Anime Expo '08: Aurora Celebrates 1st Year of Manga Publishing

At Anime Expo '07, Aurora Publishing, the U.S. arm of Ohzora Shuppan entered the American manga market with a small sampling of josei, shojo and yaoi manga. A year later, Aurora has three imprints and a roster of over 30 manga series and one-shots, with more to come.

At Thursday night's Luv Luv panel and at Friday morning's Aurora / Deux Press panels, there wasn't much by way of new licensing announcements, but the ones they did unveil were intriguing:

Red Blinds The Foolish by est em from Deux Press
If you've been within talking distance of me within the last two weeks, you probably endured me chatting up Seduce Me After The Show by est em and practically shoving you toward a bookstore to buy a copy. So hearing about a second release from est em due for December '08 release was cause for celebration. The title doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense until you figure out that this story is about a Spanish matador (Get it? Red capes? Bullfighting? Oh, never mind.) We didn't get to hear much about the plot, but if it's anything like what I've seen from est em so far, I'm ready to buy my copy already.

Hitohira by Idumi Kirihara from Aurora Publishing
According to Mika Ogata, Aurora's general manager, Hitohira is about Mugi, a shy high school girl who gets pressured into joining the school drama club. With the help of her friends, Mugi learns to overcome her shyness and develops into a girl who can take the stage without completely freaking out. When I looked up more about this series, I discovered that it originally ran in Comic High!, a seinen manga magazine. Added to its thematic similarities, it reminded me a bit of Translucent by Kazuhiro Okamoto (Dark Horse). We'll see if this five-volume series has the same kind of endearing, slice-of-life appeal when Hitohira Volume 1 makes its debut in October '08.

Object of Desire by Tomoko Noguchi from Luv Luv
Set for a December '08 release, Object of Desire is a sexy josei manga about an attractive young woman who has lots of guys who desire her company, but they want her for only the most superficial reasons. It's not quite clear how she'll find true love -- but if it's like other Luv Luv titles, it'll be pretty steamy before it winds up at its sweet and happy ending. But what gave me hope was the cover artwork, which was pretty hip and sophisticated looking. I'll look forward to seeing this one hit the shelves at the end of the year to see if this one-shot lives up to the promise of its cover.

Check out a sampling of some of the other coming attractions from Aurora, Deux Press and Luv Luv in this new manga preview gallery.

Image credit: © Ohzora Publishing Co. Ltd. / Chihiro Tamaki