Kodansha Comics is probably best known in the US (and among the WonderCon crowd) for bringing the hit manga, Attack on Titan, to English-speaking readers. At 4:30 p.m., fans of the series, including some adorable cosplayers, stormed Room 515B for information on the upcoming Attack on Titan Anthology and other news from the publisher and members of the creative team behind the upcoming work.
The panel was more of a straight-forward presentation from one of the Kodansha editors, starting with a slideshow of upcoming English-language releases. The new manga ranged from a battle drama featuring ballroom dancing, to a high school populated by cute boys who can turn into various animals, to an adventure inside in the body where the main characters are a white blood cell and a red blood cell, to a horror comic marketed specifically to girls.
The main focus of the room was learning more about Kodansha’s upcoming Attack on Titan Anthology, the first original collaboration between the hit property and American comics creators. This is Kodansha’s first foray into a non-translated project in the US, and they want to explore aspects of the Attack on Titan world that are missed in the main storyline. While the creators are restricted on how much interaction their stories can have with the main cast from the Japanese story, they otherwise have free rein for what they can do in the world. Amazing artists and writers such as Jody Houser, Babs Tarr, Gail Simone, Faith Erin Hicks, Kevin Wada, and Kate Leth have already signed on to the project with more to be announced!
The Q&A session allowed fans to both get more details about the project and score a free manga from Kodansha. The panel discussed varied topics from how manga are selected for translation in the US as to what the probably success of the upcoming anthology could mean for the US market. I think everyone in the room would love to see more collaborative works like the Attack on Titan Anthology, so we’ll be out in hordes to pick up our copies when it hits stands.
