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EXCLUSIVE: Kodansha USA Licenses The Yakuza's Bias, Lovely Muco!, Iruma-kun, More Titles

Kodansha USA Publishing announced during its panel at Anime Expo on Friday that it has licensed The Yakuza's Bias, Lovely Muco!, Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose - Catastrophe at 16, Prophecy, I (♂) Crossed-Dressed for the IRL (♀) Meetup, Tsugumi Project, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun manga.

Kodansha USA Publishing also licensed the Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement light novel, previously licensed by Sol Press. The company also licensed Honojiro Towoji's illustrated version of Kyōka Izumi's classic The Surgery Room novel.

The company will also begin releasing Ran Kuze's Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms, Jyanome's Twilight Out of Focus, Megumi Morino's A Condition Called Love, Hiiro Akikaze's The Great Cleric, Sai Sumimori's Am I Actually the Strongest?, and Masamichi Sato's Quality Assurance in Another World manga in print. The company was already previously releasing these manga digitally.

All the above releases are planned to debut in spring 2023.

Kodansha USA Publishing describes Teki Yatsuda's The Yakuza's Bias (Yakuza no Oshigoto):

A yakuza enforcer becomes the gang world's biggest K-pop stan in this cult comedy manga that went from webcomic to sleeper hit in Japan!

Yatsuda launched the manga on pixiv's digital manga service comic POOL in June 2021. Ichijinsha published the manga's first compiled book volume in November 2021.

Kodansha USA Publishing describes Takayuki Mizushina's Lovely Muco! (Itoshi no Muco):

Lovely Muco is a story that depicts the lovely everyday life of Komatsu-san, a glassmith, and his pet dog Muco. Muco's wish is that Komatsu-san could become a Shiba breed dog!

Mizushina launched the manga in Kodansha's Evening magazine in 2011, and ended it in 2020. Kodansha published 17 volumes for the manga.

The manga inspired three seasons of the Lovely Movie: Itoshi no Muco anime shorts on Fuji TV. The first season ran for 21 episodes from July to December 2013, the second season ran for 22 episodes from April to October 2014, and the third season ran for 25 episodes from October 2015 to March 2016. Crunchyroll streamed the third season as it aired in Japan.

Kodansha USA Publishing describes Yo Asami's Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose - Catastrophe at 16:

A short while before the apocalypse, 15-year-old Guren Ichinose enrolls at Daiichi Shibuya High, a magical training school.

Witness his trials as he must hide his true strength even as he is trampled on at a school for the insufferably privileged. Previously released light novels, now in manga format.

Asami launched a manga adaptation of Takaya Kagami's original Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen novel series in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine in June 2017, and ended it on February 4. Kodansha shipped the manga's 12th and final volume on the same day.

Vertical published Takaya Kagami's original novel series in English.

The spinoff novel series on which the manga is based ended with seven volumes in 2016, with illustrations by Yamato Yamamoto. Kagami launched a sequel novel series titled Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Resurrection at Nineteen (Owari no Seraph: Ichinose Guren, 19-sai no Resurrection) in 2017, this time with illustrations by Asami. Kodansha USA Publishing is also publishing that series in English.

Kagami, Yamamoto, and storyboard artist Daisuke Furuya launched the original Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign manga in Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine in 2012, and Shueisha published the manga's 25th compiled volume on October 4. Viz Media publishes the manga in North America digitally and in print, and the company published the 22nd compiled volume on October 5.

The manga inspired a 12-episode television anime series in April 2015. The 12-episode second season of the anime, Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya, premiered in October 2015. Funimation streamed both seasons as they aired in Japan, and released them on home video.

Kodansha USA Publishing describes FUNA's Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement:

One day, Mitsuha falls off a cliff and is transported to a medieval Europe–type world! After a near-death encounter with a pack of wolves, she then realizes that she's able to transport between two worlds—this one and her own. Taking advantage of this ability, Mitsuha decides to live in both worlds and calculates that she'll need 80,000 gold coins to be able to retire! Mitsuha now has to come up with different ways to collect her gold coins!

