News

Elex Media Licenses All You Need Is Kill, Imawa no Michi no Alice Manga

Indonesian publisher Elex Media Komputindo revealed on Wednesday that it has licensed Takeshi Obata's All You Need Is Kill, Haro Aso and Takayoshi Kuroda's Imawa no Michi no Alice (Alice on Border Road), and Naoko Takeuchi's Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Short Stories manga. The company will begin releasing all three manga on April 29.

Obata's All You Need Is Kill manga adapts the 2004 novel of the same name by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (Modern Magic Made Simple). Ryōsuke Takeuchi (ST&RS) drafted the story adaptation, and Obata based the manga's character designs on the original novel illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe (Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze).

The novel and manga both center on Keiji, one of millions of soldiers in humanity's war against an alien race called the Mimics. Like many others, he is protected by a high-tech power armored exoskeleton and advanced weaponry, but in his first Mimic encounter he dies. He wakes up, to find himself returned to the day before he dies. He quickly discovers he has unwittingly gained the power to turn back time, which he uses in a time loop to die and live again, getting better at surviving with each successive loop.

Obata (Hikaru no Go, Death Note) launched the manga in Shueisha's Young Jump magazine in 2014, and ended it in the same year. Shueisha published two compiled book volumes for the manga.

The 2004 novel also inspired a live-action Hollywood film adaptation in 2014 titled Edge of Tomorrow, which stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.

Aso and Kuroda's Imawa no Michi no Alice manga is a spinoff of Aso's Alice in Borderland (Imawa no Kuni no Alice) manga. The story follows "another Alice," a female high school student named Arisu Kojima ("Arisu" in Japanese is pronounced simialr to "Alice") who hates her everyday life. When by chance she loses her way on the "Border Road," she is forced to participate in deadly survival games with other female high school students.

Aso and Kuroda launched the manga in Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday GX magazine in August 2015. Shogakukan published the manga's fourth compiled book volume on January 19.

Aso launched the original Alice in Borderland manga in Weekly Shonen Sunday S (formerly Shōnen Sunday Chō) in 2010, before transferring the series to Weekly Shonen Sunday as it entered its final story arc in March 2015. Aso ended the manga in March 2016. Shogakukan published the manga's 18th and final compiled book volume last April. Elex Media is publishing the manga, and it published the 17th volume in December.

A separate spinoff series titled Alice in Borderland: Chi no Kyokuchi - Daiya no King-hen ran from October 2014 to February 2015 in Weekly Shonen Sunday.

Takeuchi's Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Short Stories manga collects 10 short manga stories that Takeuchi drew for the manga. The first volume contains seven short stories, including three in a series titled "Chibiusa's Picture Diairies," and four other stories titled "The Melancholy of Mako-chan," "Ami-chan's First Love," "Rei's and Minako's Girls School Battle?" and "The Secret Hammer Price Hall." The second volume contains three short stories titled "The Lover of Princess Kaguya," "Casablanca Memory," and "Parallel Sailor Moon."

The two volumes were released in 2004 to coincide with the Sailor Moon manga's 2003 reprint.

Elex Media published the original Sailor Moon manga from 1993 to 1998, and it has been publishing the the 2003 reprints of Sailor Moon in Indonesia since 2014. Elex Media released the 11th and final volume of the manga in November. Elex Media also published the related Codename: Sailor V manga in 1997, and is publishing the two-volume 2003 reprint of Codename: Sailor V. The company released the first volume on January 4.

Indonesian channel Indosiar aired the anime from 1995 to 2000.