I am often excited when Viz announces new series, but I am extra excited to see that they are going to be bringing out Midnight Secretary and also Happy Marriage. More mature shojo/josei manga is a category that I wish more US manga publishers would pursue because as much as I do enjoy high school romance, it is very nice to have titles featuring main characters who are not teenagers. I think these acquisitions would appeal to fans of more mature manga like Butterflies, Flowers.
Here’s the scoop from the Viz Press release about these titles:
HAPPY MARRIAGE?! • Rated “M” for Mature •
MSRP: $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN • Available August 6, 2013
In order to help her father, Chiwa Takanashi agrees to an arranged marriage with the company president Hokuto Mamiya – a man she doesn’t know – at the request of Hokuto’s grandfather. Chiwa believes the arrangement isn’t binding, but her new partner seems to think otherwise. Can two strangers living together find their way to a happy marriage?!
MIDNIGHT SECRETARY • Rated “M” for Mature •
MSRP: $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN • Available September 3, 2013
Kaya Satozuka is a brilliant secretary who excels at her job, which is why she doesn’t bat an eye when she’s assigned to be personal secretary to Kyohei Touma, the very difficult managing director of Touma Foods. It doesn’t faze her when her new boss seems determined to make her fail, and she even manages to take it in stride when she discovers the secret behind his prickly behavior…he’s a vampire! But while Kaya easily adapts to late nights and keeping a schedule of his “dinner dates,” will her ultra-competence help when Kyohei’s smoldering gaze starts turning her way?!
I’m looking forward to the reindeer one, oddly enough. It’s by Tsukuba Sakura, and I really liked both Land of the Blindfolded and Penguin Revolution. Actually, internet tells me V3 of the new series has a Penguin Revolution one-shot, yay!
Oh, that sounds good too! Those series were great.
Holee molee! I bought the japanese edition of Midnight Secretary like a year or so ago because I never thought it would make it here! THIS ROCKS!!!
It is truly a glorious day for fans of smutty vampire manga!
I have been sort of wondering if they’ve been test-driving certain licenses in Europe. Kazé Manga which originally only published in French, now also publishes in German and sells to Switzerland, Germany, Austria. When I checked the publishing info on Midnight Secretary and Happy Marriage and Akuma to Love Song, I found that it say VIZ Europe LTD or something similar.
You USians have bigger format manga, though, which means I would have preferred the US version if I had know it was coming… – your translators are also more careful with the honorifics, which I find very important.
Anyway – enjoy somewhat smutty josei titles from VIZ (they’re not as steamy as Maju Shinjo) with – at least in Midnight Secretary – a woman who eventually gets the man on her own terms and won’t let him impinge on her work ethic either.
But Germany already has Ao Haru Ride and you still only get Strobe Edge, so there :P.
As a matter of fact German publishers seem to license some very obscure school shoujo manga regularly, hmm…..
That’s interesting. Maybe there’s also more support in Europe for more mature manga as well. I’m happy with whatever we can get!
Ooo! These both sound deliciously trashy. 😉 I’ve often considered buying Midnight Secretary in French, since it’s obviously smutty josei romance and there isn’t enough of that in English, but I didn’t realize it had vampires too.
The vampire bit is the “midnight” part I think. I hope this series does well, I’d like to see more paranormal romance josei get translated.