Light Reading

We’re back! We’ll be catching up on news over the next few days, but in the meantime, the Release Schedule should be up-to-date and we’ve added some new links to the sidebar. Translator (Ai no Kusabi, Yashakiden) Eugene Woodbury’s site, the official Haruhi Suzumiya website, and the Haikasoru site.

Here’s a bit of news:
The other Miyuki Miyabe novel aimed at younger readers that Haikasoru will be releasing appears to be The Book of Heroes. Here’s the Amazon blurb, with some typo correction by me:

When her brother Hiroki disappears after a violent altercation with school bullies, the young Yukiro finds a magical book in his room. The book leads her to another world where she learns that Hiroki has been possessed by a spirit from the Book of Heroes. She visits the magical Nameless Land, where she is told how to save her brother, and is sent back to Earth with a young monk named Sora and the magical book, now a mouse named Azu. Yuri has to piece together the mystery of Horiko, and has a library of powerful magic books at her disposal to do so!

Dark Horse also has a Blade of the Immortal novel due out in November according to Amazon (Dark Horse’s catalog says 2010 though, so we’ll split the difference as English language light novel release dates always seem to get pushed back and estimate sometime in December). During the time this site was on hiatus Digital Panic announced the license of Yashakiden by Hideyuki Kikuchi and the first volume will be released on December 16! You can read a preview here. I will forever be grateful that for whatever reason Kikuchi sells well.

Of course, we can’t have new releases without old ones going missing. No sign of Soryuden Book One, The Case of the Dragon Slayer, or Zaregoto 2. The Amazon listings are gone but the old ones in the store now say 2010 and 2011 which don’t leave me particularly hopeful. Still no announcement about the Kara no Kyoukai novels and the Kyo Kara Maoh! novels still have no scheduled release date. On the other hand, Faust 2 is finally coming out this month and shockingly, Trinity Blood: Rage Against the Moons Volume 4 is still scheduled for July and Trinity Blood: Reborn on the Mars Volume 3 has been rescheduled for November and is on sale. Also, Seven Seas has stated that their light novel division is dead (R.I.P. Boogiepop, Pita-Ten, Strawberry Panic, Ballad of a Shinigami and all the series that didn’t even manage to get a single volume out) except for Wicked City, the first volume of which finally has a release date (or two – Amazon says September, Seven Seas says October) again. However, their children’s novel series The Princess & The Pirate seems to be back on track with the first two volumes, The Timelight Stone and The Red Crystal being released together at the end of December.

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya (preview here) is available for pre-order as are Spice and Wolf 1 and Kieli 1. So go and support Little, Brown and Yen Press! Of course, the Haikasoru releases are coming out soon, so support them as well!

The site’s going on hiatus for a bit since I’m going to be out of the country. Thanks for your patience.

ANN reports that British publisher Alma Books have licensed and will be releasing Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) in April 2009. The first seven chapters are available in pdf format on the publisher’s website. Visitors to this site may be most familiar with the anime film version of Paprika, directed by Satoshi Kon, which had a limited theatre release.

Alma Books have previously released Yasutaka Tsutsui’s short story collection, Salmonella Men on Planet Porno, and his novel, Hell. At the moment, no American releases seem forthcoming.

This is not the first time Britain has acquired a license before the U.S. Train Man was also released in Britain under Robinson Publishing, a year prior to its American release by Del Rey Books. Of course, there’s no guarantee that there will ever be an American release of Paprika, so if you want to read it, you might just want to place an international order. On the other hand, both Paprika and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time strike me as titles that would fit the Haikasoru line-up quite nicely. Food for thought!

AnimeVice got an exclusive interview with Nick Mamatas, editor of the Haikasoru line.

I recommend that everyone go over there and check it out, but I’ll pull out a couple of relevant bits of news.

They will be re-releasing Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe (last year’s Batchelder Award winner) in paperback under the Haikasoru line and will also be releasing another yet-to-be-announced Miyuki Miyabe novel geared at younger readers. She has several other novels out in English translation, mainly mysteries. I read the Devil’s Whisper last year, which was a fun, quick read, but Brave Story was a lot more substantial.

The novels are full text with no illustrations, will be shelved in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section, and yes, there will be twelve releases per year.

Go read the article to find out more!

