Yen Press announced a dozen new manhwa and manga during Anime Expo, including four new webtoons for its Ize Press imprint, a Bungo Stray Dogs spinoff featuring two popular characters, and a manga adaptation of a short story by Liu Cixin, whose novel The Three Body Problem won a Hugo Award.
All four of the Ize Press acquisitions are manhwa that have already been published as webtoons, and two have been adapted into television dramas that are available on Netflix.
Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint is based on a story by singNsong, the creator of The World After the Fall; Ize Press will publish both the original webnovel and the webtoon adaptation by Sleepy-C and UMI. The story itself is about a webnovel that has only one reader, office worker Dokja Kim. When the novel ends, it becomes reality, with monsters unleashed on the earth to put an end to humanity, but Dojka recognizes what is going on and what he will have to do to stop them. The series has 2.8 million followers and over 245 million views on Webtoon, and it won the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award in the Manhwa Category of the 2021 Korea Content Awards.
Itaweon Class, by Kwang jin, is set in a tavern filled with colorful characters whose owner, Saeroyi Park, wants to build it into a chain that can take on the Jangga Group, a restaurant industry monolith whose owners, the Jang Family, were responsible for the death of Sawroyi’s father. The Jang family tries to trip Seroyi up with dirty tricks, but he is determined to triumph over them. The series currently runs on Tapas, where it has 448,000 views and just over 20,000 subscribers, and it has been adapted into a live-action drama that streams on Netflix.
The Uncanny Counter, by Jang E, is another story with a restaurant setting, this one a noodle shop run by visitors from the afterlife, called Counters, who hunt down escaped souls who are stalking the living. A teenager who suffered permanent injuries in a car accident reluctantly joins them in hopes of meeting his parents, who are dead, and saying the things to them that he never could say when they were alive. The series has over 847,000 views and 31,000 subscribers on Tapas, and it has also been adapted into a live-action series that runs on Netflix.
The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, by Irinbi with art by Grrr, is a fantasy romance story about a child prodigy who bought special insurance before she died that gives her an excellent support system, which she will need to survive in the time-loop novel into which she was reincarnated. The series currently has 1.7 million views and over 55,000 subscribers on Tapas.
Yen’s eight manga announcements include both original titles and spinoffs of popular series.
Taking Care of God is adapted by Jun Yokyoama, with art by Golo, from a story by Liu Cixin about a strange invasion: First 20,000 spaceships start orbiting the earth but make no attempts to contact humans; then elderly people start appearing, over 2 billion in all, with a definite, but not immediately obvious, purpose. The story is complete in a single volume.
God Bless the Mistaken is by Nio Nakatani, who is best known for her yuri works Bloom Into You and Farewell to My Alter. God Bless the Mistaken is her first non-yuri series; it’s a sort of fantasy story about a middle-schooler who investigates paranormal phenomena as an assistant to his landlady, who is an expert in the field.
Bungo Stray Dogs: Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen, by Kafka Asagiri and artist Shiwasu Hoshikawa, is a Bungo Stray Dogs prequel that focuses on two characters, Osamu Dazai and Chuuya Nakahara, who eventually will become the pair known as the Twin Dark but at the moment have to learn to set aside their differences in order to solve a mystery.
Higurashi When They Cry: MEGURI, by Ryukishi07 and artist Tomato Akase, is a sequel to the Higurashi Gou manga and the latest installment in the long-running horror series.|
holoX MEETing!, by Okada Anmitsu, is the origin story of Secret Society holoX, a real group of virtual YouTubers (VTubers) who are stars of the Hololive Production VTuber agency and network. VTubers are YouTube streamers who use computer-generated animated avatars; Hololive had over 50 million subscribers on its 50+ channels in 2021.
Beastrings, by Shikaku Yamamoto, is a fantasy comedy set in Juso, a city filled with strange and diverse beings, including a dragon and a bard who have formed a musical duo, an elf and her wolfman butler, and the mayor, the hero who once rescued the city from disaster and is now just trying to make it run smoothly day to day. This manga is complete in a single volume.
A Witch’s Life in a Micro Room, by Akitaka, is a slice-of-life fantasy tale about two rookie witches who are living together in a tiny apartment and trying to scrape out a living, and ultimately move up in the world. The series is complete in five volumes.
Bride of the Barrier Master, by Kureha with art by Odayaka, is a fantasy tale about Hana, who is 18 and a member of a powerful family who has always been overshadowed by her more beautiful and outgoing twin sister. When Hana develops a superpower, she keeps it a secret so she can continue living her calm, quiet life. That starts to change, however, when the head of another clan goes looking for a strong woman to be his bride and his companion in battle.Source: ICv2
