As a lead-up to the Yen Press Industry Panel at Anime NYC taking place on Saturday, August 22, four announcements were made on Yen Press‘ social media, which included new additions to the Yen Press and Yen Audio imprints.
Joining Yen Audio is an audiobook adaptation of another classic tale from the master storyteller Mamoru Hosoda (The Boy and the Beast) as well as an audiobook adaptation of an intriguing fantasy tale that recently joined the Yen On lineup (Rise of the Lowborn: Ascending the Ranks by Crushing Incompetent Nobles).
The Boy and the Beast
By Mamoru Hosoda
Tokyo’s a big city—big enough that it’s easy for a grieving boy like Ren to slip through the cracks. But Ren slips a little further than he meant to, tumbling into the beast world of Jutengai! He ends up with a new name—Kyuta—and a new life learning the way of the sword as the apprentice of the bear Kumatetsu. Kumatetsu’s got problems of his own, though, and the boy and the beast may have more to learn from each other than they realize. But the boy’s arrival in the realm of the beasts has put both their worlds in danger, and they’re going to need more than life lessons to face it!
Rise of the Lowborn: Ascending the Ranks by Crushing Incompetent Nobles
By Kosaka Hanane Illustration by Kurogiri
Hazen Heim is a newly appointed imperial military officer who had the poor luck of being born without a silver spoon in his mouth. This means that instead of landing a cushy gig through nepotism, he’s being sent to the front lines to deal with the worst of the worst. Awaiting him are scumbag supervisors who constantly steal credit, low-life leaders who love to abuse their power, and bumbling members of the brass who have never had to make a hard decision once in their lives. Fortunately, Hazen racked up decades of knowledge and experience in his past life as a legendary mage. Now it’s his turn to put the tyrants in their place, and they’re going to learn that when they go low, he goes lower…
Two manga series join the Yen Press imprint—The Goblin Samurai and My Crush’s Crush, bringing in quirky fantasy and complicated romance.
The Goblin Samurai
By kikurage
There are legends of a nameless goblin swordsman. Missing one eye, with no mastery of magic, and born from a low-ranking tribe, yet he is well-spoken—and a warrior of peerless skill. With grace that matches his peerless swordplay, the tale of this wanderer from another world begins!
My Crush’s Crush
By Sekina Aoi and Ryo Tsuzura
When Sora Akizuki confesses his feelings to Miya Fuwa, he gets rejected outright. As it turns out, she likes Asahi Suzukaze, the president of the mysterious “Clinical Trials Club.” When he joins the club to learn more about Asahi, he discovers that she also has a crush on someone else! Could this chain of crushes get any more complicated…?
During San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Yen Press announced four new additions to its line-up.
Joining Yen Audio is Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki, one of the most beloved works by Mamoru Hosoda, which in addition to being one of the most celebrated anime films is also a Yen Press classic for both its novel and manga adaptations. It is with great satisfaction that Yen Audio welcomes this beloved tale to its lineup.
Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki
Story by Mamoru Hosoda Cover Art by Yuu
When Hana falls in love with a young interloper she encounters in her college class, the last thing she expects to learn is that he is part wolf. Instead of rejecting her lover upon learning his secret, she accepts him with open arms. Soon, the couple is expecting their first child, and a cozy picture of family life unfolds. But after what seems like a mere moment of bliss to Hana, the father of her children is tragically taken from her. Life as a single mother is hard in any situation, but when your children walk a fine line between man and beast, the rules of parenting all but go out the window. With no one to turn to, how will Hana survive?
Two light novel series join the Yen On imprint—Let’s Begin, a Battle Without the Hero and The Weakling Who Died a Million Times. These two new series are sure to be welcome additions to the shelves of light novel collectors, bringing in fun and unique twists on science fiction and fantasy storytelling.
Let’s Begin, a Battle Without the Hero, Vol. 1
Story by Taiga Hattori Illustration by Rin Kawachi
TSUGUMICHI DOESN’T WANT TO BE A HERO…BUT HE MAY NOT HAVE A CHOICE!
