.
Fellow manga creator Kazune Kawahara is drawing another Enkoi Debut (Eternal Love Debut) followup (pictured at top right) to her High School Debut manga series in the same July issue of Deluxe Margaret. The original High School Debut's story follows a girl named Haruna who recruits a boy to remake her image and get a boyfriend. Under the boy's supervision, Haruna transforms from a softball-playing tomboy to a feminine girl. However, the boy adds one catch to their agreement: Haruna cannot fall in love with the boy. The main High School Debut series ended in Bessatsu Margaret in July, and Kawahara already drew an earlier Enkoi Debut sequel in January. Both Enkoi Debut sequels tell what happens to the characters after high school.
As reported in January, Saturday's issue of Deluxe Margaret published Lovely Complex Deluxe (Love*Com D), Aya Nakahara's side story to her hit Lovely Complex (Love*Com) series. The story takes place after the original manga and centers on the younger brother of the original manga's heroine and a freshman girl.
Viz Media publishes Boys Over Flowers, High School Debut, and Love*Com in North America. Viz also released the television anime version of Boys Over Flowers and the live-action film adaptation of Love*Com.
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