Nao Yazawa to Create Manga for Americans

Japanese toy development company Plex has officially announced plans to publish a new, full color, original shoujo manga by Nao Yazawa in America. Yazawa, the creator of Wedding Peach, will write and illustrate Nozomi, a 56 page one-shot, full color manga specifically created for American readers. Unlike traditional manga, Nozomi will be written and illustrated in Western left-to-right format with more horizontal sound effects closer to what American readers are familiar with in American comics. Nozomi will go on sale this July for $5.95, published by Fanboy Entertainment.

A special preview edition of Nozomi will be available at Anime Expo. And Yazawa herself will be on hand to promote the manga at San Diego Comic Com and Chicago’s Anime Reactor convention later this year.

Also in July, Viz will begin publishing an English translation of Nao Yazawa’s Wedding Peach manga. The Wedding Peach anime has also apparently been licensed for American release by an undisclosed distributor.