Tag Archives: hes expecting

NYCC 2023: Kodansha Reveals New Manga Licenses

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Kodansha announced at New York Comic Con an array of new manga licenses debuting as soon as November for new digital series and in print for spring and fall of 2024! 

Coming to print in 2024: This spring sees the print debut of the hitman action/comedy The Fable – which will also be getting an anime next year. Additionally, Blue Lock fans can rejoice over the news that the different POV spinoff, BLUE LOCK -EPISODE NAGI-, makes its debut fall 2024. Also coming in fall is the comically violent wheelchair hero battle manga Tank Chair. 

Debuting digitally in November: For fans craving new manga series immediately, next month brings two digital series debuts including the pregnancy thought experiment, He’s Expecting, and the risqué fantasy love story, How to Treat a Lady Knight Right.

SPRING 2024 NEW PRINT LICENSES:

The Fable

By Katsuhisa Minami
Rated: Mature 18+

When you’re the infamous “genius killer” hitman The Fable, many things come easy. Being a normal person, however, isn’t one of them. In fact, being told that he can’t kill anyone for a while may just be the hardest job he’s ever taken…

The Fable

FALL 2024 NEW PRINT LICENSES:

BLUE LOCK -EPISODE NAGI-

Story by Muneyuki Kaneshiro
Manga by Kota Sannomiya
Character Design by Yusuke Nomura
Rated: Older Teen 16+

Seishiro Nagi, a second-year high schooler, thought everything was a pain and lived his life in an apathetic fog. That is, until he met Reo Mikage and they entered the mysterious striker training center, Blue Lock… A new spin-off from Blue Lock’s author, Muneyuki Kaneshiro, telling the story from Nagi’s point of view!

BLUE LOCK -EPISODE NAGI-

Tank Chair

By Manabu Yashiro
Rated: Older Teen 16+

Shizuka takes on the most dangerous of assassin jobs, but she’s not the one doing the killing. Rather, it’s her brother, Nagi, a strong assassin who took a bullet to protect his sister, leaving him in a comatose state and having to use a wheelchair. However, Shizuka has figured out the key to waking her brother up: he must be faced with killing intent! Thus begins a violent journey of recovery, battling the most dangerous foes!

Tank Chair

NOVEMBER 2023 NEW DIGITAL LICENSES:

He’s Expecting

By Eri Sakai
Release Date: November 7, 2023
Rated: 16+

When career-minded Kentaro Hiyama finds out that he’s pregnant, it will change the course of more than just his own life. In the Japan of Eri Sakai’s thought experiment, ten years have passed since the male sex has spontaneously gained the ability to get pregnant, and society has struggled to adjust. Kentaro isn’t sure at first who the mother might be, and quickly finds himself butting up against regressive attitudes and discriminatory policies—most of which long precede male pregnancy. In his previous life, he’d never given any of it a second thought—he may have even held the same views. But through his encounters with other pregnant people, and galvanized by his new perspective, Kentaro turns his skills in business and marketing to effecting social change.

He's Expecting

How to Treat a Lady Knight Right

By Kengo Matsumoto
Release Date: November 21, 2023
Rated: 16+

Leo Cornelia has dedicated her entire life to the battlefield. There is no demon she can’t slay, no challenge she can’t handle—at least, not until that confounding halfwit mage Foolie Dent confesses his love to her. Nothing feels farther from her than long-discarded notions of femininity and romance, but this annoying but dependable new friend might just be the key to opening the heart she closed long ago.

How to Treat a Lady Knight Right

The Pregnancy of Kentaro Hiyama Goes from Manga to Netflix with He’s Expecting

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The Pregnancy of Kentaro Hiyama

The Netflix Original Series He’s Expecting, a series produced and planned in collaboration with TV Tokyo, will be released globally in 2022, only on Netflix.

Based on the manga The Pregnancy of Kentaro Hiyama by Eri Sakai (published by BE LOVE KC/Kodansha), the show humorously reverses the lifestyles of men and women and explores the differences between them, centered around the question, “What if a man became pregnant?” The protagonist is faced with various issues ingrained in society that had been invisible to him until his pregnancy. This is a story of growth as both the people around him and he himself gradually change while he battles these issues. When an elite ad man gets pregnant, he’s suddenly subjected to prejudices against pregnant men, forcing him to rethink everything he knew.

The story takes place in a world where—in rare cases—men can conceive and give birth. Kentaro Hiyama, an elite ad man, suddenly finds out one day that he is pregnant. His partner, Aki Seto, never thought she would become a parent, so the two are at first confused by this unexpected event. As a pregnant man, Kentaro will face the scrutiny of the company and society, and will shed light on the hardships experienced by pregnant women. Challenged by many problems associated with modern pregnancy and childbirth, the two will have to face reality and make the ultimate decision: to have a baby or not. 

The series will be directed by Yuko Hakoda and Takeo Kikuchi. Hakoda is an up-and-coming director who began her career working on commercials. She won the Best Director Award in the Asian Newcomer Category at the Shanghai International Film Festival for her debut feature film “Blue Hour” (2019). Kikuchi is a talented director who made his feature debut with “Dear Deer” (2015), and has continued to release feature films since then, winning the Best New Director Award at the 9th TAMA Film Awards and the New Director Award at the Osaka Cinema Festival 2018 for both “Hello Goodbye” and “Bokyo” released in 2017.  The screenplay is written by Yoshitatsu Yamada, known for “The Naked Director” series (2019, 2021), as well as Yukiko Sode (”Aristocrats” (2021), etc.) and Chihiro Amano (“Mrs. Noisy” (2020), etc.).