Three years ago, Aurora Publishing made its debut in the U.S. at Anime Expo 2007. This U.S. subsidiary of Japanese publisher Ohzora Shuppan published an eclectic array of yaoi, josei and shojo manga via its Aurora, Deux Press and LuvLuv imprints, including Future Lovers by Saika Kunieda and Walkin' Butterfly by Chihiro Tamaki. After a promising start and a few rocky years Aurora looked like it had closed up shop by early 2010.
Then this bit of news came through the wire (via Anime News Network): former Aurora/Deux/LuvLuv staffers have split off from their Japanese parent company to launch a new publishing venture, Manga Factory. As Aurora did three years ago, Manga Factory will kick off their efforts at Anime Expo 2010, at Booth 1022 in the exhibit hall. Besides introducing their new venture, the Manga Factory staff will be selling remaining stock of Aurora, Deux and LuvLuv titles at discounted prices, both at AX and online, "for a limited time."
As the first issue of the Manga Factory newsletter describes this new company:
No longer a Japanese subsidiary, we're now an all-American manga publishing company owned & operated by the same people who brought you all of your favorite Deux, Aurora & Luv Luv books. We're dedicated to bringing you the best in printed manga (you can also still buy Deux, Aurora, & Luv Luv books from us for a limited time) with an additional focus on digital books such as those for Kindle® & iPad®.
Manga Factory's first digital manga release is the first volume of Teen Apocalypse:Guilstein by Naoyuki Sakai and Hisao Tamaki. The Kindle edition is available now at Amazon.com for $4.99 with an iPad edition promised to follow. While it has not been released in print in the U.S., Guilstein was previously released as a 4-installment iPhone comic by UClick in 2008, so this isn't exactly a new release.
Here's the plot summary for this teen horror/sci-fi series:
At first it seems random, but as teens in the area are mutating into berserk monsters, it becomes clear that they all have one thing in common-- they are all exactly 15 years old.
While scientists struggle to uncover what happened 15 years ago to cause this, police and military forces seek to keep teenagers confined, and vigilante gangs are trying to kill them all, calling them "monster larva". The monsters that they become are called GUILSTEIN.
But when a boy named Iori Takigawa mutates into a Guilstein, he struggles to keep hold of his sanity and, if he's strong enough, he might hold the key to saving everyone.
It's as yet unclear whether Manga Factory will be publishing the remaining volumes of Aurora and Deux Press series that remain unfinished, like Walkin' Butterfly, The Manzai Comics and Kirepapa, or what other new titles they have planned for release in the coming year. In any case, this is looking to be an interesting second act for a story that many manga fans had thought had already ended. More on this to come!
Image credit: © Manga Factory, © Naoyuki Sakai, Hisao Tamaki / ACC Pro 2002
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