So Digital Manga Publishing is bringing Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi and the artist for the new VHD manga, Saiko Takaki, to Anime Expo this year. Unfortunately, they’ll just miss crossing paths with another Vampire Hunter D name– Yoshitaka Amano, who illustrated the original VHD novels (and, yes, did character designs for Final Fantasy, and that one volume of Sandman, blah blah blah). Amano is a guest of Radical Comics at the convention. Radical is publishing Mateki: The Magic Flute, Amano’s take on Mozart’s popular opera; apparently they’re opening up a new line of comics created for the Asian market.

Meanwhile, Anime Expo just announced a new guest: Masahiro Ando, who’ll be there to pimp Bones’ new movie Stranger(/Sword of the Stranger/Mukoh Hadan), which we can probably presume will be announced for a US release at the con. Ando is also known for his work as animation director on Sailor Moon and various roles in Fullmetal Alchemist.

My favorite thing I bought at the con: a Gurren Lagann jacket. (My favorite free swag? Tie between Del Rey’s Fairy Tail slap bracelet and Vertical’s Blackjack syringe/pen.)

Okay folks, here it is– all of the new manga/anime licenses and announcements that were made at New York Comic Con (that I picked up, and I may even have some things listed as new that aren’t, so feel free to correct me if so).

801 Media
- Licensed Ze by Yuki Shimizu.
- Licensed Koi wa Aserazu by Mio Tennohji.

Bandai Entertainment:
- Licensed Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Licensed Gundam 00.
- Licensed Ghost Slayers Ayakashi manga by Yaeko Ninagawa.

CMX:
- Licensed Classical Medley by Sanae Kana.
- Licensed Astral Project by Marginal.
- Licensed Suihelibe! by Naomi Azuma.
- Licensed Fire Investigator Nanase by author Izo Hashimoto and illustrator Tomoshiya Ishikawa (thanks to Nebs for the creator names).
- Licensed Jihai by Toshimi Nigoshi.
- Licensed Venus Capriccio by Mai Nishikata.

Del Rey Manga:
- Licensed Gakuen Prince by Jun Yuzuki.
- Licensed Samurai 7 by Mizutaka Zuhou, inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s movie.
- Licensed Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei by Kouji Kumeta (!)
- Licensed The Case of the Dragon Slayer novel by Kadano Kouhei.

Digital Manga Publishing:
- Licensed Swallowing the Earth by Osamu Tezuka.

FUNimation:
- No new announcements.

TOKYOPOP
- Licensed the Kyo Kara Maoh! light novels by author Tomo Takabayashi and artist Temari Matsumoto.

VIZ Media:
- Will publish Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei’s lovechild ULTIMO, presumably in Shonen Jump; details not released.
- Releasing the Hunter x Hunter anime in season box sets.
- Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are both going to be released in VIZBIG format.
- They’re releasing a new Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo series.
- Black Lagoon is confirmed; first volume due in August.

Yen Press:
- Licensed The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya manga; will also release the novels jointly with Little, Brown Young Adults.
- Licensed Soul Eater by Atsuki Ohkubo; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed Nabari no Ou by Yuki Kamatan; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni by Karin Suzuragi and 07th Expansion; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed Bamboo Blade by Masahiro Tohtsuka; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed Sumomomo Momomo by Shinobu Ohtaka; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed man hua Wild Animals by (?); will run in Yen+.
- Yen+’s first issue is coming out July 29th and will be 460 pages; cover price is $8.99 and a 12-issue (1-year) subscription will be $49.97.

Once again, if I missed anything/got something wrong, please feel free to correct in the comments or via e-mail :)

Okay folks, I can’t take any more questions except for TOKYOPOP now, because I’ve left the dealer room and I’m leaving the con after Tpop (trying to make a pilgrimage to Kinokuniya).

