New York Comic Con News: At the New York Comic Con Kodonsha USA announced a quartet of new titles relating to Hajime Isayama’s mega-hit shonen manga series Attack on Titan, the hottest manga title in the bookstore market since the return of Sailor Moon (see "September BookScan 'Attack on Titan' Passed 'The Walking Dead'"). The Attack on Titan manga has become so popular that Kodansha recently announced that it was planning on taking the title monthly (see "'Attack on Titan' Goes Monthly"). Kodansha USA’s Dallas Middaugh told ICv2 that AOT will go monthly until January of 2014, when it will "be almost caught up with the Japanese version, and then new volumes should appear here just a couple of months after they are published in Japan."Middaugh also stated that even though Attack on Titan has not caught on in the direct market the way it has in Japan, where Kodansha has sold 25 million copies of the 11 volumes, or in the U.S. bookstore market where it dominated manga sales this past summer, "I think it has great prospects in the direct market. Even though it’s a shonen title, it’s grittier, more violent and more sophisticated than most shonen manga and should be a good fit for the more mature comic shop audience." Middaugh told ICv2 that sales of the AOT manga are being driven by the AOT anime, which is currently streaming here on Crunchyroll and the Funimation channel--and that Kodansha is hoping that the anime will be renewed for a second season in Japan.
At the NYCC Kodansha announced a number of spin-offs from the Attack on Titan manga series including the Attack on Titan Guidebook: Inside & Outside, the definitive 400-page guide to the series that is full of concept art, character profiles, and even some Attack on Titan papercraft. Middaugh told ICv2 that Kodansha is combining two AOT guidebooks that were released in Japan and will print the book in the larger A5 format with 16 pages of color.
Attack on Titan: Before the Fall is another shonen manga series, but this one is based on the AOT light novels (that Vertical is publishing in the U.S.). Middaugh described Before the Fall to ICv2 as "a prequel to the series that AOT fans will want to read," and noted that Kodansha will publish the first volume of Before the Fall in the spring of 2014 before Vertical publishes the first light novel in the summer.
Attack on Titan Gaiden: Kuniaki Sentaku, a shojo series that delves deeply into the backstory of Captain Levi, one of the main characters of the saga, and Attack on Titan: Junior High, a fun-filled manga that re-imagines the characters of Attack on Titan as junior high school students. Middaugh told ICv2 that this series, which places the Titans vs. Humans rivalry in a junior high school context, "is just a lot of fun."
In addition to the four Attack on Titans tie-ins, Kodansha also announced UQ Holder, a brand new series from harem comedy specialist Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima) that is set the world of Negima, but years after the saga of Negi and his students. The protagonist of Akamatsu’s latest is a young boy who dreams of leaving his quiet village and heading to the city, but first he must defeat his teacher Evangeline.
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