Hopefully, this post won’t be so disorganized and sad that Seven Seas Entertainment no longer wants to have anything to do with me.
A little while ago my friend and fellow amazing blogger Scoot announced that he had a partnership with Viz to sell manga. Which is absolutely amazing. And as it happens, I also managed to land a spot on Seven Seas Entertainment’s PR list. I am very excited about it!
If you guys are curious about how I went about getting it, let me know. I’ll write up a post. As for what it means for the blog. Well not that much. I don’t actually have to sell anything and as you will see, for the moment there are still no affiliate links or anything of that nature on the blog.
I will have access to certain advance digital chapters on manga so that I can let you know what’s going to be coming out and you guys can decide whether that interests you or not. And I also get sent press releases from time to time which I can choose to post or not.
I’m not going to lie, I am very excited in an uncool sort of way about this. It’s the first time my blog has had any sort of industry association (as loose as it is) and it makes me feel like I’ve made it in some small way.
Not only that but my first ever press release could not be a better fit:
Seven Seas Dishes Out License of SARAZANMAI ANTHOLOGY Manga Collection
“Seven Seas Entertainment is excited to announce the license acquisition of the Sarazanmai Anthology manga by various creators, a collection of over a dozen short stories based on the hit anime by Kunihiko Ikuhara (Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, PENGUINDRUM)!
After accidentally breaking a statue of a mythical kappa, junior high students Kazuki, Toi, and Enta are transformed into kappa themselves as punishment by Keppi, prince of the Kappa Kingdom. Keppi has a task for the boys if they want their bodies back: work for him to hunt down zombie kappa born of twisted human desires. Even scarier, though? They’re going to have to expose their own deepest fears and desires to each other to do so! Explore this surrealist modern folktale–a fan-favorite anime in 2019–like never before in this collection of all-new short manga by various creators!
Seven Seas will publish the manga collection Sarazanmai Anthology for the first time in North America in print and on digital platforms in a single large-trim edition. It will be released in June 2021 for $13.99 USA / $17.99 CAN.
About Seven Seas Entertainment
Established in 2004, Seven Seas Entertainment specializes in bringing the best of Japanese manga and light novels to North American audiences, and producing original comics, graphic novels, and youth literature. As of July 2021, Seven Seas and all of its book imprints are distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services. For more information, visit sevenseasentertainment.com“
Some of you may remember that I had feelings about Sarazanmai. I mean I have feelings about pretty much all of Ikuhara’s works. But I thought Sarazanmai was one of the most unfairly underrated series. Even as I read fawning positive reviews about it, I figured it deserved more!
It was among my favourite anime that I watched in 2019, and my enthusiasm for it has not dulled since. Sarazanmai takes an uncompromising and occasionally challenging look at the meaning of friendship. Unafraid to show the unpleasant, unfair, painful and sometimes ultimately unsatisfying aspects of platonic relationships and yet infuses even the most cynical views with undaunted hope. It’s a harsh kind of pretty. And it got to me. An anthology exploring those themes and ideas sounds like my exact cup of tea.
Also the OP and ED of the anime remain on my playlist because they rock!
You can be more than certain that I will be purchasing my very own physical copies of Sarazanmai Anthology as soon as they come out this summer!
