I’m not at AX, but through the magic ability of being able to follow the tweets of those who are, I can give you my thought on what’s happening over there! There’s actually quite a bit of stuff brewing.

We started off with our friends at Vertical, Inc. They only had one license, but it looks like a lot of fun! Moyoco Anno is not only an award-winning mangaka, but she’s also married to otaku legend Hideki Anno. The one-volume Kantoku Fuyuki Todoki ran in Shodensha’s Feel Young magazine, and is a comedic yet heartwarming autobiographical look at what it’s like to be married to such a legendary otaku. Vertical will put it out under the title Insufficient Direction.

Digital Manga Publishing had some of the biggest news of the con, as they announced an agreement with Tezuka Pro for digital release in North America of the unlicensed Tezuka titles – all of them, supposedly. I admit, I’m not expecting some of the weirder, more adult or ‘problematic (antisemitism, etc.) titles anytime soon, but for the Tezuka fan this has to be an incredibly happy day. Much of his work had been released lately through Vertical, but DMP has been doing a few as well, including the Kickstarter projects of Barbara, Unico, and Atomcat. Given that it’s DMP, I’m also hoping these will be downloadable rather than cloud. Looking forward to more about this.

Most of Right Stuf’s announcements were, understandably, in the anime arena. But they surprised us at the very end by announcing, in partnership with Tokyopop (still around, in case you were wondering) the release of Axis Powers Hetalia Books 4 & 5 before the new year! I’ve made no secret that I really enjoy this goofy gag manga about anthropomorphic nations, which has moved beyond its sketchy WWII origins and embraced exaggerated stereotypes of every era! If you pre-order, you’ll get color pages as well, which are only available in the first printing.

Kodansha Comics didn’t have any new titles to announce (they indicated that SDCC in two weeks might be a different story), but this did not stop them from having a few big things to say anyway. It’s no secret that Attack on Titan has EXPLODED in fandom, particularly with the release of the anime. Kodansha, therefore, has decided to speed up the releases, similar to what they’re doing with Fairy Tail, till they catch up with Japan by the start of 2014. One a month, that’s a lot of titans.

Bigger news, though, particularly for me as I’ve been begging for it, is that they will be releasing their titles digitally on Nook, Kindle, and Google Play (and, in fact, shuttering their iTunes app, though you get to keep the books you have on it.) They’ve been Apple only for years, so this is fantastic news, as they were the last holdout (bar Seven Seas, who don’t have digital for their Japanese titles yet). Now Android users (such as myself can enjoy the following titles digitally:

Arisa
@ Full Moon
Attack on Titan
Bloody Monday
Cage of Eden
Danza
Fairy Tail
Genshiken (omnibus)
Genshiken: 2nd Season
I Am Here!
Kitchen Princess (omnibus)
Mardock Scramble
Missions of Love
Ninja Girls
No. 6
Sankarea
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
Until the Full Moon

In other words, most of their current lineup, with the major exception of Sailor Moon, which I suspect would require a lot more negotiating with Naoko Takeuchi. In particular, it’s great to see Zetsubou-sensei there. By the way, Kodansha still insists it’s not cancelled, but it’s still on hold due to low sales and being a pain in the ass to translate. Having tried my hand at the endnotes for Vol. 10, I can sympathize.

And that leaves Viz Media. They did not disappoint. There is a new seinen title (I am assuming it will be in the Signature line) called Gangsta, that runs in Shinchosha’s Comic @ Bunch magazine. It’s apparently very similar to Dogs: Bullets & Carnage. Nisekoi, which has its first three volumes out digital only, will start to run in print in January. They are re-releasing Dragon Ball in larger trim, around the size of US comics.

Deadman Wonderland is not only a Tokyopop license rescue, but also more than 10 volumes and still running, making it a surprising pickup in my mind. It’s a Shonen Ace series from Kadokawa that is another in the ever popular survival game genre… this one set in a very strange prison. And, big news for us old fogies… Ranma 1/2, back in print, unflipped! 2-in-1 omnibus volumes, starting in March! Given the digital app doesn’t do flipped, I wonder if this is a way to get it out digitally. In any case, great news for old-school fans!

Lastly, some hope for fans of cancelled Jump series Gintama and Reborn – SJ is looking into bringing them back digitally, though no promises just yet. I imagine if they do well they may look into continuing them digitally as well.

