Kodansha Comics license Attack on Titan: Lost Girls, more new manga

Manga publisher Kodansha Comics had a busy time of it yesterday, with no fewer than seven new titles to announce that will be coming to the west in due course. Needless to say, there's another addition to their slate of Attack on Titan titles on that list, but what have they ipcked up precisely? Here's the full list:

- Attack on Titan: Lost Girls - With a story by Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama himself, this is the backstory of Annie Leonhart and Mikasa Ackerman, the series’ two most beloved female characters. The series is adapted from a novel which is set for a release by Vertical Inc in June.

You can expect to see the first volume of this manga arrive sometime during the summer.

- Sweetness and Lightning - Teacher Kouhei is a single father who is terrible at cooking. His adorable little daughter Tsumugi barely remembers the cooking of her mother, who’s passed away. But, then, the pair comes across a teenage girl eating rice balls and crying (in joy?) at the park. She takes Kouhei and Tsumugi to her mother’s restaurant, where they taste their first home-cooked meal in ages. A tribute to the power of food to bind people together!

The series is already available digitially and on Crunchyroll's manga service, but the first volume of its print release will appear this July (alongside its summer season anime adaptation).

- Cells at Work - Known in Japan as Hataraku Saibo, this is an action shonen manga set inside a human body! The average human body contains about 60 trillion cells, and each of them has work to do! But when you get injured, viruses or bacteria invade, or when an allergic reaction flares up, everyone from the silent but deadly white blood cells to the brainy neurons has to work together to get through the crisis.

The first volume of the series is slated to arrive in the autumn.

- The Prince in his Dark Days - This is a rags-to-riches four-volume romantic drama by Hiko Yamanaka. Atsuko’s father is a drunk, and she’s shunned by her classmates as “the poor kid.” Walking the streets in a dark fog of despair, Atsuko cons perverts out of their money to survive. Then, one day, she meets Itaru, the heir to a wealthy family, who happens to look exactly like her. Itaru hatches a plan: Atsuko will live his tedious public life for him, and she will get a taste of the luxuries enjoyed by the 1%. Everybody’s (finally) happy. Right?

Volume one of this series is also expected to arrive in the autumn.

- Welcome to the Ballroom - Tomo Takeuchi's  action-packed, beautifully-drawn shonen battle manga… except with ballroom dancing! Fujita has drifted through middle school aimlessly, unable to find friends or anything that can hold his attention. Then, one day, he’s attacked by a gang and saved by a mysterious man. But this isn’t a karate master; it’s a ballroom dance instructor! Reluctantly, Fujita takes a few beginner’s classes, only to find his inspiration… an entrancing, teenage dance prodigy named Shizuku. It’s Fujita’s first step into the high-octane world of competitive dance!

Again, expect an autumn release for volume one of the series.

- That Wolf-Boy is Mine! - This is an adorable romantic comedy full of shapeshifting boys, in the vein of Fruits Basket! Komugi’s not sure what to expect when her family moves to remote Hokkaido and she starts at a new high school. But she certainly didn’t expect a boy to come up to her and say, “Gee… you smell good!” That boy is Yu Ogami, and Komugi finds herself strangely drawn to him. But when she sees him in an unguarded moment, she discovers he’s half wolf! Now she has a choice to make: to keep his secret, or to ask for help and risk angering a wolf-boy?

Once again, the series is scheduled to debut in the autumn.

- Spectre - This series is known in Japan as Kyokou Suiri, and with art by Chasiba Katase and story by the renowned mystery author Kyo Shirodaira, creator of Spiral, Record of a Fallen Vampire, and Blast of Tempest. When she was still just a girl, Kotoko was kidnapped by yokai. These spirits made her into a powerful intermediary between the spirit and human worlds, but this power came at a price: an eye and a leg. Now, years later, she watches out for dangerous yokai while developing feelings for a young man named Kuro, who is also special: an incident with a yokai has given him healing powers. He’s surprised when Kotoko asks him to team up to handle renegade yokai, preserving the thin line between reality and the supernatural.

As per most of these other titles, the first volume of the series will appear in the autumn.