Akane Kohinata is the perfect main character. She saves hundreds of thousands, brings smiles to people’s faces, and never gives up. However, a climactic battle with the cataclysmic cosmic beasts proves to be her last, and with her final breath, she leaves her legacy in the hands of Tsugumichi Takahashi. The only problem is, he’s a helpless shut-in who doesn’t know the first thing about heroics. Does this nobody really have what it takes to inherit Akane’s will? Project zero to hero is now underway!
The Weakling Who Died a Million Times, Vol. 1
Story by yononaka
THE HEROIC TALE OF A NAMELESS LOWLIFE!
Hey there. I’m a goon. Wouldn’t even call myself a bandit or thief—nothing that official. Just one of many desperate folks who’ve sunk really low to survive. Bottom-of-the-barrel guys like me end up following the orders of the strongest scum around. I’m simply another disposable henchman, but I do have a special ability. No matter how many times I die, I respawn into the body of a new ruffian! What a shame. My dream is to become like the adventurers that regularly wipe out me and my fellow goons. I want to help people. It’s not that I want to die but…what’s five or six lives if my death can protect someone’s future?
Joining the Yen Press imprint is a manga that is sure to please fans of fantasy and historical romance with The Dragon Prince’s Ill-Mated Betrothal.
The Dragon Prince’s Ill-Mated Betrothal, Vol. 1
By Sango Sansan Original Story by Nanaki Ichinose Character Design by Noco Sugimachi
Adeline, daughter of an earl, receives an offer of engagement from the Dragonkin Realm on her seventeenth birthday. All Dragonkins must find their “Mate,” and they want her for their third prince. Soon, amid scorn and criticism, she realizes she’s an unwilling participant in a twisted—and deadly—plot. But the story doesn’t end there! 250 years later, history begins to repeat itself with another invitation…and the unknown secrets that lie beyond it.
Yen Press has announced fourteen new title acquisitions offering up an exciting range of stories, including a tantalizing yuri manhwa, dark action fantasies, and heartwarming slice-of-life stories.
Releasing in August 2026, the debut list includes two novels (Scarlet; and My Yandere Girlfriend Hiding in the Dungeon Kills Me Over and Over Again), one manhwa (What Does the Fox Say?), and eleven manga (Clevatess: The King of Dark Beasts, the Baby, and the Undead Hero; Elden Ring: Distant Tales Between; The Demon Bride: “I Love You” Are Frightening Words; Hand in Hand with Mu-chan: Lessons from My Autistic Daughter; Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table; Girls’ Last Tour Collector’s Edition; The Blood-Crawling Princess of a Ruined Country; Then Shall I Kill in Your Stead?; Don’t Confuse Me, Yamori-kun; Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell; and Golden Man).
Scarlet
By Mamoru Hosoda
The price of failure is death, but even death will not stand in the way of her vengeance.
Princess Scarlet’s life in the royal palace is turned on its head when her uncle Claudius usurps the throne and executes the king. Forever changed, she vows to take revenge on her father’s enemies—but she fails. When she next opens her eyes, she finds herself in the land of the dead. It is a world of madness where fallen soldiers from across time cause mayhem day in and day out, a wasteland where the injured or weak cease to exist. In this place where hopelessness seems inevitable, Scarlet crosses paths with a man named Hijiri, a registered nurse from present-day Japan. Together they set out on a journey to ensure that her enemies never find salvation.
My Yandere Girlfriend Hiding in the Dungeon Kills Me Over and Over Again (light novel)
By Nikita Kitagawa
Framed for a crime he didn’t commit, Kiska is warped to the deepest level of the dungeon, a death sentence for a non-adventurer with no abilities. But just as he’s preparing to die, a mysterious voice grants him the skill “Save & Reset,” allowing him to rewind time. This blessing is only the beginning of a new hell, however. The true powerhouses of this dungeon are a pack of beautiful girls out to destroy him, and unless Kiska can use his infinite tries to charm them, he’ll be stuck in the abyss forever.
What Does the Fox Say?
