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Denpa Licenses Katsuya Terada's Rakuda Laughs!, Shūzō Oshimi's Shino Can't Say Her Name Manga
posted on by Egan Loo
Manga publisher Denpa announced at the OtaBrew DC event outside of Otakon on Saturday that it has licensed Katsuya Terada's Rakuda Laughs! (Rakuda ga Warau) and Shūzō Oshimi's Shino Can't Say Her Name (Shino-chan wa Jibun no Namae ga Ienai) manga. Both manga will debut next summer.
The "hard-boiled action" adventure story of Rakuda Laughs! centers around a cruel rogue yakuza member named Rakuda. The manga was Terada's first to feature an original character.
Terada originally drew the explicit, violent manga in three irregular installments from 1994 to 1998. Over a decade later, he drew two new installments in Tokuma Shoten's Monthly Comic Ryū magazine in 2010, and Tokuma Shoten published a Final Cut edition of the manga in June 2010. The prolific illustrator is known for designing the Blood: The Last Vampire anime film and creating The Monkey King manga series, which Dark Horse Comics published in English.
The coming-of-age drama story of Shino Can't Say Her Name centers on Shino Ōshima, a shy high school freshman who has difficulty speaking with people, and who constantly has a low opinion of herself and can't fit in to her environment. Through a strange encounter, she gets to know Kayo, her music-loving but tone deaf classmate, and they begin hanging out with each other. Oshimi based the manga on his personal experiences.
Oshimi serialized the Shino Can't Say Her Name manga on Ohta Publishing's Poco Poco web comic site from December 2011 to October 2012, and Ohta Publishing released the manga in one print volume in December 2012. The manga inspired a live-action film starring Sara Minami that opened in Japan in July 2018. Oshimi then drew an 18-page manga spinoff for the film's official tie-in book, which launched one day before the film's opening.
Vertical published Oshimi's The Flowers of Evil manga in English, and the manga inspired a 2013 television anime series, and is inspiring an upcoming live-action film that will open in September. Oshimi's Inside Mari manga inspired a live-action series adaptation in March 2017, and his Drifting Net Café manga also inspired a live-action series in 2009. His Sweet Poolside manga inspired a live-action film in 2014.
Source: Denpa's OtaBrew DC panel (Kyle Cardine)
