Rose of Versailles manga and other notable news

At Comic-Con, Udon Entertainment has announced that they will release the first english version of Riyoko Ikeda's classic shojo manga Rose of Versailles. The series will be released as two omnibus volumes in the second quarter of 2016.

The french version has been around for a while (published in 2002), so I am surprised it took so long to get it translated in english. Of course, the French had a special interest in this story (it's about the french revolution) but it's a superb story, drawn in a classic shojo style, so it should interest everybody. I've complained about this several time, but I really cannot understand why there are so few shojo manga from the 70s and 80s being translated in either english or french. There's a real goldmine of great shojo titles from that era that is left totally unexploited (mostly from the so-called Year 24 Group). Of course, I can understand publishers not willing to take the risk to release series that a often rather long (Riyoko Ikeda's Jotei Ecatherina is 5 volumes, Orpheus no Mado 18 volumes, Eikou no Napoleon – Eroica 14 volumes, and Suzue Miuchi's Glass no kamen is 50+ volumes !!) and in a style that might seem dated (but oh so beautiful!)…

Now, the question is: will Udon includes in this edition the more recent Rose of Versailles “Episodes” ? Or will it be in an eventual third omnibus volume? I hope they thought of acquiring the rights for those stories as well…

Strangely, Udon Entertainment is mainly known for their Street Fighter and video game related manga but they seems lately to venture into more traditional manga titles (and shojo, mind you). Now their catalog even includes a collection of manga classics (Jane Austen's Emma, Dicken's Great Expectations, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter) !

[ Sources: ANN, Udon ]

Ten Other notable news

• At the same occasion, Udon announced the release of Moyoco Anno's Sugar Sugar Rune also for the 2nd Quarter 2016 [ ANN ]
• Studio Ghibli's latest film, When Marnie Was There, earned over $500K in U.S. Theaters [ ANN ]
• Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Passes Away [ ANN ]
• Shigeru Mizuki's manga Showa: A History of Japan (1939-1944 and 1944-1953) won the 2015 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material from Asia [ ANN ]
• Mamoru Nagano's manga Five Star Stories will receive its first new volume in nine years this august [ ANN, Forbes ]
• Sunrise Announced at Anime Expo that it is working on a new Gundam TV series [ ANN ]
• Tokyopop has announced at Anime Expo that it is planning to begin publishing manga again in 2016 [ ANN ]
• Vertical announced at Anime Expo that it has licensed the publishing rights for, amongst others, the Attack on Titan: Lost Girls novel spinoff [ ANN ]
• The live-action adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell, starring Scarlett Johansson, is set to be released in march 2017 [ ICv2 ]
• Luc Besson has announced that his next movie as producer and director will be Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, based on the comics by Pierre Christin & Jean-Claude Mézières, which should see a release in 2017 [ ICv2, themarysue.com]

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