While Viz have previously published manga-based novels for series like Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, Rurouni Kenshin and other licenses, the publisher also has a separate imprint dedicated entirely to sci-fi and fantasy novels from Japan.
Named “Haikasoru” (high castle), the brand has been used to publish titles such as All You Need is Kill and Brave Story. Viz’s Battle Royale novel (click for preview), by Koushun Takami, is listed under the Haikasoru imprint as well.
Three more releases have been added to the list of Haikasoru licenses, Viz revealed this past week. The second in particular, by Otsuichi, sounds wicked.
HARMONY, by Project Itoh:
In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn’t that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. It doesn’t work, but one of the girls — Tuan Kirie — grows up to be a member of the World Health Organization. As a crisis threatens the harmony of the new world, Tuan rediscovers another member of her suicide pact, and together they must help save the planet…from itself.
Summer, Fireworks and my Corpse and Black Fairy Tale, by Otsuichi (in one book):
Summer is a simple story of a nine-year-old girl who dies while on summer vacation. While her youthful killers try to hide her body, she tells us the story — from the point of view of her dead body — of the boys’ attempt to get away with murder. Black Fairy Tale is classic J-horror: a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. Now she can see again, but what she sees out of her new left eye is the experiences and memories of its previous owner. Its previous deceased owner.
Rocket Girls, by Housuke Nojiri:
Yukari Morita is a high school girl on a quest to find her missing father. While searching for him in the Solomon Islands, she receives the offer of a lifetime—she’ll get the help she needs to find her father, and all she need do in return is become the world’s youngest, lightest astronaut. Yukari and her sister Matsuri, both petite, are the perfect crew for the Solomon Space Association’s launches, or will be once they complete their rigorous and sometimes dangerous training.
The books are available for pre-ordering on Viz’s Haikasoru website now.
