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Azuki to Release Full-Color Print Editions of Hikaru in the Light!, Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms Manga
posted on by Alex Mateo
ANN's coverage of Anime NYC 2024 sponsored by Yen Press and Ize Press!
Azuki announced during its panel at Anime NYC on Friday that it is partnering with Scholastic Graphix to release full-color print editions of Mai Matsuda's Hikaru in the Light! and Yoshino Koyoka's Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms manga. The full-color print first volume of the former will launch in March 2025, and the latter will ship in April 2025.
The company has also added the following manga from MediBang: Kisugae's Kotonoha, Tadashi Kato's Ryoji Renjo: Gourmet Detective, Yuga Kuromiya's Sweeter Than Cake, and Yasuyuki Oshima's Dreamnautes.
Matsuda launched the Hikaru in the Light! manga in Manga Action in May 2021, and ended it in August 2022. Futabasha published four compiled book volumes for the manga. Azuki licensed the manga, and released all four volumes in English.
Azuki describes the manga:
Middle-school student Hikaru Ogino is known as the “songbird” of her family's bath house in Tokyo. But when her best friend Ran — a former girl group idol — invites her to try out for a pop star “survival camp” together, it'll put her talents to the test. Can Hikaru outshine the competition and make her stage debut, or will she fall flat?
Yoshino Koyoka (Aria the Scarlet Ammo) launched the manga adaptation of Mecha-Ude on the LINE Manga and ebookjapan services in September 2022. Azuki began releasing the manga in English under the title Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms in July 2023. The manga has four volumes.
The full-fledged anime of Sae Okamoto's Mecha-Ude project will premiere in October. Crunchyroll will stream the anime as it airs under the title Mechanical Arms.
Azuki describes the manga:
Kita-Kagami City is a pretty normal town… except that some people have gotten their hands on Mecha-Ude: powerful, sentient, mechanical beings that attach themselves to their human hosts and have awesome capabilities. When middle-school kid Hikaru accidentally activates Alma, a robotic arm Mecha-Udethat has no memory of its past, they must team up to uncover the mystery of Alma's identity and prevent the powerful Mecha-Ude from ending up in the wrong hands.
Pony Canyon announced in September 2022 that the project was getting a full-fledged anime series. Anime Expo hosted the world premiere of the anime's first episode in July 2023.
Source: Email correspondence
