Seven Seas sent out a press release last Thursady (yeah, I know I’m a bit behind =^_^;;=) that they had picked up the rights to two previously licensed manga series that had both been rotting on the great big list of cancelled loli manga.  In the case of Gunslinger Girl, it had more to do with ADV being so completely and uttetly inept at releasing manga on any sort of reasonable schedule that they ended up driving off all their potential customers.  I’m not sure what happened to the folks who were releasing the Blood Alone manga, but if I had to hazard I guess, I’d say they went under sometime in 2008.

Anyway, the bottom line is that Seven Seas has picked up to great looking title and their planning on releasing omnibus versions of both complete with new translations/lettering.  Gunslinger Girl will recieve two 544-page  omnibus editions covering volumes 1 through 6 of the manga with single volume releases beginning with volume 7 of the series. The first omibus for Gunslinger Girl is set to release in February 2011 and retail for $15.99.   Blood Alone will only receive one omnibus edition covering the first three volumes in the series with single volume releases to follow starting with volume 4.  The Blood Alone omnibus is slated for release in May 2011 and will also retail for $15.99.

More info:

Blood Alone wiki (spoiler: it’s a vampire loli manga :P)

Gunslinger Girl wiki  (spoiler: it’s a cybernetic loli manga :P :P :P )

Hit the jump to read the full press release from Seven Seas.

I guess no one has ever told the good folks over at FUNimation that they might be at risk of being considered nerds because all they seem to do is work, work, work. Not satisfied with just announcing their acquistion of the Black Butler anime series at their little FUNicon 3.0 web convention, they decided to follow up this announcement by releasing info over the weekend that they had also acquired the original 26 episode Chobits TV series and all three of the Eden of the East movies.

Got a press release last week reminding me of the upcoming retail release of the Bokurano: Ours manga to store shelves next week. The best part is that for you cheap bastards out there who are too good to actually pay for your manga, you can read the first volume for free on VIZ’s online manga website, SigIKKI. Be forewarned though, if the manga is anything like the anime series it’s most definitely not a series for people who despise crying like a little girls.

To learn more about the series, hit the jump to read the full press release from VIZ. To go ahead and begin reading the free version of the manga, just head on over to SigIkki.com.

I wasn’t really sure if I would be interested in this manga when I first saw it on a list of upcoming releases last month. The plot summary piqued my interest with it’s talk of zombies in a high tech sci-fi setting, but the overall story premise didn’t exactly sound ground breaking by any means. Still, after seeing the stunning cover art and checking out a sample pages I tracked down on the web, I do believe I’ll probably be picking this title up the next time I visit my local bookstore.

Read the official press release after then jump.

VIZ sent out a press release on Tuesday listing a number of new manga series due to hit store shelves over the next six months. Personally, only two of the releases caught my attention. One was Bokurano: Ours and the other was Library Wars: Love & War. I’ve seen a lot of the Bokurano anime series and I’m eager to see how the manga compares with the dark, sci-fi drama found in the television series. I don’t know much about the Library Wars manga, but it’s also been turned into an anime series, so hopefully means that it’s Fahrenheit 451-esque premise plays out well enough to be of interest to me.

Oh, I guess I should also mention that VIZ announced a new Yuu Watase manga series as well, titled Arata; The Legend. Considering Fushigi Yugi got milked so hard for so long that by the end there was nothing left inside it except but bitter rancid butter, I’m sure this manga has a long and bright future ahead it >:(

To see the full of list of manga and expected release dates, hit the jump.