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Kodansha USA Adds Attack on Titan, Miles Edgeworth Manga
posted on by Egan Loo
Kodansha USA Publishing, the American arm of the Japanese publisher Kodansha, announced at its New York Comic Con panel on Friday that it will launch Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) manga next June and Kenji Kuroda and Kazuo Maekawa's Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Kenji) manga next May. Kodansha USA will also release an iPad app at midnight early Saturday morning, and it will launch omnibus reissues of former Del Rey Manga titles Genshiken and Kitchen Princess next summer.
Hajime Isayama launched Attack on Titan in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in 2009. The story follows the life of humans after giants suddenly appear and take over the entire world. To keep out these invading Titans who eat humans for food, the humans erect huge walls — but at the cost of their freedom in the outside world.
The manga has become a sleeper hit, selling over 5.5 million copies since last year. The fifth volume shipped in August, and Kodansha confirmed that a film adaptation will open in Japan in fall of 2013.
Kuroda and Maekawa launched the Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney manga in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine in 2009 after the success of their original Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) manga in the same magazine in 2006. The manga focuses on the prosecutor Reiji Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth) — the courtroom rival of the original Ace Attorney protagonist Phoenix Wright (Ryūichi Naruhodō) — and the police detective Keisuke Itonokogiri (Dick Gumshoe).
Random House developed Kodansha's free iPad app, which will launch with 34 volumes from four series: Arisa by Natsumi Ando; Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima; Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei by Kōji Kumeta; and Until the Full Moon by Sanami Matoh. Most volumes will cost US$4.99, but all 15 available volumes of Fairy Tail will be US$2.99 for a limited time to celebrate the app's launch. More titles will be added later.
The first three-in-one omnibus volume of Genshiken will ship next May, while the first Kitchen Princess omnibus volume will ship next June.
Update: More information about Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney added.
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