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Kodansha Comics Announces Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle, Fairy Tail S, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card in Print

Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2017 is sponsored by Aniplex and Yen Press.

Kodansha Comics announced at its Anime Expo panel on Monday that it licensed the Battle Angel Alita prequel manga Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle (Gunnm: Kasei Senki), the print edition of the Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card sequel manga series, and the Fairy Tail S collection of short stories by Hiro Mashima. The company also detailed its special edition of Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon manga.

Kodansha Comics will begin releasing Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle in English in February 2018. Kishiro launched the manga in Kodansha's Evening magazine in October 2014, and Kodansha published the manga's fourth volume in Japan on May 23. In the story, the cyborg "mechanical angel" Gally (Alita in English translation) goes to Mars to discover her roots and seek the truth about herself.

Kodansha Comics will release Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita manga in hardcover 2-in-1 omnibus volumes starting in November, although the company is releasing the manga digitally before the hardcover release.

Battle Angel Alita ran in Shueisha's Business Jump magazine from 1990 to 1995, followed by the 1995-1996 prequel Ashen Victor and the single-volume GUNNM: Other Stories. The story continued in 2001 with the partial retelling Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, which moved to Kodansha's Evening magazine as the result of an issue between Kishiro and Shueisha's Ultra Jump magazine.

Viz Media previously published the original manga and Ashen Victor in North America. Viz also published the first 15 volumes of Last Order before Kodansha Comics took over to publish the final four volumes. Kodansha later released Last Order omnibus editions.

Comixology and Amazon's Kindle platform both released the first volume of CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card manga on Friday. Kodansha Comics will release the manga's first volume in print on November 14.

CLAMP launched sequel manga series in Nakayoshi in June 2016. The manga is inspiring a television anime adaptation that will premiere on NHK in January 2018.

The Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen Prologue - Sakura to Futatsu no Kuma (Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc Prologue: Sakura and the Two Bears) video anime, which will link the stories of the "Sakura Card Arc" and the "Clear Card Arc" of the manga, will ship in Japan with the special edition of the third "Clear Card Arc" manga volume on September 13.

The first of two Fairy Tail S volumes is slated for October. Original Fairy Tail creator Mashima drew both volumes of manga short stories, which shipped together in Japan last September. The volumes collect one-shots that originally ran in various Kodansha magazines.

The original Fairy Tail manga follows the adventures of world's most notorious mage guild, Fairy Tail. The manga launched in 2006 and has inspired two television anime, several original video anime projects, and spinoff manga.

Del Rey published the first 12 volumes of the original manga in North America, and Kodansha Comics resumed publishing the manga in English with the 13th volume in 2011.

The first volume of the Sailor Moon "Eternal Edition" is slated for January 2018. Each volume will be around 350 pages.

Takeuchi's original Sailor Moon manga ran in Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine from 1991 to 1997. The manga has inspired various anime adaptations, a live-action television series, and stage musicals. The upcoming fourth season of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal anime series will be a two-part theatrical anime project.

Kodansha Comics released the manga in 12 volumes in North America in 2011-2013. Tokyopop previously published the manga.

Update: Sailor Moon Eternal Edition image added. Thanks, lys.