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Kodansha USA Launches Kodansha Print Club Program With Print Releases of Love, That's an Understatement, Teppu, Blade Girl Manga (Updated)
posted on by Alex Mateo
Update: Director of Publishing at Kodansha USA Ben Applegate clarified on Bluesky on Monday that titles in the Kodansha Print Club are print on demand and not limited editions.
The publisher is asking readers to tell the publisher which series they would like to see added to the Kodansha Print Club list via its suggestion feedback form.
Kodansha USA describes Fujimomo's Love, That's an Understatement (Hikaeme ni Ittemo, Kore wa Ai):
Spare eraser? Check. Extra folding umbrella? Check. First aid kit? Check. Cool and collected high school student Risa Amakawa has something in her heavy bag for every situation, and the last thing she needs—or knows how to ask for—is anyone's help. When she saves a beat-up delinquent in the park one rainy evening, she refuses any sort of repayment. But it turns out that saving the notorious Zen Ohira buys her the attention of some unsavory characters. As Zen keeps swooping in to help her out of one pickle after another, her feelings about relying on anyone but herself—and her feelings toward Zen—slowly begin to change… A new romcom from the author of Lovesick Ellie!
The manga debuted in Kodansha's Dessert magazine in July 2021. The fifth compiled book volume shipped in Japan on April 12.
Fujimomo launched the Lovesick Ellie (Koi Wazurai no Ellie) manga in Kodansha's Dessert magazine in July 2015, and ended the manga in May 2020.
Kodansha USA describes Moare Ohta's Teppu:
It's not easy being good at everything. First-year high school student Natsuo Ishido has always been a gifted athlete, and her ability to easily master every sport has not only bought her a life of boredom, but the resentment of everyone else who has had to work hard for their achievements. Not that Natsuo cares what anyone else thinks. All she longs for is a break from the monotony...for a real challenge worthy of pouring all her efforts into. A rival—an equal—worth beating down, crushing, and demoralizing… That all seems like a pipe dream until a pair of annoyingly peppy transfer students arrive from Brazil and start up a brand-new club that teases the challenge she craves—Mixed Martial Arts.
Ohta debuted Teppu in November 2008 in Kodansha's Good! Afternoon magazine, and ended it in July 2015. Kodansha published the eighth and final volume in October 2015.
Kodansha USA describes Narumi Shigematsu's Blade Girl (Blade Girl: Kataashi no Runner):
One year after losing her leg, 16-year-old Rin is tired—tired of the painful physical therapy, tired of being treated differently, and tired of her stupid, heavy, awkward prosthetic leg. All that changes when she encounters the Blade Runners, a group of one-legged athletes who run with “blades”—carbon fiber prosthetics specialized for competitive running—made by their gifted prosthetist, Kazami. The blades are light, flexible, and formidably difficult to control—Rin can barely walk with one, much less sprint. But as she tumbles to the ground again and again, she rediscovers many of the things that she'd forgotten, and finds a new goal: to compete in the Paralympics.
Shiegmatsu debuted the manga in September 2018 in Kodansha's Be Love magazine, and ended it in July 2019. Kodansha published the manga's third and final volume in September 2019.
Update: Added clarifying statements from Kodansha USA's Ben Applegate. Source: Ben Applegate's Bluesky account
Source: Press release
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