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Yen Press Licenses ERASED, Bungo Stray Dogs Manga (Update)

posted on by Karen Ressler
ERASED slated for spring 2017, Bungō Stray Dogs slated for December

Yen Press announced at the Kadokawa panel at Anime Expo on Monday that it has licensed Kei Sanbe's ERASED (Boku dake ga Inai Machi) and Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa's Bungō Stray Dogs manga.

Kadokawa's eBookstore BookWalker began adding Yen Press manga and light novels on July 1, and will plans to add more Yen Press titles from Kadokawa and Square Enix. Yen Press' Kurt Hassler mentioned at the panel that the company is aiming to make all its titles available digitally. He added, "We can't promise when we'll meet our goal of 100% digital availability, but we'll try."

The first volume of ERASED is slated for spring 2017. Yen Press will release the eight-volume series in two-in-one hardcover omnibus volumes similar to its release of the manga Emma.

The story follows Satoru, a struggling manga artist who has an ability that forces him back in time to prevent deaths. When his mother is killed, he is sent back in time to solve the mystery, but ends up back in elementary school just before the disappearance of his classmate Kayo.

Sanbe began the original manga in 2012 and ended the series this past March. The manga was nominated for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize 'Reader Award' in 2014 and last year's Manga Taisho Awards.

An anime adaptation of the manga titled ERASED in English premiered on January 7. Aniplex of America has licensed the series, and Crunchyroll, Daisuki, and Funimation all streamed the series as it aired. The manga also inspired a live-action film.

Yen Press will begin releasing Bungō Stray Dogs in December.

Writer Kafka Asagiri artist Sango Harukawa began the manga in Kadokawa's Young Ace in 2012. Kadokawa shipped the 10th compiled volume of the manga on June 2. The pair also writes and illustrates the Bungō Stray Dogs novel series. Kadokawa published the third novel in May 2015.

The "battle action" story Bungō Stray Dogs centers around a league of literary figures with supernatural powers. For example, in real life, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa wrote acclaimed stories that inspired Akira Kurosawa's Rashōmon film and the Aoi Bungaku Series anime's Jigoku Hen (Hell Screen) arc. In Bungō Stray Dogs, he has the power to transform and manipulate his cloak into a monster-like entity. Together, these writers solve mysteries as part of the "Armed Detective Agency."

The series mainly features Japanese authors such as Rampo Edogawa, Kenji Miyazawa, Osamu Dazai (pictured top in key art above), Atsushi Nakajima (pictured bottom in key art above), Doppo Kunikida, and Akiko Yoshino. It has also featured contemporary Japanese authors such as Yukito Ayatsuji (Another novel/manga/anime/live-action film, Tsukidate no Satsujin) and Natsuhiko Kyōgoku (Requiem from the Darkness, Mōryō no Hako, Tōfu Kozō, Loups-Garous), as well as overseas authors such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Agatha Christie, and Dan Brown.

The series inspired an anime, which premiered in April. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan.

Japanese bookstore employees ranked the manga among the top 15 for 2014.

Thanks to Deb Aoki.

Update: Information on digital releases added. Yen Press will release ERASED in two-in-one omnibus volumes, not two omnibus volumes.


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