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Gempak Starz Publishes English Version of 'your name.' Manga
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Malaysian publisher Gempak Starz announced on Friday that it will release an English version of Ranmaru Kotone's manga adaptation of Makoto Shinkai's your name. anime film this month.
The company has already licensed and released the manga in Malaysian with the title Namamu in December. Gempak Starz also released Shinkai's novel at the same time.
Gempak Starz describes the manga in English:
An encounter between two who have never met. your name. More than a thousand years ago, a comet appeared in the skies of Japan. In the present day, only a month remains until its return. Mitsuha is a high school student who lives in a rural town deep in the mountains. Her daily life is depressingly boring because of her father, the town mayor, as well as the age-old traditions of her family"s shrine. Her small-town existence and her adolescent hypersensitivity to the opinions of others make her yearn for the big city. One day, she dreams that she has turned into a boy. In her dream, she sees a home she has not seen before, friends she does not know, and the huge city of Tokyo right before her eyes. Although confused, Mitsuha still enjoys the big-city life that she has always wanted. "What a weird dream…" Meanwhile, Taki – a Tokyo high school student – has a dream where he lives as a high school girl, in a town deep in the mountains that he has never been to before. What is the truth behind their dreams? This is an encounter between two who have never met before. Thus begins the miraculous story of one boy and one girl.
Kotone launched the your name. manga in Monthly Comic Alive last May, and ended it last month. The first volume shipped last August, three days before Makoto Shinkai's your name. film opened in Japan. Kadokawa shipped the second volume in December.
North American publisher Yen Press announced that it will release a separate English version of the manga and the novel in that territory.
Purple Plan opened the film in Malaysia in December, and it ranked #6 in the Malaysian box office in its first weekend. The film is the highest-earning anime film of all time worldwide, and the second highest-earning within Japan after Spirited Away.
