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Showing posts with label
Yashakiden: The Demon Princess.
Show all posts
Showing posts with label
Yashakiden: The Demon Princess.
Show all posts
According to Anime News Network, the 1988 anime of Hideyuki Kikuchi's Demon City Shinjuku will soon be distributed in the U.S. by Discotek. The anime was originally produced by Madhouse.
Demon City Shinjuku is the prequel to the Yashakiden: The Demon Princess novel series that I've been working on for Digital Manga Publishing. I'm actually working on the novel version of Demon City Shinjuku right now.
Imagine an 8.5 earthquake that lasts for exactly three seconds, leaving the Tokyo ward of Shinjuku shattered and isolated by a literal chasm on all sides from the rest of Tokyo. After this "devil quake," Shinjuku is a city within a city that remains haunted by supernatural phenomena. Scientists, paranormal investigators, yakuza, vampire hunters, all flock to Shinjuku to observe and partake of the strangeness, while regular Shinjuku residents try to live as normally as possible in the midst of insane happenings all around them.
Hideyuki Kikuchi's unique voice as a storyteller is hard to describe - it's intelligent, outrageous, sensual and darkly funny. I'm eager to see Demon City Shinjuku in anime form and look forward to its release.
The success of Hetalia keeps rolling along. :)
The English language version of Hidekaz Himaruya's webcomic/manga has proved to be as much of a hit as the original Japanese version. Currently, Volume 2 is No. 1 on the New York Times Manga Bestseller list. I was co-copy editor on this one and the series continues to be fresh and entertaining in its second volume.
Also, Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, Vol. 3 is now available. You may notice that Vol. 3 is more expensive than the first and second volumes. Here's why: the eight volumes of Yashakiden were originally released in Japan as four "omnibus" volumes, each omnibus containing two volumes of the series. Here in the U.S., Digital Manga Publishing released the first two volumes as single volumes, but starting with Vol. 3 the rest of the Yashakiden series will be released as omnibus volumes - just as they were in Japan.
In other words, here's the breakdown:
Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, Vol. 1 = one single volume
Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, Vol. 2 = one single volume
Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, Vol. 3 = two volumes in one: it's Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 combined.
The eight-volume series will conclude with Vol. 4 (containing Vol. 5 and Vol. 6) and Vol. 5 (containing Vol. 7 and Vol. 8). I am working on the English adaptation of omnibus Vol. 4 now, so look forward to its release sometime later this year.
Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, vol. II has been released by Digital Manga Publishing. This novel continues the story of Setsura Aki and Doctor Mephisto, as they battle four evil Chinese vampires for control of a paranormal-drenched Shinjuku of the future. This is a series I'm very pleased to be the English adaptation writer on.
Both volumes I and II are available at my Amazon store in the sidebar of this blog. Volumes III and IV will be released later this year.
I am very pleased and excited to announce that volume I of Yashakiden: The Demon Princess has been released.
I'll be honest: I haven't read the book or seen the movie of Twilight, or been a consumer of any of the other vampire-themed entertainment that's out there. Aside from a lingering fondness for Christopher Lee as Dracula in those old Hammer horror films, I'm not much into vampires. But there are exceptions.
Yashakiden is a four-volume novel series by Hideyuki Kikuchi, author of Vampire Hunter D. It's set in his "Demon City Shinjuku" universe, in which the district of Shinjuku in Tokyo is destroyed by an earthquake and then nearly conquered by demons. Now resurrected, but still teetering on the edge of the demon abyss, Shinjuku is full to the gills with all manner of paranormal phenomena. Everything beyond its walls is known as "the outside world."
The story of Yashakiden begins when four ancient Chinese vampires enter Demon City. Led by Princess, a beautiful and evil vampire queen, they begin to co-opt and corrupt the local population. Their ultimate aim is to control the city for their own debauched ends.
The four are opposed by Dr. Mephisto, the Demon Physician, and Setsura Aki, owner of a senbei (rice cracker) bakeshop - and the best private investigator in Shinjuku. Mephisto and Setsura have extraordinary paranormal talents of their own at their disposal, as well as a mysterious and complicated history with each other.
What made Yashakiden such an enjoyable project to work on as an adaptation writer is the world that Kikuchi wraps you in. From page one on, the reader finds himself in an all-encompassing universe of strangeness. The wry in-joke is that Shinjuku's human residents have completely adjusted to the madness, casually switching from regular handguns to demon-killing guns and going about their daily lives in the new normal as if the unhuman predators and morphing landscapes around them made for just another pre-earthquake day in Tokyo.
The sex scenes in Yashakiden are pretty hair-raising: they're actually gorier than the action scenes. ;) They achieve a kind of triple X-rated, grindhouse excess seldom seen outside of 1960s cult exploitation movies and hentai anime. I've edited sex scenes before, but I can safely say - none quite like these.
Altogether, Yashakiden is a fantastic read. Like I said, vampires aren't normally my kind of thing, but this is great horror literature - and emphasis on the literature. The literary narrative style and darkly ironic humor elevate this story to a cut above.
Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, Vol. I is available at your local bookstore (in the manga section), or from my Amazon store.
