Manga Mavericks Books announced the licensing of two new manga series during its panel at Anime Boston, which will be released in the last quarter of 2026 and early 2027. The new manga titles include Oni & Dawn: Bakumatsu High School Girls and Ball & Chain.
Here are the details on the new licenses:
Oni & Dawn: Bakumatsu High School Girls
© 2022 Ikuta Hana/TWO VIRGINS Co., Ltd.
Story and Art: Hana Ikuta
Release Date: October 2026
The manga series will be released in single volumes at A5 (5.83″ x 8.27″) size. Print pre-orders for the first volume are available here.
Synopsis:
Pack your bags and grab your sword, because class is now in session for this dramatic GL series.
Somewhere in Japan, very special students have gathered at Koharu Girls’ High School. What makes them special, you ask?
Sakamoto, Takasugi, Katsura, Katsu, Hijikata, Okita, Kondo…
All these girls possess the souls of the great samurai from the Bakumatsu period! Living as teenage girls with their memories intact, they must navigate modern society, deal with messy historical baggage, and fight for love in a school that forbids romance.
Ball & Chain
© 2024 Qta Minami/MAGAZINE HOUSE Co., Ltd
Story and Art: Minami Q-ta
Release Date: March 2027
The manga series will be released in a 2-in-1 omnibus format at A5 (5.83″ x 8.27″) size. The first omnibus volume is now available for print pre-order here.
The manga is also currently nominated for the 30th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
Synopsis:
“Maybe I could have chosen something different…”
Keito is a late-20s company employee who’s planning to get married as a “woman,” despite not feeling cemented into a specific gender or sexuality.
Meanwhile, Aya is a married woman in her 50s who continues playing out the role of “wife” despite being in a marriage that’s long since gone cold.
They both struggle with a gender that was decided upon birth and the “wife” role that became nothing more than a pantomime at some point.
This is a story of two queer people who harbor doubts about how they’ve been treated and shoved into a “normalized” box, and try to take back their true selves.
Source: press release