I’m also going to take just a moment to make a personal request for these novels:

Ginga Densetsu no Eiyuu aka Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Seikai no Senki (I wouldn’t mind an unabridged release of Seikai no Monshou either) aka Banner of the Stars

They’re sci-fi, they’re novels but not “light,” and they’re classics.

And since you have Housuke Nojiri in the line up already, I’d love to read the Rocket Girl series in English. Just sayin’.

Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe won it last year, and this year another children’s novel translated from Japanese is the proud recipient of the:

Mildred L. Batchelder Award for the most outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States. “Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit,” originally published in Japanese, written by Nahoko Uehashi and translated by Cathy Hirano, is the winner of the 2009 Mildred L. Batchelder Award. The book is published by Arthur A. Levine, an imprint of Scholastic. (Source: Globe Newswire Press Release)

The ALA press release is here and ANN reports on it here. Editor Cheryl Klein comments on Moribito winning the award here.

It’s great to see that it’s getting the recognition it deserves. I hope that means more sales and that more people will pick it up and give it a shot. The anime’s been having a hard time with its broadcast having been halted on Adult Swim again, so show your support and pick up the DVDs or the novel (preferably both as they are both excellent in different ways).

The second novel, Moribito: Guardian of the Darkness has a release date of May 1, 2009.

As a follow up on Haikasoru, ANN confirms that their first four titles are indeed the ones we reported earlier: Zoo, Usurper of the Sun, The Lord of the Sands of Time, and All You Need is Kill. Here, have a more comprehensive press release via Newsarama. Haikasoru is scheduled to release a total of twelve novels a year. I’m looking forward to announcements for the next eight.

In other news, there seem to be quite a few release delays. Zaregoto 2’s release date was pushed back from this December to next July. The Case of the Dragonslayer was pushed back from February to July. Soryuden 1 was also pushed back from April to July. July 28, 2009. Remember that date. Lots of good stuff coming out together now (barring any more delays). Faust 2’s release date is only pushed back two months from April to June 2009. A Wind Named Amnesia’s original release date of June was pushed back to November, and now it seems to be MIA since I can’t find a new, accurate release date. Code Geass Stage 1 which was supposed to be released at the end of December is still up for pre-order on Amazon.

I wonder how Del Rey’s novels are selling? It’s good they’re still coming out, albeit delayed, but it’s a bit worrisome. Of course, it might just make more sense for them to release them all at once, or there may be production delays. I don’t presume to know anything and I don’t want to jump to conclusions either in this terrible economy. Really, the only thing we can do is support the publishers and pre-order the books.

As for Bandai, I’m not overly worried at the moment about Code Geass since Amazon is now soliciting the fourth novel in the series.

I’ve also updated the release schedule.

An entry for All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka with a release date is July 21, 2009 has appeared on Amazon.com. Viz is listed as the publisher, but it seems to be science fiction so I have a sneaking suspicion it might actually be coming out through Haikasoru. As far as I can tell, it’s a novel (and a 2004 Seiun award nominee) and not a manga (but I’ll verify that assumption and update this post). Yoshitoshi ABe is listed on various internet sources as the artist of the cover illustration.

EDIT: According to poster Rusty on the AnimeonDVD forums:

Haikasoru is a new imprint from Viz. They are starting out with four novels/collections:

All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka- July 2009
The Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa – July 2009
Usurper of the Sun by Housuke Nojiri – September 2009
Zoo by Otsuichi – September 2009

Viz is also putting out three other novels that are not in that line:

Missin’ and Missin’ 2 box set by Novala Takemoto – August 2009
The Stationmaster by Jiro Asada – April 2009

The Stationmaster is a hardcover and looks pretty interesting.

Translator Andrew Cunningham also points out that the author of All You Need is Kill is also the author of Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou, a light novel series being adapted into an anime.

Usurper of the Sun’s author, Housuke Nojiri, wrote the Rocket Girl light novels (illustrated by Mucchiri Muni), which were adapted into an anime series.

Novala Takemoto, author of Missin’ 1 and 2 is probably most famous for Kamikaze Girls, also available from Viz, and adapted into a live-action film.

Here are the book blurbs from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, & Simon & Schuster:

All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

There’s one thing worse than dying. It’s coming back to do it again and again…When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War. Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?

