According to Anime on DVD, Tokyopop announced four new manga series set to debut in the fourth quarter of 2005 including the manga adaptation of the popular Samurai Champloo anime.  Created by Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe, Samurai Champloo (released on DVD in the U.S. by Geneon) is an intriguing samurai epic set to hip-hop rhythms.  The manga adaptation, which was serialized in Kadokawa's Shonen Ace magazine in Japan, debuted in January of 2004.

 

Among the other key manga titles announced at Sakuracon was Satoshi Shiki's 7-volume Kami Kaze series, a bloody supernatural horror/action drama set in contemporary Japan that has already enjoyed considerable success in France, Italy, and Germany as well as in Japan where it appeared from 1997 to 2003.  Kodansha, which published Kami Kaze in Japan, is also the publisher of Keiko Suenobu's Life.  Life, like Yun Kouga's Earthian (the fourth new title announced by Tokyopop) is a shoujo series -- and the two shoujo titles provide a 50/50 gender balance for the Tokyopop titles announced at Sakuracon.