TokyoPop Pumps 5 New Summer Manga, More Princess Ai

As one of the major sponsors of Sakura-Con, manga publisher TokyoPop has panels a-plenty scheduled this weekend, but most of their new manga announcements and promos came from Friday's industry panel. Senior Editor Lillian Diaz-Przybyl presented several notable manga debuts for Spring /Summer 2008, and more waves of hype and glory for some of their bestselling licensed and homegrown properties, Fruits Basket, Sgt. Frog, Bizenghast and Princess Ai.

First, the five featured new series:

• Hellgate London by Nelson Arvid and Jeong Mo Yang - April 8, 2008 A new 3-volume series that's a prequel to the video game from EA Games. Hellgate London is written by Nelson Arvid and illustrated by Jeong Mo Yang, a recent Rising Stars of Manga winner.
• Vassalord by Nanae Chrono - July 2008 "Oh my god, I'm so excited about this one," gushed Diaz-Pryzbyl. Vassalord is a new series from the creator of Peacemaker and Peacemaker Kurogane. "We got to see what she does with hot doomed samurai, and now we get to see what she does with vampires and cyborgs."
• Silver Diamond by Shiho Sugiura- July 2008 Silver Diamond is a new series from an artist who's better known for her classic boys love manga. While it'll be released on the regular TokyoPop banner instead of TokyoPop's yaoi manga imprint, Blu, Silver Diamond sounds like it has lots of bishonen eye candy too. To paraphrase Diaz-Pryzbyl, this series about a boy with a green thumb who lives a peaceful life, until a handsome boy in googles lands in his backyard. Soon enough, more hot men from other dimensions appear. "Really goofy humor and great action sequences" are in store for readers in July when this series debuts.
• Jyu-Oh-Sei by Natsumi Itsuki - August 2008 A classic shojo-style science fiction adventure set in a prison colony on a distant planet. Thor is a young boy who's sent there after the death of his parents, and he's thrown into an arcane society where the goal is to become Jyu-Oh-Sei, or the king of the beasts. Why? Because anyone who lives long enough to reach this rank is released.
  Originally published in Lala from 1998 - 2003, Jyu-Oh-Sei is a work that might look a little retro, warned Diaz-Pryzbyl, but "(Itsuki-sensei)'s such a fantastic writer, that almost doesn't matter." She also added, "It's interesting to see a work by a mature talent; the way the characters are developed, and the variety of characters -- it's really impressive." Jyu-Oh-Sei was originally released as 5 volumes, then later as a 3-volume prestige edition in Japan. For the U.S. release, TokyoPop is going to follow the 3-volume format to give readers a whopping 200 pages per volume.
• Daemonium by Kosen - July 2008 A new manga about "demons and star-crossed lovers," Daemonium is from Kosen, the artist team who has previously done Saihoshi the Guardian and Stallion for Yaoi Press. This contemporary gothic horror tale has "really stunning art," promises Diaz-Pryzbyl.

If you thought that this assortment was bishonen-heavy, there's much more to come. Look for the Bishonen Explosion calendar to be available as a gift with purchase in the coming months, featuring artwork from Loveless and Peacemaker.

In other news, Diaz-Pryzbyl also announced some new books and promos for the coming months featuring:

• Princess Ai - If it ain't a Princess Ai world yet, TokyoPop is going to keep. on. trying. until it is. Music videos, stationery, t-shirts and more, more more Princess Ai comics, including:
• Princess Ai Encounters - Following the recent anthology, Princess Ai: Rumors From The Other Side, we'll next see another one, with a twist: Princess Ai Encounters will have Ai meeting characters as created by other TokyoPop manga creators. Described as an "anthology mash-up," Encounters will be kind of like "licensed doujinshi."
• Princess Ai comic strip collection - July '08 brings a collected volume of the syndicated comic strips that ran in newspapers nationwide a year or so back. This full-color collection is for all-ages.
• New Princess Ai Trilogy - A new story drawn by the original artist of the first series, Misaho Kujiradou, due out in stores in November / December '08. While it brings back characters from the first go-round, there's one significant difference: Kujiradou has "revolutionized her art style, and taken it a level up." The story takes place a year after the first series and starts off in Ai-Land, but things get all shook up as "a very scary enemy" shows up.


• Fruits Basket - With each volume selling more and more with each release, Fruits Basket is clearly one of TokyoPop's most popular titles. To ride that wave of popularity, TokyoPop will be releasing several new Fruits Basket-related projects:
• Fruits Basket Planner - an 18 month calendar / personal planner that will be exclusively offered at Barnes and Noble this summer, then released to other booksellers / shops in October.
• Fruits Basket Sticker Book - due out in Summer '08, this cute sticker book will include cell phone stickers and temporary tattoos too.
• Bizenghast - Tentatively planned for a 6-volume run, Bizenghast Volume 5 is due in June '08, as well as a new novelization of the first volume coming soon. "Marty will be doing the illustrations, and we're looking for an author," reported Diaz-Pryzbyl.
• Sgt. Frog - While we wait eagerly for the Sgt. Frog anime to be released, eventually, TokyoPop is ready to serve up more frog fun through their website, Tokyopop.com and at comic conventions this summer. Check out the Keroro Island online game, and get ready for the debut of a huge Sgt. Frog at major cons and a chance to spin the Sgt. Frog prize wheel.

If you missed out on the TokyoPop fun at SakuraCon, you can still check them out at New York Comic Con in April, Anime Expo and San Diego Comic-Con International in July and New York Anime Festival in September.

Also, for more info, check out Gia's live-blogged post from Friday's TokyoPop panel too.

Image credit: © Arvid Nelson and Jeong Mo Yang / TokyoPop