VIZ MEDIA ACQUIRES
NAOKI URASAWA’S THRILLING SUSPENSE SERIES
MASTER KEATON
Manga
Series About An Investigator With An Unorthodox Set Of Skills From
The Award-Winning Creator Of MONSTER And 20th
CENTURY BOYS Debuts In English In December
San
Francisco, CA, March 4, 2014 – VIZ
Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of manga
and anime in North America, has announced it has acquired the North
American publishing rights for Naoki Urasawa’s post–Cold War
suspense thriller, MASTER KEATON. The 12-volume manga (graphic novel)
series has never before been available in English and is scheduled to
launch in print in December under the VIZ Signature imprint.
MASTER
KEATON was created and drawn by the award-winning manga artist Naoki
Urasawa, story coproduced
with Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi
Nagasaki. MASTER KEATON will be rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens and
carry an MSRP of $19.99 U.S. / $22.99 CAN. Each paperback volume will
receive a deluxe treatment, including 18 pages of full-color artwork.
In addition to publishing MASTER KEATON in North America, VIZ Media
will also release it in print in the United Kingdom and Australia.
The
riveting detective drama introduces Taichi
Hiraga-Keaton, an archeology professor and part-time insurance
investigator known for his successful and unorthodox methods of
investigation. The son of a Japanese zoologist and an English
noblewoman, educated in archaeology at Oxford and a former member of
the SAS, Master Keaton uses his knowledge and combat training to
uncover buried secrets, thwart would-be villains, and pursue the
truth. The manga series was originally published in Japan between
1988 and 1994 in Big
Comic Original magazine and also
inspired a popular 39-episode anime adaptation.
Source: Crunchyroll.com |
Naoki
Urasawa's
career as a manga artist spans more than twenty years and has firmly
established him as one of the true manga masters of Japan. The
acclaimed creator won a 2011 Eisner Award
for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia for his
series, 20th
CENTURY BOYS (also published by VIZ Media).
Born in Tokyo in 1960, Urasawa debuted with Beta!
in 1983 and hasn't stopped his impressive output since. Well-versed
in a variety of genres, Urasawa's oeuvre encompasses a multitude of
different subjects, such as a romantic comedy (Yawara!
A Fashionable Judo Girl), a
suspenseful human drama about a former mercenary (Pineapple
Farm; story by Kazuya
Kudo), a captivating psychological
suspense story (Naoki
Urasawa's Monster), a sci-fi
adventure manga (NAOKI
URASAWA’S 20th
CENTURY BOYS), and a modern
reinterpretation of the work of the God of Manga, Osamu
Tezuka in Pluto:
UrAsawa × Tezuka. Many of his
books have also spawned popular animated and live-action TV movies,
and 2008 saw the theatrical release of the first of three live-action
Japanese films based on NAOKI
URASAWA’S 20th
CENTURY BOYS.
No stranger to accolades and awards, Urasawa is a three-time recipient of the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award, a two-time recipient of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, and has received the Kodansha Manga Award. Urasawa has also become involved in the world of academia, and in 2008 accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University, where he teaches courses in, of course, manga.
For
more information on MASTER KEATON,
or other award-winning manga titles from VIZ Media, please visit
www.VIZ.com.
About
VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered
in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and
licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan. Owned by
three of Japan's largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha
Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co.,
Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for
English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom,
Ireland and South Africa. With its popular digital manga anthology
WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and
INUYASHA, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family
friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy
fans of all ages. VIZ Media properties are available as graphic
novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable
and streaming video and a variety of consumer products. Learn more
about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.
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