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Kodansha Int'l to Print Manga of Yakuza Moon Memoir (Updated)

Writer and editor Sean Michael Wilson revealed in a Publishers Weekly interview on Tuesday that Kodansha International is publishing a English-language manga version of Yakuza Moon (Yakuza na Tsuki), a memoir by a yakuza gangster's daughter named Shōko Tendō. It is the second of four manga adaptations planned; the first was the previously revealed Hagakure: The Code of the Samurai that Wilson is writing with London-based Japanese artist Chie Kutsuwada. All four of the planned manga adaptation will be released in Japan first, and then in English-speaking countries.

Wilson is also working to release the 360-page Gekiga Freaks (Gekiga Baka-tachi!!) manga autobiography by Masahiko Matsumoto in late 2011 or 2012. Matsumoto is one of the three main pioneers of the alternative Japanese graphic-novel format known as gekiga. Top Shelf had already announced at Comic-Con International last month that it will publish Cigarette Girl, Matsumoto's 2009 collection of short stories. However, Wilson cautioned that he is "not sure who the publisher will be" for Gekiga Freaks. This year, Top Shelf published the first collection of English-translated manga from Seirinkogeisha's alternative AX magazine, and Wilson said that volume two is in the works.

Drawn and Quarterly published another translated gekiga memoir, Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life, last year to critical acclaim, and the book received two awards at Comic-Con International's Eisner Awards.

Update: The cover images above are for the English-translated edition of the original Yakuza Moon text memoir and the original Japanese edition of the Gekiga Baka-tachi!! autobiography. They do not necessarily reflect what the cover images will be for the English-languge manga editions.