Another weekend, another con with tons of new licenses. I’ll actually be at the next major con (NYCC in October), and hope they saved something for those panels, or else I’ll feel very foolish and East Coast-ey.

Yen Press had a panel on Friday, and had several intriguing announcements. Including two that took me very much by surprise. Not the titles themselves, no, I am aware that both Sword Art Online and Accel World were very popular animes, and can see why the two Sword Art Online manga stories were announced. (That’s Sword Art Online: Aincrad and Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance for those following along at home). No, what surprised me was the announcement of the Sword Art Online and Accel World novels. Yen says they will release all the SAO novels (13+ volumes to date), and at least the first four Accel World novels. This is quite a light novel investment. Admittedly, Yen has had success here before, what with Haruhi Suzumiya and Book Girl.

Sword Art Online and Accel World are both by the same author, Reki Kawahara, and both are published by Dengeki Bunko (which also put out the SAO manga titles), and both have similar plotlines, as our heroes get caught up in online roleplaying world that turns out to be far more serious than they may have imagined.

Also from Yen, we have Bloody Brat, a cute comedic spinoff of the Blood Lad manga. And another Puella Magi Madoka Magica spinoff, The Different Story, which focuses on Kyouko and Mami, but promises to be just as depressing as Madoka Magica fans want and crave. (Kidding, kidding…)

Dark Horse’s panel was mostly a retrospective on the manga they used to publish, but they did announce a new Masamune Shirow artbook, Battalion. Given we’re unlikely to get any new manga drawn by Shirow, this is probably the next best thing.

Lastly, Viz Media had their Shojo Beat panel today, which had a few new announcements! First of all, expect more old-school shoujo titles returning digitally from the world of out-of-print, including the much-desired Basara! Skip Beat! is coming soon as well. And High School Debut will get a 3-in-1 release, which is cool enough on its own, but may have the extra chapters that came out after the manga was finished but weren’t collected in the first edition. Which is awesome.

We also had two brand new announcements today, one a license rescue. Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne was initially published over here by CMX back in the day. Viz has rescued it and will be republishing it with new translation and everything – I think they’re even using the thicker “bunko” editions. Jeanne is a fascinating title that combines both the ‘phantom thief’ and ‘demon hunter’ genres, and is also the breakout hit of Arina Tanemura, who has had much success over here with every other titles she’s released (Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross, etc.). It’s an absolute get when it comes out this March.

Viz has had success recently with licensing Petit Comic titles and marketing them as mature Shojo Beat titles over here. Indeed, Midnight Secretary, out next week, has gotten really amazing buzz. So much buss, in fact, that Viz has now licensed Tomu Ohmi’s current work for Petit Comic, Majo no Biyaku (released here as Spell of Desire). As you’d expect given Midnight Secretary, this too is a combination of the supernatural and highly erotically charged romance. There’s apparently a LOT of supernatural to it as well – magic, witches, unicorns, etc. (No vampires, as far as I can tell, but that’s why we have Midnight Secretary, right?) It should debut a year from now, August 2014. I approve of Viz reaching out to older female readers with these works.

What title excites you the most from this list?

Another week, another con, and another passel of new manga titles coming your way. I’m also throwing in Seven Seas’ new titles, as they generally don’t do con panels, but simply announce their titles on social media.

So starting with them, we have a new yuri title from Morinaga Milk, author of Girl Friends and the Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossom Pink anthology. The premise sounds at first like it may have a bit of a Sukeban Deka series, but it looks quite light-hearted in tone, as a newly undercover police officer at a high school (a new recruit filled with justice) finds that her school already HAS an undercover police officer there, who insists this is her turf. It looks like a great cute title for those who loved Morinaga’s other cute titles.

