VIZ Media held an industry panel at New York Comic-Con and The Outerhaven’s own Matthew Paul was in attendance and brought back news from said panel! He noted that VIZ announced several brand-new manga series for print as well as home releases in North America! Below are the titles that VIZ announced:
Until I Love Myself: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist
Poppy Pesuyama
Synopsis: Love Me for Who I Am follows non-binary high school student Mogumo, who lives away from their family home.
At school, fellow student Tetsu Iwaoka invites them to work at Question!, a maid café. Mogumo signs on, happy at first because they can present how they want, but soon discovers the reason Tetsu invited them to work there was because he mistook them for a cross-dressing boy. Incensed, Mogumo tells Iwaoka not to assume their gender based on presentation – causing Iwaoka (and the rest of the maid cafe’s staff) to re-think what they know about gender.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Chainsaw Man: Buddy Stories (Light Novel)
Tatsuki Fujimoto
Sakaku Hishikawa
Synopsis: Power, a self-proclaimed master detective, and her assistant Denji take on a mysterious case! What is the relationship between Kishibe and Quanxi when they were partners? How did Himeno and Aki meet and what happened in their first mission together?
Release Date: Summer 2023
Heart Gear
Tsuyoshi Takaki
Synopsis: In a ruined world, a human girl, Roue, and a gear Zett, live a humble life. Then one day, they encounter a mysterious new gear, Chrome… Now all three of them live together like a family, but then…
Release Date: Summer 2023
Marvel Comics Universe! Marvel Comics: A Manga Tribute
Synopsis: A Manga Tribute that will collect illustrations from over twenty Japanese artists who will give their unique spin on iconic Marvel characters.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Wolverine: Snikt!
Synopsis: A normal day in New York City. Wolverine is on a walk through Central Park when a girl named Fusa tells him that her people are being massacred. Without further ado, she transports Wolverine to the year 2058, where human beings have all but been rendered extinct by new creatures called Mandates. Fusa asks Wolverine to fight against the Mandates, who are creating programs to process metals, all except adamantium, the metal that coats Wolverine’s bones and claws. Wolverine accepts and goes on a mission to the Mandate colony, where the Progenitor (the first and the only Mandate capable of replication) is located. During the mission, Wolverine’s team is killed, leaving only Wolverine and The Colonel (an adamantium cyborg). The Colonel makes it easier for Wolverine to reach The Progenitor’s weakness: its Orb Core. Once there, Wolverine destroys the Orb Core, causing all the other mandates to be destroyed. In the end, Fusa asks Wolverine to stay in the future, but Wolverine tells her that he belongs to another place and hopes not to see them again (speaking in a positive manner). Fusa then transports Wolverine to the past, where he quotes Jim Morrison: “The future is uncertain and the end is always near”.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Cat-Eyed Boy: The Perfect Edition
Kazuo Umezz
Synopsis: Cat Eyed Boy revolves around the unnamed titular character, a monster born to a nekomata in the mountains, only to be abandoned by them for being too similar to a human. After disaster strikes his childhood village despite his attempts to save it, he becomes a wanderer. Each chapter tends to follow a pattern wherein the boy visits a new location and moves into the attic of a human family, only for the family to be plagued by a supernatural threat. Despite often using his own supernatural abilities to oppose the violent monsters he encounters, the boy is invariably blamed by humans for the mysterious happenings.Cat Eyed Boy revolves around the unnamed titular character, a monster born to a nekomata in the mountains, only to be abandoned by them for being too similar to a human. After disaster strikes his childhood village despite his attempts to save it, he becomes a wanderer. Each chapter tends to follow a pattern wherein the boy visits a new location and moves into the attic of a human family, only for the family to be plagued by a supernatural threat. Despite often using his own supernatural abilities to oppose the violent monsters he encounters, the boy is invariably blamed by humans for the mysterious happenings.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Dark Gathering
Kenichi Kondo
Synopsis: Keitarou, who’s always had a disposition for attracting spirits, gets hired as a tutor for a little girl named Yayoi who can see spirits and is searching for the spirit that took away her mother.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Wolf Girl and Black Prince
Ayuko Hatta
Synopsis: While the proud Erika boasts to her friends about being lovey-dovey with her boyfriend, she has never really had one for 16 years. Feeling the limits of lying, she took a picture of a cool guy she found in town and showed it to her friends as her boyfriend. But the person in the picture happens to be Sata Kyouya who is in the same grade in their school. While she was able to explain the situation and convince him to act like his boyfriend, he was not the nice looking boy she thought he would be: he was a super sadistic schemer! Thus begins Erika’s life blackmailed into being Sata’s dog.
