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Kodansha USA Announces 35th Anniversary Set for Akira Manga, Vinland Saga Book 8

Kodansha Comics announced at its panel at Emerald City Comicon on Friday that it will release a 35th anniversary box set for Katsuhiro Ōtomo's Akira manga. The company additionally announced that it will release an eighth omnibus volume of Makoto Yukimura's Vinland Saga manga.

The Akira 35th Anniversary Box Set will include a box set of volumes 1-6, plus the "Akira Club" art book, in large hardcover format. The art will be uncut and unaltered, and will be in the original right-to-left reading format for the first time with the original Japanese sound effects with endnote translations. The set will retail for US$199.99 and Kodansha Comics plans to release the set next year.

The company said that it will announce additional extras at a later date.

Kodansha Comics plans to release the eighth omnibus volume of Vinland Saga this fall, and it will include volumes 15 and 16. The company told ANN, "we are not adding any further volumes after Book Eight to our schedule at this time." Kodansha Comics had reported in December that it could stop its English release of the manga after the seventh omnibus volume. The publisher explained at the time that it hopes that it will "be able to license the next arc, but it's up in the air at the moment." The company released the seventh omnibus volume on December 29.

Yukimura launched the series in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2005, but Kodansha moved the series to Afternoon later that year. Kodansha published the manga's 17th compiled volume in Japan on January 22.

Additionally, Kodansha Comics announced that Simon Spurrier and Sam Humphries will each produce works for the Attack on Titan Anthology project. The book will feature short stories from western comic artists, including the following previously announced artists:

• Tomer and Asaf Hanuka (The Divine) -Art pictured right
• Cameron Stewart (Bat Girl) -First illustration pictured below
• Micael Avon Oeming (Victories) -Second illustration pictured below
• Brenden Fletcher (Bat Girl)
• Babs Tarr (Bat Girl)
• Faith Erin Hicks (Superhero Girl)
• Kate Leth (Kate or Die!) and Jeremy Lambert
• Afua Richardson (Genius)
• Gail Simone (Red Sonja)
• Scott Snyder (Batman)
• Paolo Rivera (Daredevil)
• Damion Scott (Ghost Rider)
• Genevieve Valentine (Batman & Robin)
• Kevin Wada (She Hulk)
• Ronald Wimberly (Prince of Cats)

The project will consist of a 250-page, full-color book that is slated for this fall. Kodansha Comics will include a sampler of the Anthology on Free Comic Book Day. Comics Alliance posted a preview of the Anthology on Friday.

Kodansha Comics additionally began simultaneously publishing chapters from 17 of its series on Comixology on Friday. The manga include As the Gods Will: The Second Series, Fairy Tail, Fuuka, GTO: Paradise Lost, The Seven Deadly Sins, UQ Holder!, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Inuyashiki, Space Brothers, Ajin - Demi-Human, Attack on Titan, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Magatsuki, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Side: P4, Sweetness and Lightning, and Princess Jellyfish.