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Manga

Vertical licenses ‘From the New World’ manga, Okazaki Kyoko’s ‘Pink’

SSY 1 JP
Pink JP

Vertical has announced at its Genericon panel Friday night, that they’ve acquired the From the New World (Shin Sekai yori - 新世界より) manga adaptation, and the one-volume Pink from mangaka Okazaki Kyoko.

From the New World is based off of the award-winning novel of the same name, and is drawn by mangaka Oikawa Tooru and supervised by the novel author, Kishi Yuusuke. The on-going manga runs in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shounen Magazine (which Vertical has previously licensed ‘Flowers of Evil’ from), and currently has 2 volumes released. The Crimson Labyrinth, a novel from Kishi Yuusuke was also released from Vertical in 2006. Volume 1 will go on sale sometime next week, and is scheduled for release in early-Fall!

The one-volume manga, Pink, was originally published in 1989 by Japanese publisher Magazine House and then re-released in 2010. This is the second license by Vertical from mangaka Okazaki Kyoko, after they initially licensed Helter Skelter back at New York Comic-Con 2012 last October. The manga is also scheduled to have pre-orders available sometime next week, and will be released in late-Fall of this year.

So with the From the New World anime winding down (which is also currently streaming on Crunchyroll), a hot-blooded fan-campaign to get the novel licensed, and now the manga adaptation getting licensed, it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out for Vertical. The manga version does feature a bit more…fanservice, to say the least, but I don’t think is a bad call by any means. It still has the integral elements of suspense and key-drama that the source material and anime-adaptation both carry, and I believe that the manga will see decent favor from fans here in the US.

And as bizarre as Pink sounds, I think that only helps to accentuate its’ own absurdity and overall charm. I mean, a 20-something office-worker by day and prostitute by night, all to keep her pet crocodile fed? This is the kind of stuff that makes me love being a manga fan.

So keep an eye out for pre-orders, as I’ll certainly be covering those in my US Manga Recap’s when they go live. You can also go ahead and click the images above, and those will take you to the official Vertical posts on their Tumblr for each respective release.

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— Conner

Manga Editor- Obsessive manga collector, avid anime fan and spending way too much time on Twitter. Your friendly, neighborhood weeabro.

  • http://twitter.com/ersanven Alex

    Eww, I’d rather the SSY manga die in obscurity. The fanservice really kills the tone.

    • Conner

      Personally, I think this will be good for Vertical, as the fanservice angle might actually give them some decent sales. I really do believe that a publisher needs titles like these every so often to help nudge the company along, and more importantly keep them afloat.

      As for the content itself, I looked through the first volume. Guilty as charged, I liked what I saw, but I try not to relate it too terribly much with the anime itself.

    • http://twitter.com/goldensneer ☆彡

      Agreed. It’s uncomfortably exploitive, single-minded even. When the gang tagged along with Squealer and co. earlier on, was it really necessary for Maria to be there? Feels like some sort of yuri quota is trying to be filled here, especially considering they completely disregarded the Saki/Satoru scene. I’m aware that the SSY manga runs in a shounen magazine, but there’s no reason to push away scenes that are actually plot relevant in favour of girls groping each other. It really ruins the tone of some scenes too, like when Maria and Saki first had sex. The guys were trying to have a relatively serious discussion and scenes of the girls were shown alongside it. What was the point?

      Less is more. We’re aware of the society the gang live in, but the anime/novel never really go in depth to those scenes and it’s a lot stronger for it. The manga cheapens it. Actually, the manga is piss poor with other aspects so it’s unfair just singling out the fanservice scenes. But anyway.

      I like Vertical as a company and buy some of their releases, but this gets a flat out no from me. Hope it manages to at least break even for them, though… Even with shitting all over the original series.

      • Conner

        I’ve only glanced through the first volume, and admittedly it’s nothing like the anime, in terms of pacing and tone. What was an elaborate setup and given slight hints of things to come, the manga kind of just shoves it in the readers face (so to speak) and presents itself in a much different manner.

        It is best to considering the manga a very loose adaptation from the source material. Still, I stand by my point that this is a good acquisition for Vertical. They’ve long had an image that was forced upon them by fans, and haven’t been able to get out of it. If they were to continue along this road, as much as I love niche titles and the content it brings, those aren’t always going to sell (and mostly don’t). If it takes a few fanservice titles once in a while to actually give some money to Vertical, I don’t mind at all.

        Not to mention, this manga (and Ed on Twitter mentioned it as well) may help streamline an eventual novel license/release. Somewhat unfair to the novel/anime fans? Perhaps; but that is reality of a market for novels that is incredibly small and has not yet proven itself capable of supporting such a title and allow the licensing company to break even on the venture.

        It’d be nice to just have the novel, but the American manga industry isn’t exactly what it used to be.

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