Viz Media has announced the acquisition of four new manga series that will debut in 2009.  The new manga include Honey Hunt by Miki Aihara, Otomen by Aya Kanno, Magic Touch by Izumi Tsubaki, and Gestalt by Yun Kouga.  The first three titles are shojo series, while Gestalt, though technically a shonen title (it appeared in Square Enix’s GFantasy magazine), is an eight-volume gender-bending saga from Yun Kouga, the creator of Loveless, who generally specializes in shojo and shonen-ai manga.

Miki Aihara is the creator of Hot Gimmick (which Viz Media is repackaging in a VizBig edition), one of the first josei (sexy shojo series targeting an 18+ female audience) manga released in the U.S.  Her Honey Hunt, an ongoing series that has reached three volumes in Japan, is the story of the professional and sexual competition between an actress and her teenage daughter that also appears to be aimed at a more mature audience.

Aya Kanno’s Otomen, an ongoing series that has reached five volumes, is a more conventional shojo comedy romance with a high school setting and a male teenage character who hides his attraction to shojo manga and baking behind a macho façade of stoicism.  Izumi Tsubaki’s Magic Touch, a nine-volume series that debuted in 2004, is also a high school-based comedy romance.  Chiaki, the heroine of Magic Touch, falls in love at first sight with a guy who rides the same bus every morning.