This year’s 18th issue of Akita Shoten‘s Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine revealed on Thursday that Masami Kurumada‘s Saint Seiya: Next Dimension – The Myth of Hades manga will resume in the magazine’s 20th issue on April 13 with the manga’s “Final Series Prequel.” The manga last appeared in the magazine in July 2021.

Kurumada has been serializing the manga since 2006, and Akita Shoten will release the 14th compiled book volume on April 7. Kurumada previously stated in September 2022 that the manga’s “final series” would have 16 chapters.

Kurumada published the original Saint Seiya manga from 1986 to 1990. The manga has inspired a number of television anime, original video anime projects, anime films, and spinoff manga.

Knights of the Zodiac, the live-action Hollywood film based on the original manga, will open in Japan on April 28. The film is titled Saint Seiya: The Beginning in Japan. The film will begin screening in the U.S. on May 12.

Source: Weekly Shōnen Champion issue 18

The World Screen publication’s TVKids news website reported on Friday that France’s Mediatoon Distribution has acquired the worldwide distribution rights for the second season of the television anime of Hiro Mashima‘s Edens Zero manga.

Mediatoon Distribution is the distributor for the French versions of several anime titles such as Fairy Tail, Naruto, Naruto Shippūden, Hunter × Hunter. The company also owns five in-house studios, Belvision, Dargaud Media, Dupuis Audiovisuel, Ellipsanime, and Storimages.

The second season of Edens Zero will premiere on April 1 at 24:55 (effectively, April 2 at 12:55 a.m. or April 1 at 11:55 a.m. EDT) on NTV and its affiliates.

The new cast members for the season include:

Takanori Nishikawa performs the second season’s opening theme song “Never say Never.” ASCA performs the ending theme song “Rinne” (Reincarnation Cycle).

The first season premiered in Japan in April 2021, and aired for 25 episodes. The show began streaming on Netflix outside of Japan in August 2021.

Shinji Ishihara (Fairy Tail, Log Horizon) was the chief director of the first season at J.C. Staff, and Yūshi Suzuki (episode director for Fairy Tail season 3) directed the season. Suzuki passed away on September 9, 2021. Mitsutaka Hirota (Zoids Wild, Rent-A-Girlfriend) oversaw and wrote the series scripts, and Yurika Sako (key animation for Food Wars! The Third Plate) designed the characters for animation.

Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail, Rave Master) launched the manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in June 2018. Kodansha USA Publishing releases the manga in English both digitally and in print. The company describes the story:

At Granbell Kingdom, an abandoned amusement park, Shiki has lived his entire life among machines. But one day, Rebecca and her cat companion Happy appear at the park’s front gates. Little do these newcomers know that this is the first human contact Granbell has had in a hundred years! As Shiki stumbles his way into making new friends, his former neighbors stir at an opportunity for a robo-rebellion…And when his old homeland becomes too dangerous, Shiki must join Rebecca and Happy on their spaceship and escape into the boundless cosmos.

The manga is also inspiring a 3D action RPG for consoles, and a top-down RPG for mobile devices. Konami is developing the games.

Source: World Screen’s TVKids

Crunchyroll announced on Friday that it will stream My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999, the television anime adaptation of Mashiro‘s Loving Yamada at Lv999! (Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru) manga, from April 1 as part of its spring 2023 simulcast lineup. The service began streaming an English subtitled trailer for the anime.

The anime will debut on Tokyo MX, Tochigi TV, Gunma TV, and BS11 on April 1 at 00:30 a.m. JST (effectively, April 2 at 12:30 a.m. or April 1 at 11:30 a.m. EDT). Crunchyroll describes the anime:

Akane Kinoshita, a female college student, faces the absolute worst situation when she ends up breaking up with her boyfriend after he has an affair with a woman he met playing an online game. While relieving her stress by rampaging through the open hunting grounds of an online game, Akane spills everything about her heartbreak to “Yamada”, a player she met by chance who happens to be in the same guild. “I don’t care,” is his curt reply. But when Akane gets a makeover and joins an offline event to get back at her ex-boyfriend, she hears those dreadful words again. And that was Akane’s fateful encounter with “Yamada.”

The anime stars:

KANA-BOON is performing the opening theme song “Gradation feat. Yūho Kitazawa,” and Ryūjin Kiyoshi is performing the ending theme song “Trick Art.”

Morio Asaka (Chihayafuru, Card Captor Sakura, My Love Story!!) is directing the anime at Madhouse. Kunihiko Hamada is designing the characters and Yasuhiro Nakanishi (A Couple of Cuckoos, Kaguya-sama: Love is War) is in charge of the series scripts. Mito from the group Clammbon (Yurei Deco) and DÉ DÉ MOUSE (Wonder Egg Priority) are composing the music.

Mangamo is releasing the manga in English.

Mashiro debuted the manga in 2018. Kadokawa published the manga’s sixth compiled book volume on October 21.

Loving Yamada at Lv999! won the Grand Prize in the 6th Annual Tsutaya Comic Awards 2022. It has more than 1 million copies in circulation in Japan.

Source: Email correspondence