That said, I did do my best to get answers to all of your questions:

1. 1. When is Flower of Life 4 coming out? - It just came out in Japan a little while ago, so we’re looking at spring ‘09 for a US release. DMP has caught up with Yoshinaga’s releases in Japan so expect there to be a significant delay between releases from here on out.
2. 2. Swallowing the Earth is the only Tezuka title DMP is planning to release this year.
3. 3. DMP would love to license more Yoshinaga works, but they’re all pretty much taken– except Oooku, which is still a bit young to get a license out here.
4. 4. FUNimation does not yet have release dates for Darker than Black.
5. 5. Cast list and release dates for Ouran High School Host Club are still pending but we may have hope for them this summer. MAYBE. No promises! (Yeah, I don’t know what’s taking so long either…)
6. 6. Bandai Entertainment does not yet have release dates for Clamp School Detectives.

The last question was pretty open (someone requested that I poke around and see if anyone wants to license Otomen, by Soul Rescue’s Aya Kanno. Unfortunately I got it after I left the dealer room, so even if I had time to try and hobnob and hint I couldn’t have gotten anything, sorry! I will ask Tpop if they plan to do any more Kanno works.

Feel free to drop TOKYOPOP questions if you have them; their panel starts in 10.

So we’re starting out with prizes that will be given out at the end of the panel, including copies of Robot, Vampire Hunter D, a Yellow doujinshi by Makoto Tateno, and…a bunch of other stuff. (I didn’t catch it all; i’m a bit distracted because my phone is having malfunctions. I see a copy of the Speed Racer manga up there too but I’m not sure if it’s a prize.)

DMP’s PR gal Rachel and a guy named Eric I’m not familiar with are running the panel, and Speed Racer voice actor Peter Fernandez will be there too…but they’re opening up with 801 Media facts, like the smuttiness points system, which is probably pretty interesting to the parents with kids in the audience. *cough*

Damn, I missed the first title, but Yuki Shimizu’s Ze is next, and they’ve got a lot more on the way. The first one was Mio Tennohji’s Koi wa Aserazu.

More BL, this time Juné’s: Hero Heel 2 and 3 are really truly comin’ out, 3 is Dec. 16, 2008. Love Recipe 2 on June 24th, and they have some copies at the booth, so that’s where I’m going next…

Whoa, whoa, not sure if these are new announcements or not: Romantic Illusions, You Make My Head Spin, Passionate Theory, Sighing Kiss, Vampire’s Portrait, Stop Bullying Me!, Lover’s Pledge, Physical Attraction, Dry Heat, Junior Escort, Sea View, White Brand by Youka Nitta, Intriguing Secrets, Shards of Affection by Duo Brand., and Blue Sheep Reverie.

And finally, DMP, including DMP Platinum. First up, pimping Speed Racer, of course. And here is Speed himself, Peter Fernandez!

Announcement: Swallowing the Earth, a lesser known Osamu Tezuka manga. DMP is also relaunching a bunch of books at a cheaper price of $9.95 (and smaller print size too), starting with Minoru Murao’s Knights. And the Vampire Hunter D creators are at AX, and more announcements next week!

That’s it for announcements; the rest was Fernandez chatting about his history with Speed and other dubs, which was fun but rather hard to keep up with for typing– but I have no doubt that there’ll be a dozen or so interviews with him to link to in the coming future.

While I was waiting around for Bandai Entertainment’s big news, MangaBlog’s Brigid was chatting up VIZ folks– and learned that VIZ is going to be taking submissions for original graphic novels.

So, on today’s schedule: VIZ is having their regular panel at 11, Del Rey at 12, and Yen Press (I’ve been teased that there’ll be some more big news there) at 1. 3pm will be Digital Manga Publishing’s panel, which will feature lots of Speed Racer and some 801 Media as well. Then at 6pm Dark Horse is having a panel that I’m told is mostly comics news, but that there IS a significant manga announcement there as well. (I checked because Dark Horse is at the same time as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’s showing…)

And after Dark Horse comes CMX.

So, to sum up: if you have questions for VIZ, Del Rey, Yen, DMP, Dark Horse, and/or CMX, go ahead and leave ‘em here and I’ll see what I can do about getting them answered. (I’m also going to go back to Bandai if I can to get some of those questions answered.)