Yen Press, the manga and graphic novel imprint of the Hachette Book Group, announced the acquisition of several new manga and light novel licenses at the Japan Expo USA in Santa Clara, Calif. over the weekend. New licenses include Bloody Brat, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Accel World and Sword Art Online.
Among the new manga licenses are Bloody Brat, a collection of short stories and “4-Koma” comics, or four-panel comics, by the series creator Yuuki Kodama and artist Kanata Yoshino. The series is a spin-off from the bestselling hit Blood Lad, the story of a manga-loving otaku vampire demon who falls in love with a “dead” cute magical school girl and decides to bring her back to life. Publication is slated for March 2014. Yen is also publishing Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story by creator Magica Quartet and artist Honokage, in a new manga spin-off from the anime and original manga series that is also slated to be released in March 2014.
Yen has also acquired Accel World by Reki Kawahara, a light novel series about a middle school kid who is being bullied, and Sword Art Online, another popular light novel franchise about an online role-playing game in the future that directly manipulates the brain to create the gaming experience. Yen will release the Accel World light novels and will publish manga story ars for the two SAO series beginning in early 2014.
