AX2018 Recap: a summary of all our new licensing announcements and more!
Gotta say we had quite a blast at Anime Expo this year! We hosted several major events, made lots of announcements about new manga and projects (see below!), and had a great time with all of you who stopped by our biggest and baddest ever Anime Expo booth! Here's a day-by day recap of what went down at America's premier anime con in 2018:
July 5 (Thursday) BECK and Seven Shakespeares digital debut! In which we debuted not one but two new manga by Harold Sakuishi, the creator of all-time rock ‘n’ roll manga BECK. Not only did we announce that we'd go beyond where that manga last left off in English, we announced Sakuishi-sensei’s latest too: Seven Shakespeares. It all came in one massive drop on July 5 of 18 volumes of manga courtesy of comiXology Originals!
July 6 (Friday) The Seven Deadly Sins Panel In which Yuki Kaji and Bryce Papenbrook, the Japanese and American voice-actor stars of the hit anime The Seven Deadly Sins, did a manga live reading and terrific Q&A with the audience. Check out our live tweet highlights here.
[embed]https://twitter.com/KodanshaUSA/status/1015292039502577664[/embed] July 7 (Saturday) Kodansha Comics/Vertical Panel And last but not least, here's a big breakdown of a bevy of major new licensing announcements we made for for Fall 2018 new titles at our industry panel!
Hiro Mashima’s Playground by Hiro Mashima A new collection of short stories by Hiro Mashima, creator of Fairy Tail and Rave Master! Read some of Mashima's never-before-seen debut stories, including the first appearance of the Fairy Tail guild! Coming October 2018!
Fairy Tail: Lightning Gods by Kyouta Shibano and created by Hiro Mashima The final Fairy Tail spinoff manga, following the volatile and handsome lightning wizard, Laxus! Complete your collection that began with Fairy Tail: Twin Dragons of Saber Tooth and Fairy Tail: Rhodonite. Coming November 2018!
Edens Zero by Hiro Mashima It's here! The creator of Fairy Tail, manga superstar Hiro Mashima, is back with a high-flying space adventure! All the steadfast friendship, crazy fighting, and blue cats you've come to expect ... IN SPACE! Simulpub available now on Crunchryoll, comiXology, and Kindle. Volume 1 simultaneous global print release in October 2018!
The Seven Deadly Sins: 7 Days by You Kokikuji and Mamoru Iwasa, created by Nakaba Suzuki
A new, two-volume adventure in the world of the hit manga and Netflix Original Series The Seven Deadly Sins! Seven Days follows fan-favorite character Ban in a romance caught between eternal life and unconquerable death ... Volume 1 coming October 2018, Volume 2 coming November 2018!
Boarding School Juliet by Yousuke Kaneda
The Romeo and Juliet high school rom-com that inspired the upcoming anime! Rival dorms on an extravagant island campus fight a schoolyard war, but can two star-crossed lovers keep their budding relationship a secret? Digital-to-Print debut in October 2018!
The Quintessential Quintuplets by Negi Haruba
A high school romantic comedy with five times the cute girls! A high school boy must work part-time to help five sisters study so they can graduate, but the only thing these quintuplets have in common is that they all hate studying! Coming in January 2018!
Gleipnir by Sun Takeda
Dark, disturbing, sexy, and shameful, this new science-fiction action manga stars a dominating teenage girl searching for a sister who became a monster, and a submissive boy with the strange power to turn into a ragged but powerful beast, with a zipper down his back and a compartment on the inside just big enough to hold a human body. It's like one of those cute kid’s monster manga, but with a dose of S&M! Coming March 2019!
Love In Focus by Yoko Nogiri
From the creator of New York Times bestselling manga That Wolf-Boy Is Mine! comes a feel-good romance about a teenage girl whose passion for photography leads her to a new school, a new dorm, and a new love triangle! Coming March 2019!
Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama
A beautifully-illustrated story about a girl who longs for magic in her life and learns that, on the inside, she already is what she wishes she could be. Reminiscent of Studio Ghibli, this lushly-drawn story was voted one of the top 10 manga of the year in 2018 by the Japanese manga industry. Coming March 2019!
10 Dance by Satoh Inoue
Yaoi fans, dip into your new obsession! The beautifully-detailed, lithe bodies of the two "kings of the ballroom" fly across the dance floor as rivals build a volatile bond in this red-hot romance! Coming January 2019!
Hitorijime My Hero by Memeko Arii
A yaoi romance between a good boy who didn't know he was waiting for a hero, and a bad boy who comes to his rescue! Now a hit anime on Amazon Prime! Coming January 2019!
Yuri Is My Job! by Miman
The new, hilarious yuri comedy! Hime gets roped into working at a weird café where the waitresses pretend to be students at an all-girl boarding school. She's strangely taken with her partner Mitsuki, who's so kind to her in front of the customers. There's just one problem ... Mitsuki really can't stand her! Coming January 2019!
Attack on Titan: Road to Season 3 Sweepstakes ... and to help gear you up for the new season of the Attack on Titan anime, Kodansha Comics and Funimation are teaming up to host the Attack on Titan Survey Sweepstakes. To enter a chance to win these massive manga and anime prizes, take this survey, and tell us how you feel about Attack on Titan!