By Team Gaji
Sungji is entering the corporate world, the newest hire of a game development studio. Young and beautiful, Sungji quickly draws the attention of her coworkers…but she only has eyes for her aloof team leader, Sumin. Unfortunately, the older woman is tied up by her ex, the company president, Seju, who has one thing Sungji severely lacks—experience in love and lust. And so a love triangle ensues, following Sungji’s present pursuit of Sumin and Seju’s tumultuous relationship with her in the past…
Clevatess: The King of Dark Beasts, the Baby, and the Undead Hero
By Yuji Iwahara
The hero was slain, the king was felled, and the child of fate was seized. Clevatess, a lord of dark beasts blessed with both peerless strength and superhuman intellect, raged at the thirteen heroes who felled him and vowed to wipe humanity out…Instead, he has found himself saddled with a terrible burden: a newborn human baby. Is this an omen of the end times or the birth of a new era?!
Elden Ring: Distant Tales Between
By Haruichi Original Story by FromSoftware, Inc.
These are the tales of the other inhabitants of the Lands Between.
What if Roderika were to befriend the rest of the Roundtable Hold…?
What if the Blackguard went in search of a new delicacy other than prawns…?
What if one were to catch a glimpse of Rya’s youth…?
The lives of those in the Lands Between, and the many possibilities and the differing worlds that unfolded for them in the distant past, are written here.
The Demon Bride: “I Love You” Are Frightening Words
By Toshiko Machida Original Story by Risako Natade
“You killed Chikage!”—is the last thing university student Ako expected to hear at her childhood friend’s funeral. She’s told that by sharing the accursed legend from her village about the “Demon,” she has brought about a curse. That must be a lie…but then why is Chikage’s corpse all unnaturally mangled? And when one tragedy after another occurs, each more supernatural than the last, Ako is physically and mentally pushed to the brink. Is this truly an unfortunate series of events, or is there something else at play…?
Hand in Hand with Mu-chan: Lessons from My Autistic Daughter
By Rin Minato
When a couple full of excitement learns their daughter might be autistic, some of their feelings start to change. Even if they know all this means is that she’ll develop differently than other children, it’s not easy to watch the future and family they’d envisioned crumble. But in this story based on the author’s real-life experiences raising an autistic child, family love can overcome anything!
Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table (manga)
By BanzaiKotobukiDaienkai Original Story by Yushi Ukai Art by necometal
Player Name: Yuki. Age: 17. Occupation: Death games. She has entered a genuine life-or-death show business where all the participants have to be female and where one must put their life at stake to strike it rich. Show no mercy, strut your stuff, and break the line between life and death! Aim for an unprecedented 99-win streak—for fun and for keeps!
Girls’ Last Tour Collector’s Edition
By Tsukumizu
Civilization is dead, but not Chito and Yuuri. Time to hop aboard their beloved Kettenkrad motorbike and wander what’s left of the world! Sharing a can of soup or scouting for spare parts might not be the experience they were hoping for, but all in all, life isn’t too bad…The hit comfy/existential post-apocalypse manga is now being released in a deluxe omnibus edition!
The Blood-Crawling Princess of a Ruined Country
By Yuki Azuma
Princess Evita lives a modest and happy life in a small country. But when the neighboring country attacks, the kingdom’s land is taken, her family is mercilessly killed, and Evita is forced into prostitution. Going by the name “Priscilla,” she prostrates herself one day before the feudal lord’s third son, when the knell of rebellion sounds out…
Then Shall I Kill in Your Stead?
Original Story by Yukiaki Kurando Art by Sousou Sakakibara
High school student Yuuma Fujikura resides in a living hell, courtesy of the vicious bullies who treat tormenting him as a game. That is, until he meets Ryou Amezato, a mysterious classmate who’ll risk everything to protect Yuuma. Ryou is bold, cunning, and loyal, just about everything Yuuma could’ve asked for. But is he a guardian angel? Or a demon who’ll drag Yuuma into an even deeper, bloodier hell…?
Don’t Confuse Me, Yamori-kun
By Shina Inoguchi
Over summer break, Mori has decided to change his look along with Yamori, the guy who sits behind him in class. Their seasonal debut is a success…but why is Yamori now in girl’s clothing? And suddenly he’s acting strangely and making suggestive comments…?!
Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell
By Kiyomi Sugishita
The deep sea is home to some of the most fantastic creatures the world has ever seen. And 200 meters below Tokyo Bay at the Magmell Deep Sea Aquarium, they’re on display for all to see—Kotaro’s idea of heaven. He’s a shy boy, but Kotaro loves sea creatures and just landed a part-time job cleaning the aquarium. Follow Kotaro, his new boss, and all their deep-sea friends as a heartwarming coming-of-age story unfolds.
