Last week Cross Infinite World, now in their third year of releasing shoujo and josei titles, announced they’re printing a couple of them. 8 of their light novels are going to be printed over the summer, starting with — as Lead Translator and President of Cross Infinite World Charis Messier mentioned over email — their more popular titles.
“emeth is the first book we openly promised readers we would do a print run of, and it has some big name authors behind it, so it was an obvious choice,” she mentioned, as Souki and Tora Tsukishima are known from working on Final Fantasy and Root Double books and had a role in Ingress the Animation. “We actually started with Mia because it’s been pretty popular with steampunk fans and a wider audience. Eccentric Master was pretty popular right out the gate too!”
Charis revealed they plotted print planning back between May and June of last year, and finalized their initial lineup earlier in 2019. As of this post there’s been no public showing on their site or socials as to how they look, but Charis mentioned that they are thick. “emeth: Island of Golems are a little on the heavier side because of how many pages they have, (but) the books are 5.2 x 8 inches, with 11 point font.”
As they know some only purchase print releases, Charis and the team at Cross Infinite World hopes this opens things up for a wider audience. “While a lot of people love digital, some will only buy print, and others like to own both formats, so this is our way of letting the reader choose how they best like to consume our novels!” Now their next goal is where else can people purchase these — for now you can only get them on Amazon. Charis mentioned physical retailers and libraries have reached out regarding their titles but there’s no timetable just yet as to when they will be on there. So we’ll have to play the waiting game for it to be elsewhere.
Anywho, if there’s anyone who has purchased Cross Infinite World’s novels in print, feel free to chime in on the quality in the comments section. I think I’ll be putting in an order for one of their releases soon…
More Digital News and Notes
Kodansha vs. Cardcaptor Sakura Collector’s Edition
So…was this graphic of their June releases a mistake or is the collector’s edition of Cardcaptor Sakura Volume 1 just delayed for digital:
Kodansha and ComiXology releasing MARS and You’re My Pet
In case you missed it, Kodansha and ComiXology have added two former TOKYOPOP titles, MARS and You’re My Pet, to their ComiXology Originals program. You can only get these on Kindle and ComiXology, so if you’re in the mood for classic shoujo & josei titles, here you go.
More Seven Seas meets Kobo
Maybe before the year’s up they’ll have most (if they don’t already) of their catalog of titles on Kobo:
- A Centaur’s Life, Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, and Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn will be released tomorrow.
- I Am Alice: Body Swap in Wonderland, Dictatorial Grimoire, My Pathetic Vampire Life, Clay Lord: Master of Golems, Merman in My Tub, Servamp, Battle Rabbits, The Seven Princes of the Thousand-Year Labrinth, & Devils and Realists will be up on the service next week.
- The Bride & the Exorcist Knight will be on there July 23.
Those who prefer to have any of those titles on Kobo, you’ll be spending some cash for sure!
The Yen Press digital release of Kingdom Hearts III continues to be weird
So they confirmed to ANN that they are releasing the Kingdom Hearts III manga, but just not as a true simulpub. At this point Chapter 0 & 1 are out on digital platforms. That’s cool…but…Yen Press has still said nothing themselves. Like you can search their Twitter and they have said zero. Meanwhile you’ll certainly catch tweets for Fruits Basket: The Three Musketeers Arc, Black Butler, and Sekiro.
I dunno, I’m just confused.
J-Novel Club’s digital manga releases
I hinted at this last time, but at that point, the only thing I knew was J-Novel Club manga were being released at some digital retailers, and not others. Now Sam himself revealed that’s how it’s going to be until further notice:
So at this point and time, you can purchase certain J-Novel Club manga on select digital platforms. Most of this can change as the years go by, but you’re likely better off purchasing these manga on the currently available platforms.
The Pokemon manga series hitting your digital libraries
Big news for those who A) Love Pokemon B) Like libraries C) Like getting manga digitally from the library: The Pokemon manga series VIZ releases (from the Adventure series to the movies) can now be grabbed by libraries and schools worldwide. That’s a thanks to VIZ and Rakuten Overdrive.
The Right Way To Make Jump! is live on digital platforms
This manga that appears to have a humorous spin on the inner workings of making Shonen Jump manga is out on digital platforms. It does look pretty funny.