Yen Press to Publish Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name Novel in U.S.

The cavalcade of success that Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) has amassed so far has been nothing short of astonishing. The popularity of the film cannot be called into question at this point and because as such, it has opened new markets to distribute the film’s related materials.  One of those materials is the novelization of the hit film. The novel released in Japan on October 16 and has already sold a little over one million copies. Yen Press announced that they will being distributing the novel here in the United States.  The novel is scheduled to be released in May of 2017.

The United States is just one of twenty-two countries that will be receiving the novel. The total list of countries is as follows:

• South Korea
• Hong Kong
• Macao
• China
• United States
• Canada
• Great Britain
• France
• Belgium
• Luxembourg
• Italy
• Vatican City
• San Marino
• Switzerland
• Spain
• Germany
• Australia
• Singapore
• Vietnam

The Your Name novel is already on sale in Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, and other countries. In particular, the first printing in Thailand sold out nearly immediately, leading to more print runs. In Taiwan, the novel had an initial printing of 40,000, which is unusually high for translated novels. There is also Kimi no Na wa. AnotherSide: Earthbound, a spinoff novel focusing on supporting characters from the film, but there is no word on whether or not that novel will be printed outside of Japan at this time. 

Araka Kanou is the author behind the manga and has also been responsible for the novelization of Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days, as well as a spinoff novel for 5 Centimeters per Second; all of which are also films produced by Makoto Shinkai and CoMix Wave. A visual guide called Shinkai Makoto Kantoku Sakuhin Kimi no Na wa. Kōshiki Visual Guide Book has also been produced featuring illustrations by Chiko. 

Your Name has earned over 21.3 billion yen (about US$181 million) and sold 16.4 million tickets as the highest grossing film of 2016 in Japan.  FUNimation holds the license for North American distribution of the film, but a release date for has not yet been announced, although they do have an English trailer available.