Golden Man
By Koji Megumi Original Story by Petos
Golden Man, the great hero who protected Neo York, has suddenly vanished from the city of freedom! At the scene of his disappearance, an abnormally strong young man with amnesia has collapsed. In their hero’s absence, Golden Man’s support team sends the young man out in his place to confront the villains that menace the city. However, this man has a secret, and it might just threaten the peace of Neo York…!!
In 2020, the Los Angeles-based Secret Movie Club is hosting screenings of some of the most beloved anime of all time, as part of their Anime Buffet programming slate, which will run from January through April 2020. The Anime Buffet slate is scheduled to include such films as Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Paprika, Millennium Actress, Metropolis (2001), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Vampire Hunter D, Grave of the Fireflies, and Tokyo Godfathers. Screenings will alternate between two different locations: the Vista Theater in Los Feliz, the historic single screen theater built in 1922, and the Club, Secret Movie Club’s new downtown location.
Attendees can purchase limited edition SECRET MOVIE CLUB posters for every screening at all events, which feature new art by contemporary illustrators. Each film is preceded by a brief talk from Secret Movie Club founder Craig Hammill and a trivia question for the audience.
COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE
(2001, Sony, dir by Shinichiro Watanabe, 35mm, 115mns)
Friday, January 10, 2020 @ 11:59p, The Vista
In 2071, earth has been ravaged by catastrophe. Humans have colonized other planets and the universe is a new Wild West. A group of Bounty Hunters travel on the spaceship BeBop in search of quarry and rewards. When a contagion gets released in a truck disaster on Mars, our heroes-Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and Ein (a dog with human-grade smarts due to artificial enhancement) go off in search of the culprit and the reward that goes with it.
“One of the great things with Japanese anime, as with all cinema and art, is how each set of creators imbue the genre with their own personal style and stamp,” said Craig Hammill. “Cowboy Be Bop, as its title itself implies, is a mashup of sci-fi, westerns, Hong Kong action movies, and an improvisatory iconoclastic jazz rhythm that make the viewing experience a total blast and totally singular.”
VAMPIRE HUNTER D
(1985, Sentai Filmworks, dir by Toyoo Ashida, 80mns)
Friday, January 17, 2020 @ 7:30p, The Club, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021
The movie centers on Doris Lang, the daughter of a werewolf hunter, who gets bitten by 10,000 year old Count Magnus Lee one night. She then meets a strange vampire hunter, who only goes by the name D, and employs him to take on the long-lost vampire lord and try to help her from becoming a vampire herself.
“Vampire Hunter D is one of the earliest examples of Japanese anime that was made explicitly with teenagers and adults more in mind than children,” said Hammill. “Made for the then emerging direct to video market, Vampire Hunter D had a smaller budget than its feature film peers. But in a strange way, this freed up director Toyoo Ashida to make a more exciting, violent, sensual animation. Ashida has gone on the record as saying his intent with the movie was to make something thrilling that tired students could enjoy during study breaks rather than make an anime that further exhausted them. Full of genre mash-ups, amazing art and design, and storytelling, Vampire Hunter D definitely serves as a prototype and torch in the darkness for future directors like Satoshi Kon, who will take anime into ever more complex, adult, shadowy realms.”
GHOST IN THE SHELL
(1995, Lionsgate, dir by Mamoru Oshii, 85mns)
Saturday, January 18, 2020 @ 11:59p, The Vista:
Often the cyberpunk genre, which would come to full flourish here in the United States with the Wachowski’s The Matrix, can be traced most directly to two Japanese anime parents: 1988’s Akira and 1995’s Ghost in the Shell. Often considered one of the greatest Japanese anime movies of all time, Ghost in the Shell, dives head first into the darker, deeper waters of more adult sci-fi.
