News

New Manga Publishing Company Denpa Launches, Licenses Kaiji, Inside Mari, More

Ed Chavez, former Vertical marketing director and most recently vice president of FAKKU, announced a new North American manga publishing company named Denpa at Otakon on Saturday. The company plans to release manga from a variety of genres beginning with the following titles:

• Nobuyuki Fukumoto's Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji
• Shūzō Oshimi's Inside Mari
• Hiroyuki Asada's PEZ
• panpanya's An Invitation from a Crab
• Asumiko Nakamura's Maiden Railways
• Range Murata's Futurelog

In addition, Shintaro Kago's Super Dimensional Love Gun and Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend will move over from FAKKU to Denpa. FAKKU founder Jacob Grady announced on Twitter that he is also a founder of Denpa.

The company will have its own digital platform. All of its releases will be available in print.

Denpa will release Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji (Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji) in six omnibus volumes with 500+ pages each beginning in the first quarter of 2019.

In the Kodansha Manga Award-winning story of the 1996-1999 manga, a consummate gambler named Kaiji bets on games ranging from janken (rock-paper-scissors) and human racing to falling pachinko balls and two-player mahjong. The manga has inspired multiple sequels and spinoffs, two television anime series, two Japanese live-action films, a Chinese live-action film, and a reality game show.

Denpa will begin releasing the nine-volume Inside Mari manga by Oshimi (Flowers of Evil) in print in the fourth quarter of 2018. The release will have a new translation and new lettering and design.

The 2012-2016 manga follows an "angel-like" beautiful high school girl with a certain secret she has been hiding from everyone, and an idle shut-in young man; the highlight of his day is seeing Mari at the convenience store. The story begins as Mari wakes up in her room, but something feels amiss about the room and even her own body.

Crunchyroll offers the manga on its online platform. The manga inspired a live-action series beginning in March 2017.

Denpa plans to release PEZ in one compiled volume in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The manga originally serialized in the full-color manga anthology robot (2004-2008), edited by Range Murata. The story is set in a desert world where humanity is on the verge of collapse, and follows a girl named Pez and Dekosuke, whose body has been modified with a life support system. Asada drew the manga before his Weekly Shonen Jump series Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, and it is set in the same universe.

The one-volume manga An Invitation from a Crab (Kani ni Sasowarete) shipped in 2014 in Japan. It is a collection of stories by panpanya, some of which were self-published and some of which were serialized in Hakusensha's Rakuen anthology.

Maiden Railways (Tetsudō Shōjo Manga) is a collection of stories that take place around trains.

The manga's compiled volume shipped in Japan in 2011 and ranked among Takarajimasha Inc.'s Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of top manga for female readers for 2012. Nakamura ended the sequel manga Kimiyōbi: Tetsudō Shōjo Manga in October.

Murata's artbook Futurelog shipped in Japan in February. Murata is known for his character designs for Last Exile, Blue Submarine No. 6, and Shngri-La.

Thanks to Rukiia and Morgan for the news tips.

Sources: Otabrew (Kyle Cardine), Denpa's Twitter account

Update: Denpa clarified with ANN that all of its releases will be available in print.