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Del Rey Gets Here I Am, Rave Master, Arisa Manga (Update 2)
posted on by Egan Loo
The North American manga publisher Del Rey has announced at its New York Anime Festival panel on Saturday that it has licensed Here I Am! (Koko ni Iru yo!) by Pixie Pop: Gokkun Pucho creator Ema Toyama (Fall 2010), Rave Master (Rave) by Hiro Mashima (September 2010), and the Arisa manga by Kitchen Princess artist Natsumi Ando (November 2010). Del Rey has also confirmed that it will publish the Yokai Navi Runa manga by Miyoko Ikeda and Mamotte! Lollipop creator Michiyo Kikuta (May 2010).
The "sympathetic love story" of Here I Am! revolves around Hikage, a middle school girl who thinks that no one cares if she exists. She thinks she has zero presence and zero friends, and she finds comfort only from her blog commenters. However, one day, the popular boy Hinata-kun suddenly says, "I've always noticed you." Toyama serialized the manga in Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine from 2007 to 2008, and five manga volumes have been published. Del Rey published the three volumes of Toyama's Pixie Pop: Gokkun Pucho in 2007.
Tokyopop had published the Rave Master fantasy adventure manga from 2003 until this year, when Kodansha ended their contract. The American television network Syfy has been running Studio DEEN's television anime series adaptation during Manga Entertainment's Ani-Monday programming block since March. Del Rey also publishes Mashima's Fairy Tail manga, which is getting its own anime series in Japan this fall.
Ando launched Arisa in Nakayoshi in December of last year. The title character Arisa has a twin sister named Tsubasa, but the two are polar opposites in personality. Three years after their parents divorced, the two reunite, but a lot has changed since they last met. Kodansha has published the second volume of the manga this month. Ando finished her Kitchen Princess manga in the same magazine in August of last year. Tokyopop released Ando's four Zodiac P.I. manga volumes in North America, while Del Rey finished publishing the 10 Kitchen Princess volumes in July.
Yokai Navi Runa centers on Runa Rindō, a fourth-grade elementary schoolgirl. She was abandoned as a baby in front of the Hoshinoko School, and has been raised at the school ever since. One evening, her friend Sae is suddenly kidnapped by mysterious captors. As the "Legendary Child" with a hidden power, Runa must begin her battle to protect the world. Kikuta has been adapting Ikeda's Yokai Navi Runa children's book series as a manga in Nakayoshi since 2008. The third compiled book volume of the manga series shipped in July. Before this series, Kikuta created the Mamotte! Lollipop manga series which Del Rey published in 2007 and 2008. Funimation released the anime version under the title Save Me! Lollipop in North America this year.
Update: More background information and images added.
Update 2: Tokyopop, not Del Rey, had published Pixie Pop: Gokkun Pucho. Thanks, Bara_Megami.
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