ANIMATE USA – NEW RELEASES FOR AMAZON KINDLE

TOKYO, JAPAN – September 1 - Animate U.S.A., Inc. is pleased to announce its September release lineup for the Amazon Kindle Store!

Five more Yaoi titles published by Libre Publishing in Japan, including the Kindle Exclusive title “Kiss Ariki – Episode 1″ by Youka Nitta, have been added. Also, Hinako Takanaga, one of the most popular BL artists, has finally arrived in the Kindle Store!

For more information, please visit www.animate-world.com, www.b-boy.jp, and to keep on top of all things about Nitta Youka, nittayouka.com!!

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TOKYO, JAPAN – August 4 - Animate U.S.A., Inc. is pleased to reveal its August release lineup for the Amazon Kindle Store! Four more Yaoi titles published by Libre Publishing in Japan, including Kindle Exclusive title “Pet in Love – Pet on Duty Bonus Story-,” have been added to the Kindle Store.

For more information, please visit www.animate-world.com, www.b-boy.jp, and to keep on top of all things about Nitta Youka, nittayouka.com!!

August 2010:
Nase Yamato – “Pet in Love – Pet on Duty Bonus Story” Kindle Exclusive!!!
Youka Nitta – “Sound of My Voice – Golden Goose Part 2″
Shiuko Kano – “P.B.B. Play Boy Blues – Act 2″
Makoto Tateno – “See You in the School of the Muse Vol.1 (in Japanese)”

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VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES NEW SUMMER MANGA SERIES TO DELIGHT FANS OF ALL INTERESTS

San Francisco, CA, July 29, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has provided details regarding the launch of brand new manga series set for release this summer. The series will tantalize the most discriminating manga tastes and features romantic dramas, fantasy driven action, the trials of aspiring manga creators, and a tasty slice of life story set in a romantic bistro in Rome.

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LOS ANGELES, July 20, 2010 – From Sunday, July 18th to Tuesday, July 20th, Seven Seas released a series of cryptic anagrams and hints via Twitter (twitter.com/gomanga) that, when deciphered, reveal the titles of Seven Seas’ newest manga licenses. Twitter elite and anime fans were quick to decode the clues, and word quickly spread about the leaked titles.

Seven Seas is now pleased to confirm that it has licensed the following manga:

Amnesia Labyrinth (volume 1 coming February 2011)
Tora Dora (volume 1 coming March 2011)
A Certain Scientific Railgun (volume 1 coming June 2011).

Subsequent volumes in each series will follow every 3-4 months.

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TOKYO, JAPAN – July 1 – Animate U.S.A., Inc. is pleased to reveal its July release lineup for the Amazon Kindle Store! Five more Yaoi titles published by Libre Publishing in Japan, including one Japanese-text manga by Youka Nitta, are now available!

For more information, visit these websites, www.animate-world.com, www.b-boy.jp, and to keep on top of all things about Nitta Youka, nittayouka.com!!

July 2010:

Youka Nitta – “Sound Of My Voice – Golden Goose Part 1″
Youka Nitta – “LOL Theater”
Youka Nitta – “Embracing Love Vol.14 (Japanese)”
Shiuko Kano – “P.B.B. Play Boy Blues – Part 1″
Natsuho Shino – “Oh my god! Vol.2″

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MULTI-NATIONAL MANGA ANTI-PIRACY COALITION FORMED

San Francisco, CA, June 8, 2010 – Today a coalition of Japanese and U.S. publishers announced a coordinated effort to combat a rampant and growing problem of internet piracy plaguing the manga industry. “Scanlation,” as this form of piracy has come to be known, refers to the unauthorized digital scanning and translation of manga material that is subsequently posted to the internet without the consent of copyright holders or their licensees. According to the coalition, the problem has reached a point where “scanlation aggregator” sites now host thousands of pirated titles, earning ad revenue and/or membership dues at creators’ expense while simultaneously undermining foreign licensing opportunities and unlawfully cannibalizing legitimate sales. Worse still, this pirated material is already making its way to smartphones and other wireless devices, like the iPhone and iPad, through apps that exist solely to link to and republish the content of scanlation sites.

Participants in the coalition include the 36 members of Japan’s Digital Comic Association, Square Enix, VIZ Media, TOKYOPOP, Vertical, Inc., the Tuttle-Mori Agency and Yen Press. Working together, the membership of the coalition will actively seek legal remedies to this intellectual property theft against those sites that fail to voluntarily cease their illegal appropriation of this material.

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TOKYO, JAPAN – June 4 – Animate U.S.A., Inc. is pleased to reveal its June release lineup for the Amazon Kindle Store! Four more Yaoi titles published by Libre Publishing in Japan are now available! For more information, visit these websites, www.animate-world.com, www.b-boy.jp.