What in this list excites you the most?

Another week, another con. Two cons, in fact. Sakuracon was the place to be for manga folks, though, as both Dark Horse and Yen had panels with brand new announcements! (Viz had a panel as well, but they already did their big announcements last month, so did not have anything new on the print manga front.)

New print titles to start. Fans of Lone Wolf and Cub will be pleased to see that Dark Horse has licensed the sequel, New Lone Wolf and Cub. Old-school manga followers may note that they announced this back in 2006, but it got put on the back burner for reasons that have to do with the Japanese licensor, I’m guessing. It has the same writer but a different artist, and ran in the magazine Jin till that folded, whereupon it moved to the online magazine Katana. Expect much samurai action.

Vocaloid is a fandom that has taken off both here and in Japan to an unprecedented degree, so it’s no surprise that someone was going to pick up a cute comic manga featuring the leads, though Dark Horse being the one may be a bit of a surprise. They’ve tried to shed their grim ‘n’ gritty manga image quite a few times recently, so my guess is this is another opportunity. Maker Hikoushiki Hatsune Mix ran in Comic Rush magazine a few years back, and sounds like it’s cute slice-of-idol life stuff.

The big news from Dark Horse may be on the digital front, though. They’ve already added quite a few of their Kadokawa titles to their online store, including Evangelion spinoffs, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and Ghost Talker’s Daydream. Trigun and Hellsing are also now on there, as is Appleseed, the classic Shirow title. That said, two of their biggest series were still missing. Well, that’s going to change. Starting next month we’ll be seeing Oh My Goddess! and Blade of the Immortal digitally. Given the length of both series, digital may definitely be the way to go in order to gain new readers.

Yen, meanwhile, had three new announcements, a couple of which will be quite exciting to fans who’ve seen the anime adaptations of these. Inu x Boku SS is a Gangan Joker series, still ongoing at 8+ volumes (I smell an omnibus release from Yen), and it’s got everything. Yokai schoolgirls, Fox-tailed secret service butler bodyguards, reincarnation, star-crossed love, and boarding houses. It also has quite a plot twist halfway through, which I won’t spoil here.

Do you love long drawn out manga titles that end in an exclamation point? Japan certainly does, and lately North America has started to as well. So on the heels of Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki ja Nain Dakara ne!! and Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai comes Gangan Online’s Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui!, aka WataMote, aka It’s Not My Fault I’m Not Popular!. This one stars a high schooler who is a master of otome game life, but fails at real life, possibly as she looks like a giant Gloomy Gus. The humor comes when she resolves to try and turn her life around and become sociable. This was a long-awaited title, and does not seem, at first glance, to be filled with incest, so I’m hoping Yen is on to a winner here.

And for those who enjoyed the Wolf Children movie, Yen has licensed the 3-volume manga adaptation of it, Oukami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki, which ran in Kadokawa’s Young Ace. It’ll come out in a convenient one-volume omnibus, and is the touching story of a young mother trying to bring up her children… who are part-wolf. Judging by the cover art, I think ‘heartwarming’ is the word of the day for this series.

Lastly, they’ve rescued the Kingdom Hearts manga titles, and plan to start releasing those, with both stuff that already came out via Tokyopop and new material.

2013 solicits are almost over, as we’re seeing November release date news now! What’s your top license of the year?

Yes, they just won’t stop announcing things! Well, they may stop for a couple of months at least, as they’ve now filled their 2013 calendar. (Except they say ACen will have 2014 licenses. Can anyone stop Vertical, those mad licensing fools?) So, what do we have this time?

Shin Sekai Yori, aka From the New World, is an adaptation of a 2003 novel that’s been running in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, which these days is getting far more licenses over here than its parent weekly magazine. Seems to be a future utopia that may not be as utopian as the lead characters would like to think, and also has BL and yuri elements. It’s 2+ volumes, though I imagine that Vertical got an assurance from Kodansha that it wouldn’t go over 10 volumes before they picked it up.

Meanwhile, for those who saw Vertical’s license of Helter Skelter and wondered if that meant they might get more Kyoko Okazaki josei titles, wonder no more! Pink is a late 80s title from the publisher Magazine House, and is a heartwarming, touching story about a girl and her pet. Sort of. Anyone who says there’s not enough josei out there should love this complete-in-one title.