Most prolific female mangaka and famous for her long epic (ahem) stories, Rumiko Takahashi will be penning new manga called Kyoukai no Rinne and what is different this time is her new manga will be published at simultaneously in USA and Japan. Slated for debut on 22nd April 2009, the US edition will be available at Viz exclusive site of hers, The Rumic World.
This is her latest work after finished the long winded and draggy 56 volumes (holy shit) of Inuyasha. I remembered that after I finished volume 38 of Ranma, I swear that I will never touch her works anymore, LOL. Most of her detractors denounced her as commercialized, shameless drag-on mangaka specialist, her defenders asserted that she often did not have choice of say in her work, her publishers tend to squeeze as much marketability as possible from her work until it is dry. I kinda in between of these 2 main opinions on Rumiko Takahashi. However amongst veteran anime fans especially females (25 years old and above), her work is well liked and have huge following from this particular demography group.
The story of new manga is about a girl who got lost in woods mysteriously then acquire ability to see ghosts and spirits. It is not known if this will be horror story like Mermaid Saga or comedy hi-jinks like Ranma.
This represents new effort by legitimate business entity in manga industry to combat illegal scanlators, mirroring Animax simulcast of Full Metal Alchemist : Brotherhood and Tears of Tiara. I am quite skeptical if this initiative will be successful but it is definitely a backhand compliment on how pervasive scanlators are in bringing latest manga chapters from Japan to international audience.
It will remains to be seen if this effort worth the trouble or not. Or how long this manga series will be (grimaces and wince in pain at the thought).
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