Kodansha Will Begin Rolling Out New Manga Next Summer

With the departure of Del Rey from the manga scene this month, many of us have been wondering what will become of all of Del Rey's series that are being left in publishing limbo. Most of Del Rey's licenses came from Kodansha, and Kodansha US will begin publishing some of these licenses directly next year.

Kodansha will begin to shipping the following titles in May 2011 under the new Kodansha Comics imprint:

Kodansha Comics imprint launches:

Phoenix Wright—Ace Attorney (new series) Volume 1 in June, Volume 2 in August
Monster Hunter Orage Volume 1 in June, Volume 2 in August
Rave Master Omnibus in May
Deltora Quest in July
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Until the Full Moon in July (this one formerly belonged to Brocolli)
Mardock Scramble in August
Animal Land in August
Gon in August (formerly from CMX)
Bloody Monday in August
Cage of Eden in August
Negima Omnibus (Vol #1-3) in June

Continuing series picking up from where Del Rey left off will be:

Air Gear Volume 18 in June, Volume 19 in August
Arisa Volume 2 in May, Arisa Volume 3 in July
Fairy Tale Volume 13 in May, Volume 14 in July
I Am Here! Volume 2 in July
Negima Volume 29 in May, Volume 30 in July
Negima!? Neo in June
Ninja Girls Volume 5 in May, Volume 6 in July
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Volume 9 in June, Volume 10 in August
Shugo Chara! Volume 10 in May, Volume 11 in July
The Wallflower Volume 25 in June

Of course, all backissues of the above series should be considered OOP as of this month, so if you need any volumes for any former Del Rey licenses (say like any Negima 1-28 or Ninja Girls 1-4) you should buy them as soon as you can before the existing inventory starts to dry up.

Surprisingly, Del Rey will continue to publish the Clamp titles Tsubasa and xxxHolic under its own label, so they are not 'completely' exiting that market like we thought. Always good to keep your foot in the door...

Omnibus Editions: A Sign of the Times

In a sign of the times, Del Rey has recently canceled a handful of upcoming manga volumes in favor of Omnibus editions that allow them to incorporate more material together in a lower priced package. Instead of Wallflower 22 and 23, we will now get a Wallflower Omnibus 22-24. Orange Planet 3 has now been replaced with the Orange Planet Omnibus 3-5, and the first volume of Wild@Heart will now be the Wild at Heart Omnibus 1-3.

We've updated the store site to reflect these changes.

The downside of this is that, for finicky collectors that like their manga shelves to be 'just so', the new volumes will be fatter and won't match the old ones they already have. The upside is that instead of paying $10.98 MSRP per volume, we get three volumes for just $21.98 MSRP. Nothing wrong with that!

Update: Seven Seas has announced that it has licensed Yu Aida's Gunslinger Girl action manga and Masayuki Takano's Blood Alone vampire manga. The publisher will release the first six volumes of Gunslinger Girl in two omnibus volumes starting in February of 2011, and then release single volumes starting with volume 7. There are currently 12 volumes in Japan. The first three volumes of Blood Alone will be compiled in one omnibus volume in May of 2011, followed by single volumes for the remaining volumes. There are six volumes in Japan currently. Seven Seas also announced that it will release Strawberry Panic! The Complete Manga Collection, which will contain "both volumes of the manga, plus two all-new previously unreleased chapters," and the first Venus Versus Virus Omnibus book (with three collected volumes) this October. The three-volume Hayate X Blade Omnibus 1 and three-volume Inukami! Omnibus 1 will follow in November.