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Designer Haruhiko Mikimoto to Draw New Macross Manga (Updated)

Update: Famed character designer and manga creator Haruhiko Mikimoto (Macross, Gundam 0080, Aim for the Top! Gunbuster) will be drawing the tentatively titled manga The Super Dimension Fortress Macross The First in the recently revealed Macross Ace magazine from Kadokawa Shoten. The January issue (on sale on November 26) of Kadokawa's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine will make the announcement. Vol. 001 of Macross Ace will debut on January 26, 2009 with 80 pages from Mikimoto's new manga. The manga will feature the star of the original Macross space war romance story that Mikimoto co-created, Lynn Minmay.

The magazine will also feature a tentatively titled Macross Frontier: Secret Visions story from Hiroyuki Yoshino, the series script supervisor for Macross Frontier. Macross Frontier is the recent 25th anniversary television series that helped bring about a resurgence in this science-fiction franchise's popularity. Monthly Shōnen Ace's Hayato Aoki (Macross Frontier manga), Monthly Comp Ace's Sorahiko Mizushima (Macross Frontier: Dakishimete, Ginga no Hate made manga) and The Sneaker Bunko imprint's Ukyō Kodachi (Macross Frontier novels) will appear in the magazine.

Kadokawa already publishes Gundam Ace, a monthly manga magazine devoted to Sunrise's Gundam robot war franchise. Shogakukan and We've, Inc. have been releasing Macross Chronicle, a biweekly reference publication devoted to the Macross franchise, since July. Mikimoto drew the original character designs for the ongoing anime version of Yoshiki Tanaka's Tytania space opera novels. He was slated to work on the Appleseed: Genesis television anime series before it was cancelled earlier this year.

Source: 2ch

Image © 1984 Big West

Update: According to Kadokawa's advertisement solicitation sheet, Macross Ace will have new gag comedy manga and manga based on new stories. It will also have information on the anime, DVDs, games, and toys, as well as columns by noted figures. The magazine will be positioned as a quarterly spinoff from Gundam Ace, and Kadokawa expects to publish 100,000 copies of the first 256-page issue for 560 yen each.