This past weekend kicked off the Spring/Summer convention season with both Sakura Con and Anime Boston taking place. Several manga publishers were in attendance at them (generally one or the other) and they came bearing news of manga licenses! You can read more about each individual title, and see some corresponding images, by clicking on the provided AnimeNewsNetwork links.

Dark Horse (at Sakura-Con via ANN)

Blood-C – Ranmaru Kotone

Emerald and Other Stories – Hiroaki Samura

Evangelion: Comic Tribute – Multiple Artists (Anthology)

Ore no Imōto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (Oreimo) – Sakura Ikeda & Tsukasa Fushimi

Of Dark Horse’s licenses, I’m looking forward to Hiroaki Samura’s Emerald and Other Stories. I really like his Blade of the Immortal series and his one-shot released by Dark Horse comics, Ohikkoshi, was also a great read. Emerald and Other Stories looks especially interesting with the old West designs of the image ANN is using to promote it.

Vertical Inc. (at Anime Boston via ANN)

Paradise Kiss – Ai Yazawa

Paradise Kiss was previously released by Tokyopop many a manga-reader year ago and the books have long since been out of print. Vertical Inc’s manga ‘rescue’ of the title will be released as a multi-volume omnibus set that include a new translation and colour pages. I’m not a fan of the series myself because of a hair-pulling worthy ending (not my idea of a romantic end!) but the character drama and fashion aspects of the story still made it a good read. The first Paradise Kiss book will be out this fall.

Yen Press (at Sakura Con via ANN)

Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit – QuinRose & Delico Psyche

Anything and Something – Kaoru Mori

Blood Lad – Yūki Kodama

The Misfortune of Kyon & Koizumi – Multiple Artists (Anthology)

Thermae Romae – Mari Yamazaki

Triage X – Shoji Sato

Umineko When They Cry – Ryukishi07 & Kei Natsumi

Edit: You can read synopsises for all of Yen Press’s new title announcements via their website. They also announce via that post they’ll be releasing the last three volumes of their manhwa series, Chocolat, as a single omnibus book late this year.

Yen Press has a great assortment of different titles in this list, something for just about any of their readers based on their existing library. Of the batch the most interesting to me looks like Kaoru Mori’s Anything and Something because of how in love I am with A Bride’s Story (which Yen Press is currently releasing). It’s going to be a collection of stories released in a large trim, hardcover edition similar to how they’re already doing A Bride’s Story. It’ll also include some full colour illustrations.

It’s interesting seeing another Alice in the Country of Hearts license. The series gained popularity when Tokyopop began releasing it and has since been picked up in various of its incarnation by both Seven Seas and Yen Press. With what looks like a lot of scrambling to grab a hold of whatever parts of this franchise is available, I hope it works out as a strong seller!

Not a bad year for manga licenses so far and it’s only April. Good signs, right?