VIZ Previews New Online Manga Magazine: Shonen Sunday

After ending Shojo Beat, VIZ is showing strong signs that they haven't given up on magazines -- they're just opting to move their publishing online. Now that their first online manga magazine, VIZ Signature - IKKI has debuted at sigikki.com, they've recently announced that they'll be adding another to their line-up: Shonen Sunday.

Shonen Sunday is a weekly Japanese manga magazine for teen boys from Shogakukan that has brought fans hits like Inu-Yasha, Kekkaishi, Yakitate!! Japan and the currently serialized Rin-Ne. The print edition of Shonen Sunday recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and is heading into Year 51 with a new venture that will offer readers simultaneous publication of manga straight from Japan. The U.S. online version of Shonen Sunday will be launched just in time for San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2009. You can get a peek at the site and bookmark it for debut day at www.shonensunday.com.

New Shonen Sunday manga series will be announced at VIZ Media's Anime and Manga Panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 24 at 3:00 - 4:30 pm in Room 32AB. However, one sharp-eyed reader noted that some of the titles that will be featured online have already been announced in the copyrights on the bottom of the preview website's title page. The titles include: (in Japanese -- the official US titles and release dates haven't been announced yet)

• Aratakangatari by Yuu Watase (creator of Fushigi Yugi)
• Maoh Juvenile Remix by Kotaro Isaka and Megumi Osuga
• Juhou Kaikin!! Hyde and Closer by Haro Aso

These three titles will be joined by two that are already published by VIZ:

• Kekkaishi by Yellow Tanabe
• Kyoukai no Rinne (Rin-Ne) by Rumiko Takahashi

But that's not all. The Shonen Sunday website will also feature "exclusive content such as previews, trailers, news, and interviews," and it's all for free. So it's well worth your while to mark your calendar for July 22 when this new web magazine unveils its offerings to manga readers in North America.

The official press release also mentioned that several current VIZ Media titles will be re-branded as Shonen Sunday titles. They are:

• Inu-Yasha by Rumiko Takahashi
• Case Closed by Gosho Aoyama
• Yakitate!! Japan by Takashi Hashiguchi
• Hayate the Combat Butler by Kenjiro Hata
• Kekkaishi by Yellow Tanabe

The release date for the first volume of Rin-Ne was also announced in this newsblast. Look for this Older Teen-rated title to hit the shelves in October 20, 2000.

It's pretty exciting to see that Rin-Ne was just first of many efforts from VIZ to bring current manga to American fans with less of the traditional months/years of lag time between the Japanese and English editions. So what's next? Can we dare hope for a new online shojo manga magazine to replace Shojo Beat? We'll just have to wait and find out!

Image credit: KYOUKAI NO RINNE © 2009 Rumiko TAKAHASHI/Shogakukan