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Digital Manga Publishing Licenses Itazura Na Kiss
posted on by Egan Loo
North America's Digital Manga Publishing has announced that it has acquired Itazura na Kiss, the classic unfinished shōjo manga from Kaoru Tada (Ai Shite Knight). In the romantic comedy, a high school girl named Kotoko finally tells a fellow senior named Naoki that she has loved him from afar since she saw him on their first day of high school. However, Naoki, a haughty "super-ikemen" (handsome male) with smarts and sports talent, rejects her offhand. Fate intervenes when a mild earthquake ruins Kotoko's family house. While the house gets rebuilt, Kotoko and her dad stay at the home of her dad's childhood friend...whose son is Naoki.
The story follows Naoki and Kotoko through high school and beyond, but it never ended because Tada lost her life in an accident in 1999. The popular manga has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, and Digital Manga Publishing will launch its English version this November. The story has been adapted into a television drama series in Japan (1996), two drama series in Taiwan under the name It Started with a Kiss (2005), a stage play, and last April's television anime series. The anime producers called the manga "the bible of romance" for its influence on later manga such as Marmalade Boy and Fruits Basket.
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