It’s 2029 and the human body can be augmented with “smart” prosthetic cybernetics. The most recent innovation, and the most terrifying, is a cyberbrain, which allows humans to now go online/get hooked into the internet, straight through their neural pathways. Our hero, Motoko Kusanagi, is part of an elite squad that fights crime in “New Port City” in Japan. Currently, they are kept busy by an arch criminal known as “The Puppet Master” who appears to have the ability to hack into these “cyberbrains” and get folks to assassinate, kill, commit crimes. As Motoko further explores what’s going on with both the Puppet Master and the innovations in cybernetics, she stumbles across a revelation that goes to the very heart of our philosophical understanding of what makes us unique individuals: what constitutes our “soul”.
PAPRIKA
(2006, Sony Pictures Classics, dir by Satoshi Kon, 35mm, 90mns)
Friday, January 31, 2020 @ 11:59p, The Vista:
If Hayao Miyazaki is synonymous with a kind of all-ages wildly imaginative Japanese anime, then director Satoshi Kon is synonymous with a Japanese anime that dares to go to the very limits of what any kind of cinema can explore in terms of human psychology, fear, desire, imagination. And he does it in the most creative and miraculous of artistic ways.
Paprika is one of his wildest mind-bending creations of all. In the near-future, there is a device called the “DC Mini” which allows Dr. Atsuko Chiba to enter the dreams of her patients (using her alter-ego “Paprika”) to help try to discover the root of their fears, anxieties, and hang ups. But the problem is that the “DC Mini” is still in prototype mode with no restrictions or safety barriers whatsoever. And if it gets into the wrong hands (which of course it does), it allows the thieves to enter dreams for more sinister and nefarious reasons.
METROPOLIS
(2001, Sony, dir by Rintaro, 113mns total, 35mm, Japanese with English subtitles)
Saturday, February 1, 2020 @ 10:45p, The Club
Written by Katsohiro Otomo (writer/director of the classic anime Akira), Metropolis shares much of its DNA with that seminal anime classic including a central character who is rocked to their psychological core by the realization of their “super human” abilities and an impending apocalypse that threatens the entire foundations of a huge city.
MILLENNIUM ACTRESS
(2002, 11 Arts, dir by Satoshi Kon, 82mns, Japanese with English subtitles)
Wednesday, February 12, 2020 @ 8p, The Club
Millennium Actress tells the emotional story (in a decidedly surreal and modernist way) of famous actor Chiyoko Fujiwara, who tells her life story to documentarians and explains she only ever became an actress in the hopes of being recognized by an artist/political rebel she fell in love with as a teenager and never saw again. As Chiyoko tells her story, it becomes hard to tell what’s her real life, what are movie scenes she starred in, and where fiction/reality meet and diverge.
Special Note: There will be three originally written 3-4 minute monologues performed by three actresses ahead of the screening running a total of 10-12 minutes.
PERFECT BLUE
(1997, GKIDS, dir by Satoshi Kon, 35mm, 81mns)
Friday, February 21, 2020 @ 11:59p, The Vista
Kon fully commits to an anime that is as rich, dark, and complex as any Scorsese, Kubrick, Lynch, or Bergman movie. But with the added benefit of being able to cinematically represent psychological states of mind in a way that is often impossible in live-action cinema.
“If you want to see anime that absolutely succeeds in expanding the playing field of what cinema can do, come join us for Perfect Blue,” said Hammill.
THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME
(2006, Funimation, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, 98mns; English dubbed version)
Saturday, March 14, 2020 @ 10:30a, the Vista
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time tells the story of young teenager Makoto Konno who discovers a magical object in her high school that allows her to leap through time and prevent situations that caused her great embarrassment. This premise, as with all good premises fully explored, deepens into a meditation on wish fulfillment versus reality. Makoto, first using the device for frivolous things, comes to realize that the device has its price. And that she is not the only one using it. . .
GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES
(1988, GKids, directed by Isao Takahata, 90mns; Japanese with English subtitles)
Saturday, April 4, 2020 @ 10:30a, the Vista
One of the absolute greatest animes ever made, Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Isao Takahata, deals with siblings Seita and Satsuko, who have to rely on each other to survive after they’re separated from their parents during the American fire-bombing of Tokyo in the late stages of World War II.
Secret Movie Club is a group project among the founders and the audience. Audience suggestions are taken and often used. Secret Movie Club aims to celebrate the wonderful experience that comes from watching the world’s greatest movies in great movie theaters with great audiences.
