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Gempak Starz Licenses Bungo Stray Dogs Manga

Malaysian publisher Gempak Starz announced on Sunday that it has licensed Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa's Bungō Stray Dogs manga and will release it under the title Ejen Luar Biasa. The company will release the first volume of the manga in Malaysian in July, and the first volume in English in August.

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, some of these writers solve mysteries as part of the "Armed Detective Agency," while others appear as antagonists.

The series mainly features Japanese authors such as Rampo Edogawa, Kenji Miyazawa, Osamu Dazai, Atsushi Nakajima, Doppo Kunikida, and Akiko Yoshino. The manga 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.

Writer Asagiri and artist Harukawa began the manga in Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine in 2012. Kadokawa shipped the 12th compiled volume of the manga on April 4. The pair also write and illustrate the Bungō Stray Dogs novel series. Kadokawa published the fifth novel last October.

The series inspired a television anime in April 2016, and a second season last October. Aniplus-Asia aired a simulcast of both seasons.

The manga is also inspiring an upcoming film project, and an OVA that will ship with the 13th volume in Japan on August 4. The manga has also inspired a stage play and a smartphone game.