San Diego Comic-Con International 2009

Viz Ikki

Panelists: Misaki Kido, Kit Fox, Layla Aker, Mr. Sato, Hideki Egami

Viz held a second panel on Saturday morning in Room 3 to introduce their brand-new Sig Ikki service, branding the event “Ikki Train-A-Palooza”; all panel attendees were given promotional tissues and a postcard.

The panel began with an introduction of the new Sig Ikki service, an online destination for manga aimed at adults; based on reader feedback, these titles may eventually find their way into print publication. They plan on having nine titles available to read on the site by the end of this month.

The panel then introduced some slides featuring the Japanese editors of Ikki, including Hideki Egami, the editor-in-chief of the Japanese print edition of Ikki, who then joined the panel to a standing ovation. They then showed a video featuring Ikki titles and the promotional clip for Children of the Sea they debuted at Anime Expo, and mentioned the new Children of the Sea iGoogle comics theme.

Following that, an extended discussion and presentation began for the various Ikki series, beginning with Bokurano: Ours, the newest title on the Ikki website, which began online serialization on July 23rd. Next up was Dorohedoro, followed by Saturn Apartments, I'll Give It My All… Tomorrow, Kingyo Used Books, Afterschool Charisma, House of Five Leaves, and Tokyo Flowchart.

The panel concluded with a brief Q&A session.