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Gempak Starz Licenses Summer Wars Manga

Malaysian publisher Gempak Starz announced last Saturday that it has licensed Iqura Sugimoto's manga adaptation of Mamoru Hosoda's Summer Wars anime film.

The manga centers on Kenji Koiso, a math genius who is presented with a rare opportunity to tag along with his crush Natsuki with the promise of a summer job: pretending to be her boyfriend so that her family doesn't bother her about it. As it turns out, Natsuki's entire extended family has gathered to celebrate the 90th birthday of its matriarch Sakae. As Kenji keeps up his act for Natsuki, and the family estate becomes controlled chaos under the rule of many of the family members, Kenji receives a message to a difficult math problem. Once he solves it, he unlocks the potential of a virus that hijacks all social media, and leads to real chaos in business and other aspects of life. Now the entire family must use their strengths and band together to defeat an unconventional foe.

Sugimoto serialized the manga in Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine from the magazine's inaugural issue in July 2009 to May 2010. Kadokawa then published the manga in three book volumes. Yumehito Ueda drew a separate Summer Wars King Kazuma vs. Queen Oz manga spinoff in Kadokawa's Monthly Comp Ace magazine from 2009 to 2010.

The original movie opened in Japan in July 2009