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Viz has announced a Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba art book, as well as a second coloring book. Both will come out in Summer 2023. While the coloring book will only feature art from creator Koyoharu Gotouge, the art book will include pieces from ufotable.

The Art of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Anime will have over 300 pieces of art from the show. This is a separate art book from The Art of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, which only uses art from Koyoharu Gotouge. For the anime version of the art book, there will likely be storyboards and drafts from the show. You will likely also be able to see eyecatch art, as well as read trivia on the design choices.

The first Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba coloring book came out in 2021 for the West. The second one originally released in October 2021 for Japan and you can get a teaser for some of the pages on Shueisha’s website. Characters who appear include of the Rengoku family, as well as Akaza. There are some pages from the manga that you can color in as well.

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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a highly-successful anime and manga series that debuted in 2016. It follows Tanjiro on his journey to find the demon who killed his family. His goal is to turn his sister Nezuko, who transformed into a demon, back into a human. Aside from the show and manga being a juggernaut in of popularity, the movie also won three awards during the 44th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony in 2021.

The Art of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Anime and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Official Coloring Book 2 will come out in Summer 2023.

The post Demon Slayer Art Book and Coloring Book to Release in 2023 appeared first on Siliconera.

Viz announced a Fall 2022 release for the English version of the Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe manga. This is a spin-off from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable that follows the story of Rohan Kishibe rather than a member of the Joestar family. There is no exact release date as of yet.

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Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe follows the titular Rohan and his daily life as a mangaka. Unfortunately, things aren’t very peaceful or quiet for him. Even when he isn’t actively antagonizing people, he finds himself in a myriad of problems and drama. Unlike the enemy Stand s of the main series, Rohan's enemies are more fantastical. The first volume comes with five chapters. Those who watched the OVA would be familiar with three of them, as they were adapted into anime format.

In July 2021, Viz announced a Spring 2022 release for JoJo 6251: The World of Hirohiko Araki. This is an artbook that originally came out in 1993, so it covers material between Parts 1 to 4. Since Part 4 was in the midst of serialization when this came out, it does not have content for the entirety of that part. As for brand new JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure content, Part 9 was announced in August 2021, but there is still no news as to when we can expect it.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe will come out in English in Fall 2022. The manga also has both a live-action and an anime adaptation. The anime is a Netflix exclusive and is available on the streaming service.

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More Demon Slayer books will hit the shelves as VIZ Media announced two more projects: a coloring book and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -- Stories of Water and Flame. While the coloring book includes artwork from original manga artist Koyoharu Gotouge, Ryoji Hirano worked on Stories of Water and Flame. Both of the books will come out in Spring 2022.

Demon Slayer: The Official Coloring Book has art from manga artist Koyoharu Gotouge and includes over seventy illustrations to color in. Meanwhile, Stories of Water and Flame are spin-off chapters that focus on Giyu and Rengoku. They will not be a full new series, but rather a short adventure that fleshes out their characters and takes a look at what the Pillars do when Tanjiro isn’t around. The artist for Stories of Water and Flame, Ryoji Hirano, previously wrote and drew BOZEBEATS for Jump Comics.

With the success of Demon Slayer as a comic, anime, and movie, tons of new merchandise and news are coming out for it. For example, Aniplex will release a 1/12 figure of Giyu in April 2022. As well, Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles will launch in Japan on October 14, 2021. It will feature a story mode that follows the plot up to Mugen Train and players can fight as eighteen characters from the series in versus mode.

Demon Slayer: The Official Coloring Book and Demon Slayer: Stories of Water and Flame will come out in Spring 2022.

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VIZ announced that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure artbook, JoJo 6251: The World of Hirohiko Araki, will come out in Spring 2022. There is no set release date as of yet. The hardcover compendium features art from parts 1 to 4, as well as character and Stand profiles. There is also a timeline of events, and a handy glossary of the series’ terminology.

JoJo 6251: The World of Hirohiko Araki first came out in Japan on December 10, 1993. It came out while Araki was still working on Diamond is Unbreakable, as JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure part 4 ran until December 1995. There are colored spreads and cut-outs from the manga in the artbook. Aside from character profiles, there is also a family tree of the Joestar family. Of course, as Shueisha and Lucky Land Communications released the artbook in the midst of Diamond is Unbreakable, characters like Giorno and Jolyne do not appear in the book or on the family tree.

