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?

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?