Viz Media to make the Inuyasha manga available digitally before the Inuyasha sequel

Viz Media has announced that the legendary manga Inuyasha, which inspired the legendary anime series, will be available digitally in December at today’s official Viz Media panel at New York Comic Con 2020.

After showing the trailer for the long-awaited sequel to Inuyasha, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, manga editor Karla Clark (Kaiju No. 8, 20th Century Boys and the upcoming Asadora!) and Viz Media marketing manager Urian Brown also revealed that the upcoming re-release of Inuyasha creator Rumiko Takahashi’s Mermaid Saga (releasing Nov. 17th) will be available in print and digital with a new translation, new deluxe cover designs and color pages.

At just 30 minutes long, the panel offered a whole lot for fans to be excited about, beginning with a filmed greeting to NYCC viewers by Beastars mangaka Paru Itagaki. Clad, as she always is in public appearances, in a rubber chicken mask, Itagaki expressed her joy that Beastars has received such acclaim and readership in the US. “American comics have incredible art and I really enjoy them,” she said. “So I really wish I could’ve visited Comic Con in person. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this year.”

“Please take care of yourselves,” Itagaki exhorted attendees, “and I hope reading Beastars charges you up a bit!”

After reflecting that it was almost 2 years since Viz discontinued the digital Shonen Jump magazine in favor of the Shonen Jump app, Brown then turned the tables on his co-host, asking Clark what it’s like to be a manga editor.

Clark replied that she really loves the “whole process, from receiving the assets of Japan through each step of production—translation, lettering to editing and proofreading—than to finally seeing it go live and seeing fans get hype on Twitter, Reddit and elsewhere.”

Clark and Brown than switched to hyping new and upcoming releases, beginning with showing a trailer for Ryōsuke Takeuchi and Hikaru Miyoshi’s Moriarty the Patriot, whose first volume was just released in print and digital by Viz October 6th (to tie into the series’ anime adaptation by Production I.G. premiering on the 11th), with the second volume coming on January 5th. The series is a prequel, showcasing the youth of Sherlock Holmes’ greatest nemesis, although, as the trailer revealed, Holmes and Watson do appear.

Clark then noted that the second season box set of One-Punch Man was up for preorder now and releases Nov. 10th. Revealing that the set comes with a booklet, a set of mini art prints and 6 never-before-seen OVAs. She then intro’d a clip from one of the OVAs, “Saitama and the Mediocre Gang,” where everyone’s favorite bald superhero (Makoto Furukawa, Max Mittelman) encountered some lackluster wannabe supervillains, Flames, Shivers and Animal Lover, as they planned a heist in a public restroom.

After a funny comedy bit involving pretending to cut off his own hand with a toy chainsaw, Brown than hyped up Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto, which released its first volume on the 6th (the series also runs weekly on the Jump app), by playing the series’ official trailer, complete with original music.

The duo also revealed that Junji Ito’s REMINA, about a planet that eats all in its path, comes out this December, as does Super Mario Manga Mania, a comedy gag manga by Yukio Sawada. Rainbow Rowell, author of the 2013 YA novel Fangirl, narrated a trailer for Volume 1 of writer Sam Maggs and artist Gabi Nam’s adaptation, which comes out the 13th.

The hosts then went from hyping new manga to talking up new products for the classics. Noting that 10/10/2020 is the birthday of everyone’s favorite loudmouth ninja, Naruto, Clark and Brown hyped up the recent release of a steelbook Blu-Ray set collecting the first three Naruto movies with an original cover by Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man), the upcoming Blu-Ray sets of the original Naruto anime, the just-released new Blu-Ray box set of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, the current VizXNarutoXSanrio fashion collaboration out now and the second drop of the COACHXNaruto fashion collaboration with Michael B. Jordan that comes this November.