PR: Viz to publish Natsume's Book of Friends

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Brigid Alverson

NatsumeBOF_GN01_cvrI’m a bit behind with my e-mail, but I wanted to post this and see what people think of it—I have seen several reviews already, and I’m looking forward to reading it myself.

NATSUME’S BOOK OF FRIENDS
A LIST THAT NO DEMON OR SPIRIT WANTS TO BE ON AND THE BOY WHO IS ITS UNLIKELY KEEPER
IN NEW MANGA FROM VIZ MEDIA

San Francisco, CA, January 4, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the January 5th release of NATSUME’S BOOK OF FRIENDS, a standalone manga story by Yuki Midorikawa. NATSUME’S BOOK OF FRIENDS debuts under the Shojo Beat imprint, is rated ‘T’ for Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

Takashi Natsume can see spirits and demons that hide from the rest of humanity. He has always been set apart from other people because of his gift, drifting from relative to relative, never fitting in. Now he’s a troubled high school student who has come to live in a small town where his grandmother, Reiko, grew up. And there he discovers that he has inherited more than just the power of Sight from the mysterious Reiko. When Reiko was Takashi’s age, she bound the names of demons and spirits in her Book of Friends, enslaving them to her every capricious whim. Now Takashi is the owner of the book, and the creatures will do anything to get their names back.

“NATSUME’S BOOK OF FRIENDS is a great series for readers who are looking for something different than the typical shojo manga. Yuki Midorikawa skillfully deploys her delicate and almost serene artwork to tell a story that balances dark adventure with light comedy, the supernatural with real life. This remarkably beautiful work is truly unlike any other shojo series out there,” says Leyla Aker, Editorial Manager, VIZ Media.

Yuki Midorikawa’s other published titles in Japan include Into the Forest of Fireflies, The Scarlet Chair and The Voice That Blooms Red. NATSUME’S BOOK OF FRIENDS (Natsume Yujincho) was originally published in the manga magazine LaLa DX and was a finalist for the first Manga Taisho awards in 2008.

For more information on this title, or others from VIZ Media, please visit www.viz.com.

About Brigid Alverson

Brigid Alverson has been reading comics since she was 4. After earning an MFA in printmaking, she headed to New York to become a famous artist but ended up working with words instead of pictures, first as a book editor and later as a newspaper reporter. She started MangaBlog to keep track of her daughters’ reading habits and now covers manga, comics and graphic novels as a freelancer for School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly Comics Week, Comic Book Resources, the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, and Robot 6. She also edits the Good Comics for Kids blog at School Library Journal. Now settled in the outskirts of Boston, Brigid is married to a physicist and has two daughters.
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