Speaking of Jolyne, David Production announced the anime adaption of Stone Ocean, as well as an Nendoroid of Jolyne. For those who might visit Hakata later this year, an exhibition called JOJO WORLD in HAKATA will run from July 16 until September 12, 2021. It features booths and attractions inspired by the first five JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure parts.

The English version of JoJo 6251: The World of Hirohiko Araki will come out in Spring 2022.

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Yashahime is here and, well, it does what people expect. It returns us to the world of Inuyasha and shows us what some familiar faces have been up to. Not some of the most notable ones, like Inuyasha, Kagome, and Sesshomaru themselves, as they’re apparently “busy.” But we see their children and lots of minor characters like Kaede, Kagome’s brother Sota Higurashi, and Sango’s brother Kohaku. While part of the point is to find out what’s going on and see the sorts of antics Sesshomaru’s twins, Towa and Setsuna, and Inuyasha and Kagome’s daughter, Moroha, there’s something more to it too. I can’t help but notice how prominently identity comes up as a theme throughout the show. (And I’m not just talking about the mystery identity of Towa and Setsuna’s mother.)

Right away, from the very first episodes, we see Towa’s identity crisis firsthand. She’s attended multiple schools and gotten into trouble with all sorts of delinquents, because she constantly stands up and tries to do the right thing. (Partially to make amends for the guilt she carries over what happened to her twin, Setsuna.) At the same time, she’s conflicted about this and worries she’s only causing trouble for her adopted father, Sota.

She also worries about her disposition. Towa wears a male school uniform. She’s active and loves fighting. But she sees the trouble this causes her family, the pain her adopted little sister Mei feels as she wishes her sister was more “girly,” and how society reacts. Once she goes through the tunnel back to her own time, she finds a period where she can be herself and be a warrior.

Her twin, Setsuna, is going through the same sort of thing in Yashahime. Towa never dealt with the half-demon discrimination, since she grew up in modern times, but Setsuna constantly had to grow up dealing with the fact that she’s not as strong because she’s half-human. When she sought out Kaede, it was for a trial to prove she was strong and deserved to survive. Her depiction comes across as someone constantly trying to prove herself and stay alive.

But at the same time, the reason Towa goes back and the journey the two are pretty much on is a search for identity for her too. Because of the Dream Butterfly encounter, Setsuna lost her memory and ability to sleep. Part of the whole purpose of the show is to restore her and help her find out who she is, even though she feels she benefits from being able to be put to sleep and doesn’t seem entirely bothered initially by not knowing who Towa is.

It’s an approach that I feel helps make it easier to connect with Yashahime’s heroines. We already know we’d be able to identify with and like Moroha, due to her being the daughter of Inuyasha’s leads. But being the twin daughters of an antagonist might act as a bit of a barrier for some people. By making a point of the show seeing how Towa and Setsuna grow and accept themselves, it opens them up and makes them more approachable. Plus, it provides a motivating factor for the audience, allowing us to get invested in who they are and who they might become.

Yashahime is streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu. You can find the dub on Funimation.

The post Yashahime Feels Like a Story About Its Heroines’ Identities appeared first on Siliconera.

Composer Kaoru Wada will be part of an online to discuss his work on the Inuyasha sequel, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon. The official Otakon Twitter announced a scheduled on August 1, 2020 where Wada will discuss his work on Yashahime. Wada has worked on numerous other anime scores such as D. Gray-man, Ace Attorney, and Inuyasha. So it only seems fitting that the composer for Inuyasha would be working on the sequel anime.

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The online will be available to watch through the official Otakon Twitch. The official Twitter also mentioned that all s will be running live, and they are uncertain if these broadcasts will be archived to watch at a later date. No other information has been disclosed about the featuring Kaoru Wada and his work on Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon.

It was announced in May that Wada would be providing the score for Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon. Inuyasha series creator Rumiko Takahashi will be handling the character designs for Yashahime. A Western localization for the series was also announced by Viz Media.

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon will begin its run in Japan in Fall 2020. Viz Media will handle the release of the series in North America and Latin America.

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Speaking with pop culture site, ICv2, Viz Media founder, Seiji Horibuchi, recently discussed his vision of the U.S. manga market in the years to come. Horibuchi feels that Japanese pop culture in general has a healthy future in America, and that the primary challenge is finding ways to deliver content to buyers and fighting piracy.

In particular, Horibuchi feels that “light novels” will become more popular in the future. Light novels are a little longer than their U.S. counterpart, novella, and are targeted at the young adult audience that indulges in manga, anime and videogames.

