Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed Super Sentai: Himitsu Sentai Gorenger – The Classic Manga Collection by Shotaro Ishinomori, the manga that inspired the Super Sentai tokusatsu TV series in Japan, which in turn gave rise to the Power Rangers TV series in North America.  The manga follows the exploits of five young fighters, the only remnant of a secret task force that was destroyed by the evil Black Cross Army, who wear superpowered suits and fight enemies around the world.  Seven Seas will publish the manga in April 2021 as a single large-format hardcover volume with an MSRP of $24.99.

Ishinomori is known in Japan as a pioneering manga, anime, and tokosatsu (live-action with special effects) creator, but his manga are not widely available in English in print.  In the early to mid 2000s, Tokyopop licensed Cyborg 009 and CMX licensed Kikaider, but those books are mostly out of print; VIZ published his Legend of Zelda adaptation in 2015 (see "VIZ Media Brings Back ‘The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past’”).  ComiXology also publishes a number of his manga digitally.  Ishinomori began his career as an assistant to the legendary Osamu Tezuka, working on Astro Boy and other manga, then went on to create the Kamen Rider media franchise (which featured superheroes on motorcycles).  He was awarded the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 1998, and he holds the Guinness world record as the most-published comics author.

Seven Seas announced two more license acquisitions, both including manga and light novels.  She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wiseman is an isekai series about a young man who is transported into the world of the virtual-reality game he has been playing.  The catch is that while he usually plays as an elderly sage, he had recently changed his character to a young woman, so that’s his new form, and he presents himself as a pupil of his former avatar.  The first volume of the manga will be published in July 2021 with an MSRP of $12.99; the light novel will launch in August 2021 with an MSRP of $14.99.

The other new manga and light novel series announced this week is I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again, the story of a noblewoman who commits a terrible act and then travels back in time and has the opportunity to change the outcome.  She retains the memories of what she has done but must resist the forces that turned her into a villainess the first time around.  Both the manga and the light novel are scheduled to launch in June 2021; the manga will have an MSRP of $12.99 and the light novel will have an MSRP of $14.99.

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