Seven Seas has announced the acquisition of three new manga series, all of which will launch here in the U.S. in the first half of 2011.  The first of the new series to debut, Amnesia Labyrinth is a new series from Nagaru Tanigawa, the creator of the cult hit The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.  Amnesia Labyrinth (Kagerou Meikyu), Tanigawa’s first manga series, debuted in Japan in August of 2009, and the first U.S. volume is slated for February.  This offbeat tale of murder and demented love focuses on a talented high school student from a well-off family who returns from boarding school to find that his three sisters may be involved in a series of murders at their school.

 

A month after Amnesia Labyrinth debuts, Seven Seas will release the first volume of Toradora!, a shonen manga based on the popular series of light novels by Yuyuko Takemiya that centers on two high school students, the hapless boy Ryugi and the dangerous rich girl Taiga.  They both have serious crushes on each other’s best friends and agree to help each other out, but complications and plenty of humor ensue.  This popular property has spun-off an Internet radio show, a PSP game, and a 25-episode anime series that aired in Japan in 2008-2009 and will be released this summer in the U.S. by anime newcomer NIS.

 

The first volume of the third manga series announced, A Certain Scientific Railgun (Toaru Majutsu no Railgun), won’t be released here until June.  First published in 2007, this ongoing shonen series, which has reached five volumes, is basically a manga spin-off from Kazuma Kamachi’s A Certain Magical Index light novels.  The Railgun manga, which is written by Kamachi and illustrated by Motoi Fuyukawa, became a hit in its own right spawning a popular anime series that will be released here next year by Funimation (see “Funimation Announces a Host of New Licenses”) as well as an RPG for the Nintendo DS and a fighting game for the Sony PSP.  The Railgun manga is set in Academy City where science and fantasy collide and supernatural powers are derived either from science or religion.