In recent years, a number successful anime series have been based on light novels. A few examples of these are: Spice and Wolf, Bakemonogatari, Durarara!! and Fate/zero.

“Light novels have the essence of manga, animation, and video games combined,” Horibuchi tells ICv2. “It has been a tremendously popular genre in Japan for the past six or seven years and continues to grow both there and in the U.S. Viz Media’s Haikasoru imprint has published some good examples.  Some popular anime films have been based on light novels and I think publishers here in the U.S. will begin to publish more of these titles as more readers become aware.”

With regard to manga itself, Horibuchi feels that the audience will grow as the transition to digital publishing becomes more stable and publishers get closer to a model where simultaneous worldwide releases are possible. He predicts this transition will have taken place by the time the year 2016 comes around.

The post Viz Media Founder Predicts Light Novel Success In The U.S. appeared first on Siliconera.

If you follow Viz, you might recall that they have a fantasy/sci-fi novel imprint under which they publish Japanese books such as All You Need is Kill and Brave Story. Titled “Haikasoru,” the imprint also publishes digitally on the Apple Bookstore.

Recently, Beatrice.com got in touch with two translators from Haikasoru, Jim Hubbert and Cathy Hirano, to discuss the ins and outs of translating Japanese novels.

Since we cover a lot of Japanese games on Siliconera, I thought this might be of interest to some of our readers. Here’s a short excerpt:

“To give just one example, the word miya, which is used in both books, means “palace” according to the Japanese-English dictionary. That seems simple enough—but what image does the word palace conjure up in an English reader’s mind? It is much more likely to be the huge ornate stone palaces seen in Europe or Walt Disney’s version of Aladdin’s palace than the Japanese image of multiple single storied wooden buildings surrounded by walled gardens. As the translator, I have to consider how important this concept is to the story. Is it something English readers can just gloss over and still get maximum enjoyment out of the story or do I need to use a different word or even the Japanese word, or perhaps add description in suitable places?”

There’s a lot more to read in Beatrice’s interview, and it’s interesting because it highlights just how different translating a novel is from localizing a manga or anime or game, due to the depth and amount of text.

The post Viz’s Novel Imprint Translators Talk About Translating Japanese Books appeared first on Siliconera.

Last month, distributor Simon & Schuster revealed a list of Viz Media’s book releases for summer and fall. Amongst them was the Ico novel, authored by contemporary Japanese author, Miyabe Miyuki, and originally published in Japan in 2002.

The news comes via the Twitter feed of manga blog, Tanbishugi. Viz’s edition of Ico: Castle of the Mist has a list price of $15.99, but Amazon are offering it at a discount if you’re interested in pre-ordering. The novel is tentatively slated for release in July.

Meanwhile, Sony are set to publish an Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection on the PlayStation 3 in spring on a single Blu-Ray disc. Both games will be compatible with 3D TVs and Shadow of the Colossus will finally run at a smooth 30 frames-per-second.

The post Viz To Publish Ico Novel In The U.S. appeared first on Siliconera.

Viz have added another round of new series to their manga library on the iPad. ing the previous selection of titles are Vampire Knight, Otomen, Ouran Highschool Host Club, and Rurouni Kenshin.

Each volume costs $4.99 on Viz’s iPad store. Viz’s app itself is free, however, and offers free previews of the first chapter of several series.

The post New Series Debut On Viz’s iPad Manga App appeared first on Siliconera.

Viz’s latest license is another rather interesting-sounding manga series, titled Itsuwaribito, which goes on sale starting December 14th under the Shonen Sunday imprint for $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

The premise sounds unique. Utsuho is a boy whose honesty as a child caused an enormous catastrophe, due to which he decided that lying was the better alternative. Raised in a village of orphans by a monk who inspires him to do good, Utsuho turns into a con-artist of sorts, out to use his skills for good after his master’s death.

Being a shounen series about a con-artist, a little fantasy and action are to be expected. Utsuho is ed on his journeys by a swordsman and a raccoon as he sets out to fight evil with immoral methods.

The post Viz License Itsuwaribito, A Con-Artist Manga appeared first on Siliconera.

We knew Tenjho Tenge had been re-licensed by a new publisher following the CMX disaster, but we didn’t know who. At one point, Tokyopop hinted they were rescuing certain CMX licenses, but it isn’t them either.

