News from the New York Comic Convention and Kawaii-Kon

As the American convention season starts to hot up, several major announcements have sprung up from the most recent “New York Comic Convention”:  [Note:  Companies refered to are American, along with the release dates,  but if there is a UK company related to them, a release somewhere down the line is very probable]

Day 1:

• After months of speculation about the title’s situation, Bandai Entertainment have snatched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann from ADV Films and will implement a new release method of subtitle-only monthly releases starting in the Summer, with bilingual limited and normal releases starting in April 2009.  Bandai Entertainment also announced the latest series in the Gundam franchise, Gundam 00, with no release plans set at the moment.  One of Studio Bones’ 2007 series Ayakashi Ayashi will have a special edition release that includes the manga, which had previously not been announced for American release.  Finally, Bandai Entertainment’s release of Code Geass will follow a special release pattern with the special editions including CD soundtracks, manga and audio drama’s that were included with the Japanese release.  With Bandai’s UK arm, Beez Entertainment, releasing the exact copies of the American release for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it is possible that similar release patterns could follow for any number of Bandai Entertainment’s releases.  Rest assured, AnimeUKNews will be the first to know of any developments as they arise from our own Beez Entertainment thread.
• Five years after the first Japanese release, Yen Press have finally put Haruhi fans out of their misery with their acquisition of both the Haruhi manga series and light novel series, with the manga being released Autumn 2008 and the light novels starting April 2009 in both paperback and hardback editions.  Yen Press will be working with their parent company Hachette Group USA for the publication of the light novels, with their powerful book industry presence the Haruhi light novels will be pushed into the mainstream being advertised as “Hannah Montana meets Heroes”.  It remains to be seen whether or not Hachette Group USA have plans to publish their books in the UK.  In light of the highly anticipated anime, Soul Eater, Yen Press have also acquired the rights to publish the Soul Eater manga series.  [Yen Press were planning to release the Haruhi news in a special “Top Secret” panel, taking place tomorrow, but let the information out in the form of a press release.]
• Tokyopop’s “Pop Fiction” line of novels has travelled a bumpy road since its inception in October 2006, and it has now been confirmed that their publications of the Slayers light novel series will end with volume 8, leaving volumes 9-15 unreleased.  Although Tokyopop’s publication of the Kino no Tabi light novel series has been put on hiatus, it is still in the hands of Tokyopop and still has a chance of publication.
• Viz Media’s first panel was by ‘invitation-only’ for press, using the panel to announce to discuss their upcoming title Ultimo, co-created by Marvel’s Stan Lee, and Shamen King author Hiroyuki Takei, the title has just started publication in the Japanese manga magazine “Jump Square”.  It will be published on Viz Media’s “Shounen Jump” line and will have the shortest delay between a Japanese and English publication in Viz’ history, the current shortest being the latest Yu-Gi-Oh manga series that was released in English before the Japanese ‘tankobon’ compilation started. 
• Funimation had little to offer in the way of news, but did offer some hope for another cause in one sense when answering a question about the recently-withdrawn-from-the-American-industry, Geneon Entertainment, where it was said that a lot of companies are fighting over the licenses.  With the likes of Seirei no Moribito (Guardian of the Sacred Spirit) already being grabbed by Media Blasters, it seems Geneon’s licenses are beginning to show their heads.

Day 2:

• Viz Media’s general panel provided some interesting revelations.  On the manga side of business, the “Viz Big” [3 volumes in 1 + colour pages and a multitude of extras] imprint is gaining pace as the years goes on with DragonBall and DragonBall Z starting in early June and Vagabond in September.  Following on from Vagabond, two more Takehiko Inoue titles, Real and Slam Dunk will begin in July and September respectively.  Bleach will reach volume 25 in December, which is still quite a long way behind the Japanese release.  Akira Toriyama’s next series after DragonBall, titled Cowa! will be published in July.  Bobobo-bo bo-bobo will be published in August, Cat Eyed Boy in June, solanin in October, the first three volumes of One Pound Gospel will be re-released from July with the final volume being published in December and Black Lagoon will be published with shrink-wrapping in August.  Finally, they have plans to release the long running Oishinbo manga, but not all of it On the artbook side of things, a Bleach character profile artbook titled “All Colour But The Black” will be published October 21st and two Vagabond artbooks titled “Sumi” and “Water” along with the “Viz Big” release of Vagabond.  It is to be noted that the latest Viz have begun to properly distribute their titles in the UK, with their latest printings including the UK price on the back.  On the novel front, Viz have big plans for 2009.  After speculation of Viz only bothering with their mainstream titles after the hiatus of Hikaru no Go, Mar and Prince of Tennis and Full Moon wo Sagashite  they said that the titles in question were “just on a break” and they were looking at the best way to release them, which could imply digital distribution.  As for new announcements, the second Naruto movie titled Legend of the Stone of Gelel will be released on July 29th, and the third movie coming October 11th in the US, the first Bleach movie titled Memories of Nobody is also coming in October along with the current trend of straight to boxset releases with the first Buso Renkin boxset coming out April 29th.  Following on this trend, Viz announced the release of the highly anticipated and renowned Hunter x Hunter anime, for release in Q4 of this year.  The TV series is only planned for now, for release in two boxsets, with the OVA’s not yet planned.  A release of the Vampire Knight anime is also planned.  It is to be noted that Manga Entertainment have recently made a deal with Viz Media that allows them to distribute all of Viz Media’s titles in the UK.  Viz also expressed that they would like to release on Blu-ray, but they have no current plans for the format.
• Following on from Viz Media’s onslaught of new licenses and 2008 plans, Del Rey picked up some very notable acquisitions, the biggest being Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei – bythe Kodansha Manga Award winning artist Koji Kumeta for release in March 2009, it will keep the original title, but also be presented as the English translation “The power of negative thinking” and will be released every 4 months.  Along with harem manga Gauken Prince, and a spin-off manga from the anime series Samurai 7, both for release in April 2009.  Two manga spin-offs of the Marvel comic X-Men will be published in Spring 2009 co-produced by Del Rey and Marvel, the first being called Wolverine, for the shounen genre, and the other X-Men, aimed at the shoujo genre.  On the novel front, an original story from Kouhei Kadono, the author of the Boogiepop Phantom series, titled “The Case of the Dragon Slayer” will be published February 2009.  As for Del Rey’s upcoming anthology magazine titled “Faust”, there will be an exclusive manga by Yun Kouga found nowehere else in English, Yun has most recently authored the Loveless manga, and designed characters for Gundam 00.  It was revealed that Tanoshimi UK publishes its properties in lower grade paper quality, which has nothing to do with Del Rey as Tanoshimi UK is a sublicensor of Del Rey and thus Del Rey has no control over how Tanoshimi UK publish.