North American manga publisher Seven Seas Entertainment have been teasing a number of new acquisitions over the past few weeks, but have formally announced a total of eight titles for release beginning in 2014. Some of these titles are from series I have covered before on this site including Strike Witches and Haganai, while there are also a few others.
The Short List
- I Am Alice: Body Swap in Wonderland
- Strike Witches: 1937 Fuso Sea Incident
- Strike Witches: The Sky That Connects Us
- Strike Witches: One-Winged Witches
- HAGANAI: I Don’t Have Many Friends – Now With 50% More Fail!
- HAGANAI: I Don’t Have Many Friends – Club Minutes
- Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer
- D-Frag!
The Long List
I Am Alice: Body Swap in Wonderland (Story & art by Ayumi Kanou)
From the creator of Dictatorial Grimoire comes an all-new gender-bender in Wonderland!
I Am Alice: Body Swap in Wonderland is a new manga trilogy that recasts the tale of Alice in Wonderland in a uniquely hilarious light: Alice switches bodies with a boy, and together, they must journey on a madcap quest through Wonderland.
Each volume of I Am Alice: Body Swap in Wonderland is illustrated in a delightful shoujo-style, and contains color insert.
When Makoto, an unsuspecting Japanese teen, pulls a copy of “Alice in Wonderland” off a library bookshelf, his world will never be the same—literally. Suddenly, he is transported into the magical world of Wonderland, and even more shockingly, he is now stuck in Alice’s body!
To make matters curiouser, the real Alice is stuck in Makoto’s body, and neither of them is happy about the situation. There’s only one way to reverse the body swap and return Makoto home, but it won’t be easy: They must journey together to Heart’s Castle and defeat the King of Hearts.
Volume 1 of I Am Alice: Body Swap in Wonderland will be released in September 2014.
Strike Witches: 1937 Fuso Sea Incident (Story by Humikane Shimada, art by Ningen)
Strike Witches is a highly popular dieselpunk franchise that spans manga, light novels, video games and anime. The series reimagines World War II as a confrontation between the allied human forces and an invading alien menace. Most of the battles featured are fictional recreations of actual World War II dogfights, but in this alternate history, teen girls with advanced weaponry and magic powers perform aerial combat against alien aircraft.
In addition to the ongoing Strike Witches manga series, the franchise has been adapted into light novels, as well as several TV anime which aired in Japan and are available in North America from FUNimation. In 2012, an animated feature film was released entitled “Strike Witches: The Movie.”
It has been nearly 20 years since the last Great War, and while smaller skirmishes are still taking place over the world, peace has been mostly achieved. In 1937, Fuso Empire, Sakamoto Mio is about to join in on the fierce battle against the Neuroi alien invaders. She’ll have to prove herself amongst all the other cadets if she’s to become a full-fledged Witch. Mio will soon have that chance, as a long, brutal war against the Neuroi awaits her and her fellow Witches.
Volume 1 of Strike Witches: 1937 Fuso Sea Incident will be released in August, 2014. Volume 2 will be released in October, 2014.
Strike Witches: The Sky That Connects Us (Story by Humikane Shimada, art by Shin Kyougoku)
The year is 1944, and the battle against the Neuroi has ended…for now. The 501st Joint Fighter Wing, “Strike Witches,” has accomplished its goal of protecting Britannia from the alien invaders, and riding their presence in the embattled Gallia. Now that the battle is over, they’ve been disbanded, and many of the Witches have decided to go their own ways.
From the war-stricken Gallia to the deserts of Africa, this story follows the girls of the 501st as they rebuild, relax and unwind from their trials of the previous war. Though, danger is always lurking in the night, as a mysterious Neuroi-human hybrid foretells of another impending invasion. Just who…or whatis this girl and can the Strike Witches overcome this adversary?
The complete release of Strike Witches: The Sky That Connects Us will be released in June, 2014.
Strike Witches: One-Winged Witches (Story by Humikane Shimada, art by Atsuto Shinozuka)
The Strike Witches of the 501st weren’t the first to take to the sky, nor would they be the last. One-Winged Witches covers the story of Wilma Bishop, taking place along the English Channel in 1942, and one year prior to the Second Neuroi War. As this tale unfolds, more will be revealed about key characters and essential details of the story that is told in Strike Witches: Maidens in the Sky and Strike Witches: The Sky That Connects Us—only from a unique character perspective not seen before.