June 2010:
Nase Yamato – “Cigarette Kisses”

Natsuho Shino – “Oh my god! Vol.1″

Kano Miyamoto – “Say Please”

Kano Miyamoto – “Two of Hearts”
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APPETITE MEETS ADVENTURE IN ACTION-PACKED NEW SHONEN JUMP SERIES TORIKO

It’s Eat Or Be Eaten As A Gourmet Hunter Tracks Exotic Big Game For His Clients’ Expensive Palates In Ferocious New Manga Debut

San Francisco, CA, May 20, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, delivers a new manga property that expertly blends action-adventure with the thrill of the hunt with the release of TORIKO on June 1st. The new series, created by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, will be published under the SHONEN JUMP imprint, is rated ‘T’ for Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

In a savage world ruled by the pursuit of the most delicious foods, it’s either eat or be eaten! This is the great era of gourmet food! And only Toriko can track down the ferocious and exotic wildlife coveted by the world’s best restaurants and wealthy food connoisseurs. As a Gourmet Hunter, Toriko tracks and defeats the tastiest and most dangerous animals with his bare hands. But has he met his match with an eight-legged alligator the size of a tank?

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Gardena, CA (May 19. 2010)- Digital Manga Publishing is excited to announce their special guest for Yaoi-Con 2010, the prolific and fan-favorite yaoi mangaka-Hinako Takanaga! The creator of numerous manga, including Little Butterfly, The Devil’s Secret, Challengers, Croquis, Love Round!!, Liberty Liberty, and the soon to be released The Tyrant Falls In Love, Hinako Takanaga has been one of the most popular yaoi mangaka in the US, and will be making her second appearance at Yaoi-Con!

So come up to San Francisco in October, and meet the immensely talented Hinako Takanaga in person, and hear her answer questions about her process and her work!

Yaoi-Con takes place over the Halloween weekend, October 29-October 31, and at a brand new location in Burlingame, CA! For more information on Yaoi-Con, including location, hotels, and registration, please visit their site at: www.yaoicon.com

ANIMATE USA RELEASES MORE YAOI TITLES ON KINDLE

TOKYO, JAPAN – May 12 – Animate U.S.A., Inc. is very pleased to announce that 4 more Yaoi titles published by Libre Publishing in Japan are now available in the Kindle Store! For more information, visit these websites, www.animate-world.com, www.b-boy.jp.

May 2010:
Saika Kunieda – “Future Lovers Vol.1″

Saika Kunieda – “Future Lovers Vol.2″

Rize Shinba – “Mister Mistress Vol.1″

Rize Shinba – “Mister Mistress Vol.2″
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“FUTURE LOVERS” by Saika Kunieda

A romantic lover awaits you… in the future.

Kento Kumagaya wishes for the simple things in life: to have a happy family with the ideal housewife, loving kids, and kind grandparents all living together, happily ever after.

Fate, however, has other plans. Enter Akira Kazuki, a smart, beautiful and unrestrained gay man who shatters Kento’s dream with a single night of wild and passionate sex.

This is a romantic, sweet and funny story between two different people (in more ways than one) who unexpectedly find the same future together.

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“MISTER MISTRESS” by Rize Shinba

Fujimaru is your average adolescent boy – horny and girl-crazed. Like many guys his age, he enjoys spending “alone time” in the bathroom with erotic magazines, doing… you know.

Unlike many guys his age, Fujimaru has a sexy demon incubus, Rei, lurking about his house. Rei wants nothing more than to feed off of Fujimaru’s perverted mind! Soon, Fujimaru’s life becomes an erotic nightmare.

He’s just a normal boy whose raging hormones and wet dreams are the source of the incubus Rei’s ever-growing lascivious power.

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CALLING ALL OTAKU…
Announcing America’s Greatest Otaku and the TOKYOPOP Tour

The search is on for the most talented fan in the nation!

Los Angeles, CA (May 13, 2010) - This summer, TOKYOPOP will hit the road on a 12,000-mile journey to find America’s Greatest Otaku, the person who best exemplifies a truly unique fervor and passion for all things influenced by Japanese pop culture. This nationwide competition will be part of the ambitious “TOKYOPOP Tour,” a road show that takes a tour bus to hundreds of thousands of fans, in dozens of cities across the United States-including five fan conventions-to discover and embrace manga and anime fan culture around the nation.

The TOKYOPOP Tour kicks off in July at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, CA, and will run through Chicago Comic-Con at the end of August. The culminating event will be a multi-episode reality show, premiering in the fall on a major online video site, which will reveal to the nation who will be crowned America’s Greatest Otaku!

Stu Levy, Executive Producer of the America’s Greatest Otaku reality show, as well as TOKYOPOP’s founder, says, “Japanese pop culture has influenced many of us Americans in a number of ways. The goal of this show is to prove to the world that American otaku are just as talented – if not more – than their counterparts worldwide.”

