Viz Media’s digital line called Viz Select has added another TOKYOPOP former license to their list of rescues with Kyo Kara Maoh debuting this week in digital form on their service, VizManga.com. TOKYOPOP had released about seven volumes starting in 2008 and ending in 2010 when the company ceased its publishing line. Viz Media’s rescue is certainly a welcome one and it’ll be interesting to see how much further they go beyond the originally released volumes as the series is now at 16 volumes in Japan with Temari Matsumoto handling the adaptation/artwork. Matsumoto has been doing the illustrations in the light novel series by Tomo Takabayashi since 2000 and that run, which is still ongoing, is at 17 volumes of the main series and five side story volumes.
The books are also available digitally through Nook, Kindle
and Google Play.
Pardon me while I plead once again for someone to relicense the manga, finish what was never released and grab the OVAs too. The anime was produced by Studio Deen back in 2004 that ran for 117 episodes over a couple of series that finished in 2009. In 2007, they also produced an OVA series of five episodes. Geneon Entertainment licensed, dubbed and released the first 78 episodes of the series comprising the first two seasons. The third season in 2008 – 2009 ran for an additional 39 episodes but has never been licensed.
Plot concept: Yuri Shibuya just can’t catch a break. First, he had his head dunked in a toilet. Then he was transported to another world – where he finds himself king of the Mazoku’s, a new race that expects him to lead them to war against all of humanity. And to top it all off, he’s engaged – to a man! From the creator of Shinobu Kokoro comes an outrageous, gender-bending, high school demon love story!