A few weeks earlier, they also announced another four Alice in the Country Of titles, as it’s a series that has sold quite well for them, and there are still many titles available out there. (In fact, I suspect one of the main reasons for their license of the Crimson Empire series is that half the Alice volumes have CE side-stories in the back.) We get one volume for familiar harem protagonists Eliot March (the March Hare), Julius Monrey (whose first focus manga, The Clockmaker’s Story, is out this month), and Ace (whose series will hopefully focus a little more on the psychosis that makes him interesting.) We also get a volume devoted to Nightmare, the somewhat puckish ruler of dreams who sort of fills the caterpillar role in these books. This is honestly a whole lot of Alice, but I’ve found little gems interspersed among the more obvious cash-ins, so they’re worth checking out.)

As is standard lately, the big announcement of the day came from our friends at Vertical, who have licensed the Fumi Yoshinaga manga Kinou Nani Tabeta?, aka What Did You Eat Yesterday?. This seinen slice-of-life manga runs in Kodansha’s Morning magazine, and tells the story of a longtime gay couple (one dour and the straight man, one carefree and outgoing). What makes it compelling is that the story is told around the edges, as each chapter is mostly about the two men eating and cooking food, and recipe tips are interspersed throughout. Yoshinaga is mostly known over here for two things: BL and food. This 7+ volume series combines the two of them, and has been a much coveted license for quite some time. It’s also a rare seinen license from Kodansha, which makes me very happy. I can’t wait to read this one.

Lastly, Viz mentioned that they will be re-releasing the Monster manga in omnibus format next year. This Naoki Urasawa title is quite dark indeed, involving a doctor who saves the life of a young child only to find he grows up to become an insane madman. It ran in Big Comic Original, one of the few licenses from that seinen Shogakukan magazine. It was intensely popular online with manga and comics bloggers, but didn’t really catch on as much in terms of sales – perhaps this new omnibus, which will be in a larger trim and 2-volumes-in-1, can give it the audience it deserves – I think fans of Death Note who have grown to want more mature stories would really get a kick out of it, as well as Urasawa fans who discovered him via Pluto or 20th Century Boys. Hey, if it sells really well, maybe we can finally see Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl! Or even Happy!, one of the most depressing sports manga ever written.

What appeals to you most here? My guess is the foodie title.

Well, more of an ‘SDCC and Seven Seas’ roundup, as they announced several things right before the con. It wasn’t as big a weekend as I expected, as Yen had to cancel their panel at the last minute, but there were still a lot of great things to talk about. Let’s delve in.

The biggest title licensed this week was no doubt Doraemon. The production studio announced that they were doing a digital release of the classic kids’ manga starting this fall, on Kindle and hopefully other platforms. AltJapan, who are handling Dorohedoro for Viz, are scheduled to be doing the translation; this fills me with happiness, as I love the job they’ve done there. In case you live in a cave, Dorawmon is one of the most popular icons of Japanese manga, sort of the equivalent of Mickey Mouse (well, given his screwups, perhaps Donald Duck). He is a robot cat from the future, there to help our hero, Nobita, through the use of futuristic technology. Of course, something always goes wrong. One of the most beloved classics of all time, you’d better believe I’ll be reviewing it here.

Viz had most of its Japanese manga licenses already announced at Anime Expo. They did note they’re doing a (Western) comic based on their Japanese novel title All You Need Is Kill. They’re also re-releasing the Battle Royale novel, and have a collection of essays coming out with it, as various writers talk about Battle Royale’s themes and meaning.

Kodansha had several new announcements they’d saved for SDCC, including two shoujo manga I’ve wanted to see over here for some time. My Little Monster (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun) features a grumpy, somewhat grades-obsessed lead girl whose life is disrupted by the presence of a well-meaning but completely socially inept monster of a guy (yeah, sorry, no supernatural content here). The manga is 11 volumes long, and just ended in Japan. (By the way, get used to this. Due to the economy making long series difficult to license, expect Western folks to wait on licensing things till they have a guarantee it’s wrapping up with a reasonable number of volumes.)