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A LOVE OF BOOKS AND READING
INSPIRES A GIRL TO STAND AGAINST CENSORSHIP IN NEW MANGA SERIES
LIBRARY WARS: LOVE AND WAR

New Shojo Adventure Follows A Young Recruit
In The Library Defense Forces As She Protects The Right To Read

San Francisco, CA, MAY 10, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, brings a new literary manga adventure to North American readers with the release of LIBRARY WARS: LOVE & WAR on June 1st. The series, with story and art by Kiiro Yumi and based on the original concept by Hiro Arikawa, will be published under the Shojo Beat imprint, is rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

In the near future, the federal government creates a special committee to rid society of books it deems unsuitable. But the libraries vow to protect their collections, and with the help of local governments, form a military group to defend themselves – the Library Defense Forces!

In the opening volume, Iku Kasahara has dreamed of joining the LDF ever since one of its soldiers stepped in to protect her favorite book from being confiscated in a bookstore when she was younger. But now that she’s finally a recruit, she’s finding her dream job to be a bit of a nightmare. Especially since her hard-hearted drill instructor seems to have it in for her!

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VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE OF NEW MANGA SERIES
I’LL GIVE IT MY ALL…TOMORROW

Story Of A Salaryman Who Embarks On A Quest To Become A Manga Artist Offers A Unique Journey Of Self-Discovery

San Francisco, CA, May 6, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the release of I’LL GIVE IT MY ALL… TOMORROW. The series, created by Shunju Aono, will debut on May 18th under the VIZ Signature imprint, is rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $16.99 CAN.

This is the story of a hapless forty year-old salaryman who quits his job to pursue his dream of becoming a manga artist – and the family that has to put up with him. While not terribly unhappy, Shizuo Oguro can’t fight the feeling that something in his life just isn’t right, so he walks away from his stable (yet boring) day job to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Unfortunately for his family, this journey also involves playing video games all day while his teenage daughter and elderly father support him. Will Shizuo succeed in creating a true manga masterpiece, or will he be just another dropout living a life of slack?

In the opening volume, Shizuo Oguro is living his dream… sort of. Feeling like his life has been a complete waste Shizuo breaks free from the corporate rat race and charts a new and fairly random career course to become a published manga artist. Sure, he lacks the talent, discipline, or any of the other skills necessary to become a success in the manga industry, but that won’t stop Shizuo from achieving his dream!

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Los Angeles, CA (April 30, 2010) – TOKYOPOP is thrilled to announce the release of the international bestselling manga Hetalia: Axis Powers. The Japanese webcomic by Hidekaz Himaruya has swept the internet in a worldwide campaign, and its tankobon has sold more than a million units in Japan alone. Now the English-language edition will breach bookstores everywhere this Fall, just in time for International Hetalia Day.

Hetalia is an utterly hilarious and thoroughly politically incorrect view of history, where each country is anthropomorphized into bishōnen characters. The main plot follows Axis Powers Italy, Germany, and Japan from the fall of Rome through World War II. Hilarity arises when spotlights shine on each country’s stereotypes, including Italy’s singular euphoric love for pasta and America constantly yelling, “I’m the hero!”—sometimes muffled by a mouthful of hamburger. Also, countries rarely understand each other, as seen in statements such as, “In America, it is common to see men and women in various states of undress basking on the lawn.” (However, a quick visit to TOKYOPOP near the Southern California beaches this summer may prove this statement to be true after all!)

TOKYOPOP editor Cindy Suzuki says, “Hetalia is going to be very exciting. It will be a challenging project on many levels, but we are working closely with our friends at FUNimation as well as the Japanese publisher of the manga in hopes of bringing the fans an authentic product.”

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AN EXTRAORDINARY VIEW OF THE FUTURE
SHINES IN SATURN APARTMENTS MANGA SERIES
FROM VIZ MEDIA

A Young Window Washer Offers A Panoramic View
Into A Future Space Colony

San Francisco, CA, April 29, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, brings the newest title from its partnership with Japan’s IKKI magazine to domestic audiences with the release of SATURN APARTMENTS on May 8th. Created by Hisae Iwaoka, the manga series will be published under the VIZ Signature imprint, is rated ‘T’ for Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $16.99 CAN.

Far in the future, humankind has evacuated Earth in order to preserve it. Humans now reside in a gigantic structure that forms a ring around the earth, 35,000 kilometers up in the sky. The society of the Ring System is strictly stratified: the higher the floor, the greater the status. Mitsu, the lowly son of a window washer, has just graduated. Five years after his father disappears and is assumed dead, Mitsu takes on his father’s occupation. As he struggles with the transition to working life, Mitsu’s job treats him to an outsider’s view into the living-room dioramas of the Saturn Apartments.

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