FUNA (Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!) launched the novel series on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in November 2015, and Kodansha published the first novel in print with illustrations by Tōzai in June 2017. The sixth volume shipped in July 2021.

Keisuke Motoe launched the manga adaptation in the "Suiyōbi no Sirius" web magazine on Niconico in June 2017. The ninth compiled volume shipped in December 2021.

Kodansha USA Publishing will release Tetsuya Tsutsui's Prophecy (Yokokuhan) manga in a new omnibus edition. The company describes the manga:

A newspaper-masked vigilante who broadcasts his acts of vengeance before committing them. A newly-formed police division tackling the new frontier of internet-based crime. As the Sun rises on the Era of Information, can a group of people who found themselves at the bottom of the food chain rattle society through the web and avenge a fallen friend?

Tsutsui launched the manga in Shueisha's Jump X magazine in 2011, and ended it in August 2013. Shueisha published three compiled book volumes for the manga. Vertical previously licensed the manga and published all three volumes. Fumio Obata launched a spinoff manga titled Yokokuhan: The Copycat in Jump X in April 2014, and ended it in 2015. The manga also received three volumes.

The manga inspired a live-action film adaptation that opened in Japan in June 2015.

Kodansha USA Publishing describes Kurano's I (♂) Crossed-Dressed for the IRL (♀) Meetup (Josō Shite Off Kai ni Sanka Shite Mita.) manga:

"Cocoa" has made three best friends in her online game, and she's excited to meet them in real life at a dessert café for the first time. The only problem: She's actually a man who's been lying to them. What begins as a tense manga about online life quickly turns into a lighthearted comedy about friendship, gender, and forgiving yourself and others.

Kurano launched the manga on pixiv Comic in December 2020. Kodansha published the manga's fourth compiled book volume on May 17.

Kodansha USA Publishing describes ippatu's Tsugumi Project:

In the far future, a soldier named Leon is taken from his family on a trumped-up charge and dropped into a suicide mission: Recover a dangerous weapon from a deadly place — a place ruled by huge, irradiated, mutated monsters —a place once known, 200 years ago, as Japan. He and his teammates aren't expected to survive this place. One of the scant pieces of information they have is the weapon's name: Tsugumi.

Japanese artist ippatu draws the manga, with French publisher Ki-oon releasing it as an original manga in France in 2019. Kodansha's Young Magazine began serializing the manga in Japan in January 2021. The fourth volume will ship in France on July 7.

Kodansha USA Publishing describes Kyōka Izumi's The Surgery Room (Gekashitsu) classic novel:

"But you couldn't have known!" A mysterious encounter in the surgery room leads back down the paths of memory, after a young woman refuses anesthetics to protect her secret... Kyoka Izumi's 1895 classic is a mysterious, wrenching tale of doomed love.

Honojiro Towoji and Rittorsha released the illustrated version of the novel in December 2018.

Kodansha USA Publishing describes Osamu Nishi's Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun (Mairimashita! Iruma-kun):

Iruma Suzuki has always been eager to please, even at the cost of his well-being. Worst yet, he's the son of two selfish parents who end up selling him to a demon. Thanks to their totally irresponsible actions, Iruma has found himself living in the Netherworld, where he must live and attend school as the grandson of an older demon. Luckily, his new, doting grandfather is there to help, but Iruma will have to figure out how to blend in with his demonic classmates or risk getting eaten. All he needs to do is subjugate rival classmates, summon familiars, and do other typical demon things while never revealing that he's human… Piece of cake, right?

Nishi launched the manga in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shonen Champion magazine in March 2017. Akita Shoten published the manga's 27th compiled book volume on June 8.

The first anime adaptation of the manga premiered in October 2019 on NHK Educational, and had 23 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan under the title Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun, and also streamed an English dub.

The second season premiered in April 2021. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired, and debuted an English dub in June 2021.

The anime will have a third season that will premiere in October on NHK Educational.

Source: Press release