I hereby declare it Press Release Thursday. There are a few interesting ones in my mailbox, and there’s nothing wrong with a little low-impact content generation.
We’ll start with Viz, who has formerly announced the drop date for Bakuman, written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. You may recognize them as the creative team that brought us Death Note (also from Viz), and I hope you recognize Obata as the illustrator for Hikaru No Go (wonderfully written by Yumi Hotta, and also published by Viz). I’m somewhat less concerned that you recognize Obata as the artist behind Ral Ω Grad (written by Tsuneo Takano, also from Viz), which is a little fan-service-y for my tastes. You may also recognize Bakuman as one of the nominees for the most recent round of Manga Taisho Awards.
While I’ve covered the nominees rather exhaustively in various license requests, I’ve purposely neglected Bakuman, as I knew it had been licensed and assumed we would be getting a press release eventually. And voila! Details after the jump.
FIND OUT WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE IT TO THE TOP AS A MANGA CREATOR IN THE NEW SHONEN JUMP SERIES BAKUMAN。
Two Students Must Have Perseverance, Innovation And An Uncompromising Will To Succeed In The New Series From The Creators Of DEATH NOTE
San Francisco, CA, April 14, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the upcoming release of the manga series BAKUMAN。. The series, rated ‘T’ for Teens, will be released on August 3rd under VIZ Media’s popular Shonen Jump imprint and will carry a MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN. Previews for the series will start to run in the May 2010 issue of VIZ Media’s popular monthly manga anthology – SHONEN JUMP magazine which is on stands now.
BAKUMAN。is written by the author of DEATH NOTE, Tsugumi Ohba, and the artwork is by Takeshi Obata, the artist known for series such as DEATH NOTE, HIKARU NO GO and RALΩGRAD. The story follows average student Moritaka Mashiro, who enjoys drawing for fun, but when his classmate and aspiring writer Akito Takagi discovers his talent, he begs Moritaka to team up with him as a manga-creating duo. But what exactly does it take to make it in the manga-publishing world?
In the opening volume, Moritaka is hesitant to seriously consider Akito’s proposal because he knows how difficult it can be to reach the professional level. Still, encouragement from persistent Akito and the motivation from a girl he has a crush on help push Moritaka to test his limits!
“BAKUMAN。is an outstanding, behind-the-scenes manga about manga, and the artists who create it, written and drawn by the creative team that produced the DEATH NOTE series,” says Elizabeth Kawasaki, Senior Editorial Director at VIZ Media. “The series is a great read for all manga fans, and especially fun for aspiring artists.”
Born in Tokyo, Tsugumi Ohba is the author of the hit series DEATH NOTE. The writer’s current series BAKUMAN。is serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan.
Takeshi Obata was born in 1969 in Niigata, Japan, and is the artist of the wildly popular SHONEN JUMP title HIKARU NO GO, which won the 2003 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize: Shinsei “New Hope” award and the 2000 Shogakukan Manga award. Obata is also the artist of Arabian Majin Bokentan Lamp Lamp, Ayatsuri Sakon, Cyborg Jichan G, and the smash hit manga DEATH NOTE.
For more information on this title, and other Shonen Jump titles, please visit http://shonenjump.viz.com.
