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Yen Press Adds Haruhi-Chan, K-On! Manga, Bungaku Shoujo (Updated)

posted on by Egan Loo
Also: Not Love But Delicious Foods, Goldilocks and the Seven Squat Bears

The North American publisher Yen Press has announced that it has licensed Puyo's The Melancholy of Suzumiya-Haruhi-Chan (Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yūutsu) manga, kakifly's K-ON! manga, Mizuki Nomura's first Bungaku Shoujo light novel volume, Fumi Yoshinaga's Not Love But Delicious Foods (Ai ga Nakutemo Kutte Yukemasu) manga, and Émile Bravo's Goldilocks and the Seven Squat Bears picture book. Bungaku Shoujo and Haruhi-chan will launch in July and October, respectively, while K-ON! and Not Love But Delicious Foods will both launch in November. No date has been given for Goldilocks and the Seven Squat Bears.

Puyo has been drawing The Melancholy of Suzumiya-Haruhi-Chan as the "official gag manga" of Nagaru Tanigawa and Noizi Ito's The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels for Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace and The Sneaker magazines since July of 2008. It is one of two official manga that re-imagine the characters of Haruhi Suzumiya as super-deformed characters. (The other official parody manga is Eretto's Nyorōn Churuya-san.) Like the light novels that inspired them, both Haruhi-chan and Nyorōn Churuya-san have been animated — albeit as web shorts — in 2008.

Little, Brown Young Readers is publishing the third Haruhi Suzumiya light novel volume in North America this July, and Yen Press will ship the fifth volume in Gaku Tsugano's manga adaptation next month. Bandai Entertainment released the initial run of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime series in North America, and it posted a video promoting "the second season DVDs" last month. The Anime Film adaptation of the fourth light novel, The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya, film will open in Japan this Saturday.

The K-ON! four-panel manga follows four girls who try to rescue their high school's light music club. It began running in Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara magazine in 2007, and Kyoto Animation animated it for a television series with record Blu-ray Disc sales. Since the anime aired, the manga's three compiled book volumes have been bestsellers in Japan. A second anime season has been slated for April.

Bungaku Shoujo's "mysterious school comedy" story centers on the unusual members of a high school literary club. Tōko Amano, a high school senior who calls herself the "literary girl" as the club president, is actually a supernatural creature (yōkai) that devours stories — she tears pages from books to munch on them. Her club subordinate is Konoha Inoue, a second-year high school boy who writes stories every day for Amano to eat. He once wrote an award-winning novel, but he wrote it under the penname Miu Inoue so readers thought the author was a mysterious but beautiful 14-year-old girl. The stress from the novel's fame and its movie and television drama plans turned Inoue in an introverted recluse. Director Shunsuke Tada and Production I.G are adapting the light novel series into an animated film which will open in Japan in May 1.

Yoshinaga is best known for her fictional manga such as Antique Bakery and Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, but she also wrote Not Love But Delicious Foods in 2005 as a nonfiction guide to her favorite foods and culinary destinations in Japan. The Japanese edition of this gourmet manga even includes a map of where to find her favorite spots. Tokyopop's Blu boys-love imprint published Yoshinaga's Truly Kindly, Gerard & Jacques, and Lovers in the Night manga, while Digital Manga Publishing published most of her other manga such as Antique Bakery, The Moon and the Sandals, Don't Say Anymore Darling, Flower of Life, and Garden Dreams. Viz Media published the second volume of Yoshinaga's Ōoku: The Inner Chambers in December and All My Darling Daughters last month.

Update: More background information added.


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