Yen Press made a pretty significant announcement at SakuraCon this weekend with the move to create a new novel imprint for the publisher with Yen On. With the company being a part of Hachette Books and some smart folks heavily involved in the book industry for years, they’re capitalizing on that and the announcements made last year with the new novel series they picked up previously with Sword Art Online and Accel World to gauge interest. Fans have asked for more novels for years and now things are coming together as Yen Press intends to publish twenty-four novels next year under the new imprint. Current books that they publish such as Spice & Wolf and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya will be part of this grouping.
With the announcement of Yen On, they announced a number of titles that will fall under the umbrella:
A Certain Magical Index: Set in a city of scientifically advanced superhuman students, but in a world where magic is also real. Kamijou Touma’s right hand, the Imagine Breaker, will negate all magic, psychic, or divine powers, but not his own bad luck. One day he finds a young girl hanging on his balcony railing. She turns out to be a nun from the Church of England, and her mind has been implanted with the Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum – all the magical texts the Church has removed from circulation. Set for winter release.
King of Eden: This series is set to begin serialization worldwide digitally on May 1st with its chapters.
Pandora Hearts ~odds and ends~ Art Book set for November.
Another: 26 years ago, in a third-year classroom of a middle school, there was a student named Misaki. As an honors student who was also good at sports, the student was popular in the class. When Misaki suddenly died, everyone in the class decided to carry on as if Misaki was still alive until graduation. Then, in the spring of 1998, a boy named Kouichi Sakakibara transfers to that classroom, and he grows suspicious of the fearful atmosphere in that classroom. In particular, there is a beautiful, aloof girl named Misaki Mei who wears an eyepatch and is always alone drawing pictures. Set for October release.
Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: The huge labyrinth city, Orario, is the gateway to the huge underground maze commonly known as the “Dungeon”. Its strange name causes excitement, a place to gain honour, and maybe even a romance with a pretty girl. A place where people hold their breath, hoping to gain all they wish for, a place where a solitary young man meets a little “god”. Planned for winter release.
Gou-ere Sora Nagihara: Shouta’s an otaku who’s only love in the world is manga. One day, he happens to wish for one of his favorite character, Nagihara Sora, to be by his side…and so she does! But what is he to do when he finds that his gentle and weak Sora has turned out to be a violent gou-dere (an unstoppable force that does whatever she pleases for her master, out of her love for her master) who views the world as a ero-game to be conquered for his sake? First volume due in November.
Love at Fourteen: A story about two unusually mature young people. They are both smart, very together and they are in love. But, as grown-up as they act, they are still just 14 and their feelings for each other are captured with tenderness and lack of nostalgia, but very cutely. First volume due in November.
The Angel of Elhamburg: In this beautiful standalone volume, a close friendship between a king blessed by a strange angel and his knight begins to crumble under the weight of jealousy and contempt when a woman, and soon her child, comes between them. We love Aki with a burning passion here at Yen, so we’re beyond excited to be adding the gorgeousness of THE ANGEL OF ELHAMBURG to our Spring 2015 list!
I’ve been waiting for A Certain Magical Index to finally be released. I think they are much better than the anime and I really like reading physical copies than reading the PDFs on my kindle.