News

Yen Press Adds Thermae Romae, Anything and Something, Umineko no Naku Koro ni

The North American manga publisher Yen Press announced at its Sakura-Con panel on Saturday that it has licensed the following manga titles: Thermae Romae, Anything and Something, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Blood Lad, Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit, The Misfortune of Kyon & Koizumi, and Triage X. Yen Press will also release Cassandra Jean's graphic novel Beautiful Creatures inspired by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's original novel.

The publisher will release Mari Yamazaki's Thermae Romae in hardcover format with two volumes of the series in each omnibus. Yamazaki launched the time-traveling comedy manga in 2008, and the fourth compiled book volume shipped in December. The work won the Manga Taisho (Cartoon Grand Prize) award in 2010, followed by the Short Work Prize in the 14th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prizes. It has since sold over 5 million copies and inspired a short television anime. People who attend screenings of the live-action Thermae Romae film, which will open in Japan on April 28, will receive a "special edition" of the manga drawn by Yamazaki, while supplies last.

Yen Press will release Kaoru Mori's Anything and Something (Shuuishuu, a single-volume collection of short stories and art, in an over-sized hardcover edition similar to its releases of Mori's A Bride's Story. The Japanese publisher Enterbrain first printed the compilation with more than eight of Mori's original stories on February 15. Mori's other manga include Emma, Shirley, and Sumire no Hana.

Based on Ryukishi07's dōjin (self-published) murder mystery software, Umineko When They Cry (Umineko no Naku Koro ni) will be published as an over-sized omnibus collection with two volumes of the original series in each English book. The manga artist Kei Natsumi launched the manga's "Legend of the golden witch" arc in 2007, and the first compiled book volume of Eita Mizuno's "Requiem of the golden witch" arc shipped in Japan last December. Jiro Suzuki and Sōichirō have illustrated two of the manga's other story arcs. The manga inspired a television anime series, which first aired in Japan in 2009. In October 2011, Junka Morozumi debuted a manga adaptation of the spinoff game Ōgon Musōkyoku, which put the characters of Umineko no Naku Koro ni in a fighting game setting.

Yūki Kodama's vampire comedy manga Blood Lad debuted in 2009, and the fifth compiled book volume shipped in Japan in December 2011. Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine confirmed in June that an anime adaptation has been green-lit.

Inspired by QuinRose's original Alice in the Country of Hearts (Heart no Kuni no Alice - Wonderful Wonder World) fantasy romance adventure game, Delico Psyche (Love Full of Scars) illustrated the Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit spinoff manga. The first volume was published in Japan in December 2010, and the second shipped in August 2011. QuinRose's original game has also inspired numerous sequel and spinoff games and manga. The Alice in the Country of Hearts: Wonderful Wonder World theatrical anime film premiered in Japan in July 2011.

Based on Nagaru Tanigawa and Noizi Ito's original light novel series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, The Misfortune of Kyon & Koizumi (Kyon & Koizumi no Sainan) is a collection of short manga by various artists. The book shipped in Japan in December 2009.

Shōji Satō launched the action manga Triage X in 2009, and the fourth compiled book volume shipped in Japan on March 8. Sato also illustrates the zombie horror manga Highschool of the Dead.