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Gempak Starz Licenses A Silent Voice Manga, Napping Princess Novel
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Malaysian publisher Gempak Starz revealed on Monday and Wednesday that it has licensed Yoshitoki Ōima's A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi) manga and Kenji Kamiyama's Napping Princess (Hirune Hime) novel. Both are slated to begin releasing this year.
A Silent Voice centers on two protagonists: Shoya Ishida and Shoko Nishimiya. Shoko is a deaf transfer student who is bullied by her classmates, with Shoya leading the bullying. Eventually, when the class is forced to take responsibility for bullying Shoko, the class turns to bullying Shoya to shift the blame. Years later, both Shoko and Shoya reunite.
The manga began as a one-shot that Ōima published in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in 2011. She then turned it into a full story with the launch of a serialization in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2013. The series ended in November 2014. Kodansha published seven compiled book volumes for the manga.
Naoko Yamada and Kyoto Animation adapted the manga into an anime film that opened in September 2016. The film earned 2.3 billion yen in Japan, and was the 19th highest-grossing film released in Japan in 2016. Purple Plan screened the film in Singapore and Malaysia in March.
As with its previous manga release, Gempak Starz will release the Napping Princess novel with the title Puteri Mimpi. The company describes the novel:
Morikawa Kokone is an easy-going high school girl who has been having recurring dreams of late. In a bizarre turn of events, the police arrest her father and take him to Tokyo, three days before the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. To save him, Kokone enlists her friend Morio, and they travel from Okayama to Tokyo. As they travel, Kokone finds that events in her dreams are colliding with real life, and their real adventure begins! For her, it will be an adventure to discover her "unknown self."
Kadokawa published the novel based on the film in Japan on February 25. Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit, Eden of the East), the film's director and scriptwriter, also wrote the book. Gempak Starz also published the film's manga adaptation by Hana Ichika.
The film opened in Japan on March 18 in 232 theaters nationwide, and ranked #9 in the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. Purple Plan screened the film in Malaysia beginning on July 28.