No, Viz are now taking over publishing duties of Tenjo Tenge (now without the “H”) in North America, and they’re starting over from volume 1, in double-sized editions.

Tenjo Tenge vol. 1 (the original first two volumes collected together) will go on sale on June 21st, 2011 for $17.99 US / $21.00 CAN."

It looks like Viz are going to be editing the series from scratch as they're claiming their version is "100% faithful to the original."

The post Viz Are Now Publishing Tenjo Tenge appeared first on Siliconera.

This January, Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, published by Shueisha in Japan, and Shonen Jump by Viz in North America, will be getting a makeover. Additionally, the latter's website will debut special subscriber features starting in December.

About.com had a chance to speak with Shonen Jump senior editor, Joel Enos, who is also the editor on Naruto, about the magazine’s reboot and what it entails.

Here’s what Enos has to say about the short-term changes:

“It means a lot of different things, really. But specifically, the most exciting thing for us, the editorial team is that we're able to show off a different look to the magazine after eight years. Visually, it looks different, it looks fresh. It looks very organized.

 

The original version of Shonen Jump looked good for the time when it came out, but you've got to keep current, and keep up with what's out there. I think this change makes the magazine look more contemporary.

 

The most exciting thing for the fans is that we're bringing back Yu-Gi-Oh. We'll be serializingYu-Gi-Oh! 5D's every month. We're also launching a new series by a relatively new manga-ka; it's called Psyren. It's a science fiction adventure story. It's really, really cool. The first two chapters will be featured in the January 2011 issue too.”

Shonen Jump is also going to be offering more variety in the form of a digital magazine, Enos says, where the digital version will allow for complete serializations, rather than just previews. There are also plans for an iPad version of the magazine.

I’d highly recommend reading the entire interview, since it sheds a fair bit of light on what Viz’s plans for the Shonen Jump reboot are, with regard to serializations. 

The post Shonen Jump Getting A Reboot This January appeared first on Siliconera.

Viz have launched a manga app on the iTunes store for the iPad, the company announced earlier this week. While the Viz Manga App itself can be ed for free, the library of manga content will, naturally, require a fee.

The Viz Manga App's library at debut consists primarily of shounen series. Bleach vols. 1-2, Death Note vols. 1-2, Dragon Ball vol. 1, Naruto vols. 1-2 and One Piece vols. 1-2, along with the recently licensed Bakuman vol. 1 were made available on launch day.

A week from launch, Viz will add popular shoujo series, Ouran High School Host Club to the line-up with vol. 1 ing their digital iPad portfolio.

All volumes will be available for directly within the application itself for $4.99 per volume. At present, Death Note vol. 1 is available for free, as a means to allow s to sample the app.

Viz are promising regular and frequent updates to the Viz Manga App, going forward.

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At a titled "Comics & Digital" at the New York Comic-Con, pop-culture news and analysis site, ICv2, presented a report on the sales of graphic novels and comics thus far in 2010. The gist of the report was that print sales are down across the board while digital sales are starting to take off rapidly.

ICv2 began by pointing out a 20% drop in print sales for graphic novels (this includes manga) in 2010. This is said to be the result of sharp sales declines at bookstores. The decline of Watchmen sales in 2010 in particular s for 50% of total bookstore decline. Bookstore sales were down by about 30% in the first half of 2010.

The manga market dropped another 20% in sales, which is a repeat of 2009's performance. This effectively means manga sales have dropped by 50% since 2007. Signs of the decline have been rather prominent, with multiple publishers like CMX and Aurora clo shop.

ICv2 note, however, that certain popular series continue to do well, such as Hetalia Axis Powers (Tokyopop), Vampire Knight (Viz), Black Butler (Yen Press) and Naruto (Viz), which is still the #1 manga franchise in the U.S.

The subject of the then shifted to digital publishing, which was the hot topic for the remainder of the event.

ICv2's estimates point to a $6 - $8 million English-speaking market for digital sales. These, they say, are driven primarily by Apple's iTunes service. Over the next year, digital sales on the iPad are expected to have a large impact on the market, and further growth is expected as tablet devices other than the iPad are brought to the market.

Finally, while proponents of the retail and digital spaces might have conflicting interests to an extent, the Comics & Digital ended on a collaborative note, with the topic of integrating digital s into retail comic stores being one of the ideas that were put forth.

The post Digital Growing, Print Manga Sales Down 20% In 2010…Again appeared first on Siliconera.