Usurper of the Sun by Housuke Nojiri

The mysterious Builders have brought humanity to the edge of extinction; can they be reasoned with, or must they be destroyed?Aki Shiraishi is a high school student working in the astronomy club and one of the few witnesses to an amazing event—someone is building a tower on the planet Mercury. Soon, the Builders have constructed a ring around the sun, threatening the ecology of Earth with an immense shadow. Aki is inspired to pursue a career in science, and the truth. She must determine the purpose of the ring and the plans of its creators, as the survival of both species—humanity and the alien Builders—hangs in the balance.

The Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa

Sixty-two years after human life on Earth was annihilated by rampaging alien invaders, the enigmatic Messenger O is sent back in time with a mission to unite humanity of past eras—during the Second World War and ancient Japan, and even back to the dawn of the species itself—to defeat the invasion before it begins. However, in a future shredded by war and genocide, love waits for O. Will O save humanity only to doom himself?

Station Master by Jiro Asada

To face the future, sometimes you need a little help from the past…An aging railway man facing the closure of his station and the sorrows of his past meets a mysterious young girl who brings an unexpected warmth to the old man’s cold and empty days. A man who has seen the rough side of life finds comfort in the memory of a wife he never knew. A husband and wife struggle to recapture the love they once shared by visiting the movie theater where they met as children. And more…In these eight short stories by award-winning author Jiro Asada, flawed characters haunted by loss find love, reconciliation and redemption in the most unexpected places.

Missin’ Box Set by Novala Takemoto

How far can you go to get what you want before you lose your mind? Enter best-selling author Novala Takemoto’s world, where music and the lost art of maidenly virtues walk hand-in-hand with madness. His characters stress, obsess, and sometimes get what they want…but often the life they thought they wanted is not always what they expected!

Zoo by Otsuichi

In the human zoo, it’s hard to tell who has the keys to the cage.

Ten stories of horror and science fiction from Japan’s hottest young author.

(Many thanks to Rusty for providing the catalog blurb! I’ve edited out most of the description, though, because apparently it gives away the ending to one of the short stories. So, yeah, buy the book but don’t read the copy.)

Well, speaking as a fan of SF their selection does sound very nice so far. Their non-SF titles also sound interesting. They are, however, definitely taking a step away from “light” novels and focusing on more literary works. I think that’s probably worked fairly well with them in the past with releases like Brave Story and Battle Royale. So while, yes, as an anime and manga fan, I would love to see more Shakugan no Shana, in this economic climate I understand their desire to focus on more mainstream-accessible titles. As a reader, as long as they continue releasing good literature, I can’t really complain. Besides, a decent percentage of these authors write light novels, so if sales are good, it’s possible that their other works will make it into English as well (Me? I’d like to read the Rocket Girl series.).

If any of you pick up any of these titles, please feel free to share your thoughts in the forums. I’d also love to hear any comments you’d like to make about these new titles in the comment section of this post.

A little browsing on Amazon came up with this entry for the short story anthology Zoo by Otsuichi under the publisher “Haikasoru” with a retail date of September 2009. The live action movie
based on this short story collection has already been released by Tokyo Shock.

English editions of Otsuichi’s Goth and Calling You are available from Tokyopop. He also has a short story in the first Faust anthology published by Del Rey.

ICv2 interviews Kurt Hassler, where Kurt confirms that Yen folding into Orbit is an “internal organizational change” which should not affect the public. Yen Press will not be sporting the Orbit logo and everything will pretty much continue on as normal.

PW has an article up about Goth, the light novel and manga title by Otsuichi (Calling You). The article mentions some interesting tidbits including a mention of the “officially unconfirmed” live-action movie (written by JT Petty) in the works.

The novel will have a first print run of 20,000, or 5,000 more than the manga and will be featured on Halloween display tables at Borders and Barnes and Noble.

For this title, Tokyopop also plans to use some viral marketing techniques in their online forums. Tokyopop has already started leaking clues into their forums to begin an alternate reality game.

Otsuichi’s other novel released through Tokyopop, Calling You, was quoted as being “not a best seller.” There was also a brief mention of his short story in Del Rey’s Faust.

Unsurprisingly, 12 Kingdoms is confirmed as Tokyopop’s top-selling light novel title.