The other shoujo title is Say “I Love You” (Suki tte Ii na yo), which runs in the same shoujo magazine as My Little Monster, Dessert. Dessert is an older-skewing shoujo magazine that is sort of the equivalent of Cheese! or Cookie, only a bit less racy. Kodansha noted they’d never licensed anything from it before, and are waiting to see how these series do. For those of you that complain Kodansha only licenses stuff from Shonen Magazine and Nakayoshi, now is your chance to show your appreciation. The premise to this may sound similar to several shoujo series, as the heroine is a quiet girl who is slow to trust people, and the hero is a popular guy who all the girls love. Of course, if you look at the bestselling shoujo manga over here, that premise sounds like the ringing of cash registers. It’s well-handled, though, and deserves its license. It’s also wrapping up in Japan soon, and is around 11-12 volumes.

Every series by Hiro Mashima has been licensed in the West bar one, so it’s no surprise to see that Kodansha has snatched up that one. Monster Soul ran in Kodansha’s Comic Bonbon, which is for kids around 7-10 years old; it’s basically what you give little kids when they want to read Shonen Magazine (which skews much older than Jump or Sunday do). A fantasy tale of humans vs. monsters, it’s classic Mashima, and only two volumes long.

Lastly, Kodansha announced they were picking up xxxHOLIC Rei, CLAMP’s new sequel/interqual/no one is quite sure what it is continuation of the original series. They’re also ‘rescuing’ Tsubasa and xxxHOLIC from Del Rey, and re-releasing it in omnibus format. (No word on digital yet; I imagine getting CLAMP digitally will be as hard as getting Sailor Moon is proving to be.) These titles are classic modern CLAMP, being entertaining, filled with great art, and highly frustrating on a very personal level. Recommended, even if you will bang your head against a wall at Tsubasa’s plot.

Seven Seas did not have a panel at SDCC, but they had a booth, and these days they tend to announce their titles as press releases rather than at cons anyway. The biggest news there was probably the agreement with Comixology to put out their titles digitally. And yes, this includes some Japanese titles, though the majority so far are their OEL titles such as Aoi House and Vampire Cheerleaders. Haganai, Dance in the Vampire Bund, and the Korean manwha Jack the Ripper: Hell Blade are now digital. I hope to see more Seven Seas licenses there in the future (in particular, I’d love to see Young Miss Holmes digitally).

As for new Seven Seas licenses, it’s a trio of titles that appeal to fans who like to see cute girls in battle. Strike Witches: Tenkou no Otometachi (Maidens of the Sky) is… well, it’s World War II if all the ace pilots were magical girl witches. I suppose if I can accept Hetalia, I can accept that. It first became famous in fandom for its constant panty shots, but I understand the manga also has a real plot and character development and stuff like that. It first ran in Kadokawa’s Comp Ace.

I don’t know much about Arpeggio of Blue Steel (Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio) except that it runs in Young King OURS, home of Excel Saga, meaning I will absolutely give it a shot. The premise seems to involve an alternate future, submarines, and a mysterious alien fleet that is there to ensure humanity cannot use the seas. Naturally our heroes are there to stop them. This crew actually does feature some males, I believe.

Lastly, we have Girls Und Panzer, which I can sum up pretty well as: girls in tanks. The name might have given that away, to be fair. Like Strike Witches, it’s part of a large anime/manga/light novel multimedia blitz. The manga we get here ran in Media Factory’s Comic Flapper. Media Factory is getting to be a favorite of Seven Seas, and I like seeing more titles from Flapper and fewer from the slightly more pandering Comic Alive (not that Flapper doesn’t have its share of pander as well – see this series). The series actually sounds like a typical high school girls’ sports manga, only instead of kendo or softball, it’s operating tanks. Intriguing.

And I believe that wraps it up, at least until Otakon, where I’m sure some companies will have a tidbit or two. What excites you the most on this list?