Release Date: Summer 2023
The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping
Kousuke Oono
Synopsis: Tatsu, an infamous and feared yakuza boss nicknamed “the Immortal Dragon”, retires from crime to become a househusband so that he can support Miku, his kyariaūman wife. The episodic series depicts a variety of comedic scenarios, typically wherein Tatsu’s banal domestic work as a househusband is juxtaposed against his intimidating personality and appearance, and his frequent run-ins with former yakuza associates and rivals.Tatsu, an infamous and feared yakuza boss nicknamed “the Immortal Dragon”, retires from crime to become a househusband so that he can support Miku, his kyariaūman wife. The episodic series depicts a variety of comedic scenarios, typically wherein Tatsu’s banal domestic work as a househusband is juxtaposed against his intimidating personality and appearance, and his frequent run-ins with former yakuza associates and rivals.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Official Coloring Book 2
Release Date: Summer 2023
Like a Butterfly
suu Morishita
Synopsis: Shibazeki Suiren is a stunningly beautiful girl. When she enters high school, most of her classmates are astonished by her beauty, but after noticing her quiet manners and lack of contact with anyone else except her friends Yuri and Aya, she receives the nickname “Takane no Hana”, a beautiful flower but impossible to reach. However, after a fellow freshman called Kawasumi Kouha saves her from a persistent suitor, she finds herself mesmerized by him… as he’s the only boy who won’t look at her no matter what.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Spider-Man: Fake Red
Yusuke Osawa
Synopsis: Yu Onomae is a Japanese-American high school student who’s too much of a wallflower to interact with anyone at his school, much less the girl he likes. He spends his spare time at the rock climbing gym, where he feels the most like his idol, Spider-Man. One day however, he finds a well made Spider-Man outfit thrown into the trash, and decides to take it home with him to mess around with.
Then he finds out it has working web-shooters. It’s the real deal. And when he wears it outside and is recognized by New York’s citizenry as Spider-Man, he caves under pressure and finds himself going on a rescue mission in a burning building. And after making it out by the skin of his teeth, Yu finds himself wrapped up in an escalating series of challenges wherein he must play the role of Spider-Man with only his suit, web-shooters, and rock-climbing expertise to guide him.
But if Spider-Man doesn’t have his costume, then where is he?
Release Date: Summer 2023
Akane-banashi
Yuki Suenaga
Takamasa Moue
Synopsis: Growing up, Akane admired her father and his rakugo; a traditional Japanese form of storytelling where a lone performer, called a rakugoka, depicts a long, complicated, and usually funny story involving multiple characters, who are distinguished by changes in pitch, tone, slight turns of the head, and hand movements, all while sitting in place. But when she was in elementary school, her father and all the other applicants were expelled from the Arakawa School during the promotional test to obtain rakugo’s third and highest rank of shin’uchi. Six years later, Akane, who had been secretly receiving lessons from her father’s former master, sets out to become a shin’uchi of the Arakawa School to avenge her father and prove rakugo is a legitimate profession.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Soichi: Junji Ito Story Collection
Synopsis: Stories featuring the character Souichi Tsujii, a troublemaking boy who has a penchant for the occult and supernatural.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Disney Mirrorverse: Belle
Alex Singer
Jan Apple
Synopsis: Intelligent and well-read, Belle’s love of books is matched only by her longing for adventure. In the Mirrorverse, Belle’s unconventional point of view has allowed her to discover hidden magic in her books, and cast a multitude of enchantments that heal and defend her allies when times get tough.Intelligent and well-read, Belle’s love of books is matched only by her longing for adventure. In the Mirrorverse, Belle’s unconventional point of view has allowed her to discover hidden magic in her books, and cast a multitude of enchantments that heal and defend her allies when times get tough.Intelligent and well-read, Belle’s love of books is matched only by her longing for adventure. In the Mirrorverse, Belle’s unconventional point of view has allowed her to discover hidden magic in her books, and cast a multitude of enchantments that heal and defend her allies when times get tough.
Release Date: Summer 2023
The Art of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Anime
Release Date: Summer 2023
Goodbye, Eri
Tatsuki Fujimoto
Synopsis: Suffering from a terminal illness, Yuuta’s mother asks him to film her last moments, which he does. From her radiant smile when she is with her family to the times when sickness ravages her body in the hospital, he records hours upon hours of footage. After her passing, Yuuta compiles her life into a movie to screen at his school, deciding to add a bit of fantasy to the ending of his film, Dead Explosion Mother, with a literal explosion!
Following the backlash caused by his supposedly tone-deaf portrayal of his mother’s death, Yuuta trudges to the hospital roof to take his own life—but there, he meets a girl named Eri. Captivated by his film, Eri requests Yuuta to make a new one that will blow the previous out of the water and prove his critics wrong. The movie they set out to make will stand apart by blurring the line between fact and fiction. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Yuuta film if it didn’t have his personal flavor—just a dash of fantasy.
Release Date: Summer 2023
Candy Flurry
Ippon Takegushi
Santa Mitarashi
Synopsis: Described as a “sweets battle-comedy”, the series follows Tsumugi Minase, a “sweets-user” who wields a lollipop weapon thanks to the Toy Toy Candy, a confection that gives those who eat it magic candy powers. However, the power of that same lollipop candy destroyed the city of Tokyo five years ago, therefore she cannot let anyone know of her ability.
Release Date: Spring 2023 (Digital)
Neru: Way of the Martial Artist
Minya Hiraga
Synopsis: Neruma Isami is a young man who is passionate about martial arts. Unsure of what he wants to do in life aside from train in martial arts, he meets Akebi Haiba, who takes him to Amato High School, an academy which is made up of students who study martial arts.
Release Date: Spring 2023 (Digital)
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Mapollo 3
Synopsis: Lucky Otogami is one of seven children who all love the piano. However, after a divorce, Lucky was left with only his mother while his father took his siblings. They became the prodigies known as the “Otogami Sextuplet Pianists”, while Lucky was forced to live an abusive life in a relative’s home after his mother fell into a coma. When his mother wakes up, he believes everything is right with the world, until he discovers she only has one year to live. Lucky decides to become a professional pianist so his mother can see him perform with his siblings.
Release Date: Spring 2023 (Digital)
Naruto: Set 8 (Blu-Ray)
Release Date: October 18, 2022
Source: VIZ Media Industry Panel
