Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, announced it will be publishing two new manga under the Graphix imprint. The first volume of Hikaru in the Light! by Mai Matsuda will be published in March 2025, and the first volume of Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms by Yoshino Koyoka and TriF will follow in April 2025.
Scholastic will publish the new manga titles in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia. Hikaru in the Light! and Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms will each be published in four volumes, with each volume releasing every four months. Both manga will be published in the traditional Japanese format of reading right-to-left and will be printed in full-color, in collaboration with KiraKira Media Inc.’s digital manga service, Azuki.
Hikaru in the Light! was first serialized in Futabasha’s Japanese magazine Manga Action in May 2021, and licensed in English by Azuki in 2022. Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms is an original anime series created and directed by Sae Okamoto, and started as a Kickstarter-backed project in 2016. The full-fledged anime series is produced by TriF and will be released in October 2024. English-language rights for the Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms manga are also held by Azuki.
David Saylor, VP, Publisher, Graphix, says “Following the publication of Graphix’s first manga, Unico: Awakening by Osamu Tezuka, Samuel Sattin, and Gurihiru (On sale August 6th, 2024; Graphix; ages 8 to 12), we couldn’t be more thrilled to add Hikaru in the Light! and Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms to our manga lineup. Working closely with the original publishers and artists, we will be publishing these series in full color, which will be sure to excite young readers eager to dive into manga.”
“Hikaru in the Light! and Mecha-Ude’s stories of young people forging friendships through adversity captivated us when we first selected them to join Azuki’s digital catalog,” says Azuki Co-Founder and Licensing/Marketing Director Evan Minto. “These series represent just a small slice of the amazing stories that Japanese manga has to offer, and we’re excited to partner with Scholastic to introduce them to new readers, both manga fans and newcomers alike, in these beautiful print editions.”
About HIKARU IN THE LIGHT!
Middle-school student Hikaru Ogino is known as the “songbird” of her family’s bath house in Tokyo. But when her best friend Ran — a former girl group idol — invites her to try out for a pop star “survival camp” together, it’ll put her talents to the test. Can Hikaru outshine the competition and make her stage debut, or will she fall flat?
About Mai Matsuda
Mai Matsuda is a manga artist from Chiba, Japan. Her works include Houkago Kitaku Biyori and Kinshi-chou Night Survive.
About MECHA-UDE: MECHANICAL ARMS
Kita-Kagami City is a pretty normal town… except that some people have gotten their hands on Mecha-Ude: powerful, sentient, mechanical beings that attach themselves to their human hosts and have awesome capabilities. When middle-school kid Hikaru accidentally activates Alma, a robotic arm Mecha-Ude that has no memory of its past, they must team up to uncover the mystery of Alma’s identity and prevent the powerful Mecha-Ude from ending up in the wrong hands.
About Yoshino Koyoka
Yoshino Koyoka is a manga artist based in Tokyo. Her works include the manga adaptation of Aria the Scarlet Ammo. Loves: robots and tokusatsu films. Dislikes: raw eggs and raw fish (despite being Japanese).
About Graphix
Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic, is committed to publishing creator-driven graphic novels for early, middle grade and young adult readers. Graphix launched in 2005 with the publication of Jeff Smith’s acclaimed epic series, BONE. Graphix titles have become bestsellers around the globe and continue to receive awards and critical acclaim including multiple Eisner Award wins and nominations, a National Book Award Longlist selection (Hey, Kiddo), a Stonewall Book Award Honor (Drama), a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor (Smile), an Edgar Allan Poe nomination (The Lost Boy), and more than twenty-five New York Times bestsellers to date. The list now features the Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey, Raina Telgemeier’s books, the Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi, the Sunny books by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm, Twins by Varian Johnson and Shannon Wright, Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter, the Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman, and the graphic novel adaptations of The Baby-sitters Club and Wings of Fire series.
About Azuki and KiraKira Media Inc.
Azuki is a digital comics publisher and subscription app dedicated to expanding worldwide access to new manga series from Japan. The app is available on the web at www.azuki.co and in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, and includes over 300 manga series in its subscription library, plus thousands of purchasable ebooks. Azuki is operated by a small team of passionate manga fans and tech experts at KiraKira Media Inc. in San Francisco, CA.
