Del Rey has added three more manga series to its highly successful lineup.  The three new series, Gacha Gacha, Ghost Hunt and Sugar Sugar Rune, will debut in the fall of 2005.  The first release, Gacha Gacha, is the work of creator Hiroyuki Tamakoshi, the artist for the popular Boys Be manga series, who is the sole creator of Gacha Gacha, the story of a typical Japanese teenage boy with a crush on a beautiful but distant classmate, who returns from a vacation to Hawaii with a very different alternate personality.  The first volume of the 'OT' (16 and up) rated Gacha Gacha manga will hit retail on August 30th with subsequent volumes appearing on a quarterly basis.

 

The second new Del Rey series, Ghost Hunt, is a manga adaptation of a novel by Fuyumi Ono about a group of high school students who investigate their school, which may be haunted by ghosts from the WW II era who are upset that their houses were razed to make way for the school.  Ghost Hunt Volume 1, which is rated 'T' (13 and up), will be in stores on September 27 with additional volumes appearing every three months.

 

Also in store on September 27th is Sugar Sugar Rune, a new 'magical girl' series from Moyoco Anno.   The 'Y' (10 and up) rated Sugar Sugar Rune, the story of two young witches on a quest to find out who deserves to be queen of their magical realm, should appeal to fans of Sailor Moon.  New volumes of Sugar Sugar Rune will appear every six months -- mirroring their Japanese release schedule and demonstrating that American manga publishers are now publishing the latest hot titles from Japan with, in some cases at least, very little lag time.