Join Wilma Bishop, sergeant of the Isle of Wight Detachment Group and ace Strike Witch, as she shows new recruits what it’ll take to earn their flying stripes, and take down some nasty Neuroi in the process!
Volume 1 of Strike Witches: One-Winged Witches will be released in January, 2015.
HAGANAI: I Don’t Have Many Friends—Now with 50% More Fail! (Story by Chirowu Kazahana, art by Shirabi)
Based on the hugely popular franchise of the same name, Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends – Now With 50% More Fail! adds a collection of equally hilarious one-shot stories with each and every cast member. Spanning light novels, manga and anime, Haganai continues to be a fan-favorite and revel in its popularity.
Haganai has received two, 13-episode anime seasons in Japan, and a live-action movie in the works. FUNimation released the first season on home-video in the US earlier this year, and plans to release the second season in 2014.
HAGANAI: I Don’t Have Many Friends—Now with 50% More Fail! will be released in July, 2014.
HAGANAI: I Don’t Have Many Friends—Club Minutes (Story by Kiurian, art by bomi)
Welcome to the Neighbors Club: A nuturing, safe environment meant to promote the concept of friendship among its well-adjusted members. As if!—welcome to the real Neighbors Club, a group of socially-backward outcasts that can barely manage a simple conversation with a convenience store clerk. Join Kodaka, Yozora, Sena and the rest of the dysfunctional gang for another hilariously awkward story that allows each character their own time to each shine in the spotlight!
HAGANAI: I Don’t Have Many Friends—Club Minutes will be released in November 2014.
Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (Story & art by Satoshi Mizukami)
Nothing short of a full-burst, energetic and mesmerizing experience, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer,from author and artist Satoshi Mizukami, is likely the best manga you’ve never read! Combining the stylized action and over-the-top fight scenes of a hot-blooded shonen series like Bleach, with an emotionally gripping and character-driven seinen storyline like Berserk, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammeris one of the most hotly-anticipated manga to arrive on this side of the Pacific.
Whether it is the high-octane action, the GAINAX callouts and references, or the intricate and graphic storytelling, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is a manga not to be ignored. Tread carefully, for the Hammer is nigh!
Everything about college student Amamiya Yuuhi is average: grades, looks and his blasé outlook on life. So what happens when he awakens one day to a talking lizard, who informs him that there is a gigantic hammer in outer space, poised to split the Earth into pieces, and requests his allegiance in the fight against the forces of evil? Pretend it never happened! Unfortunately for Yuuhi, a little bit of coercion in the form of a super-powered princess prevents him from returning to his mediocre life-as-usual.
In the adventure of his lifetime, Yuuhi will join forces with the unpredictable princess and seek out a motley crew of companions to fight back against an evil mage and his horrifyingly powerful homunculus before the Biscuit Hammer destroys the planet!
Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer will be released in 2-in-1 omnibus format starting in Fall 2014, with the first omnibus being released in November 2014, and the second omnibus following in February 2015.
D-Frag! (Story & art by Tomoya Haruno)
D-Frag! is a new ongoing manga series that parodies high school clubs, nerd culture, and the slice-of-life genre in a side-splittingly hilarious storyline. For fans of manga series about otaku-centric high school clubs like Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, Genshiken, or The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, D-Frag! has the last laugh, as it satirizes the genre like never before.
D-Frag! was first serialized in Japan in Monthly Comic Alive, and has been collected so far into seven volumes and counting. The hit manga series has been adapted into a full-cast audio drama CD and is the basis for the D-Frag! anime series to air on Japanese television in early 2014.
Kazama Kenji thinks he’s a delinquent. He’s got the look, the style and the attitude to match—he even has a second-rate entourage of sorts. Deep down, however, Kazama is a good-hearted kid who finds himself and his loyal gang in over their heads when they stumble upon the Game Creation Club. The club’s formidable members, Chitose, Sakura, Minami and Roka, are four girls who he might actually be attracted to if they weren’t so freaking weird.
The girls claim to have otherworldly powers which they use to defeat Kazama’s gang and force him to join their offbeat club. Can Kazama resist the girls’ bizarre charms and return to some semblance of a normal, everyday life…or is it “game over” for our hapless hero?
Volume 1 of D-Frag! will be released July, 2014, with volume 2 following in September, 2014, and volume 3 in December, 2014.
