Del Rey Announces New Kodansha Acquisitions

    June 15, 2004

(New York, June 15, 2004)-Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House

Publishing Group, announced two new major Kodansha manga acquisitions today,

both geared for release in October of 2004. The Wallflower and Othello are

among the most popular titles published by Kodansha in Japan. Both are shojo

(geared toward girls) manga, although they will appeal equally to females and

males in the U.S.



The Wallflower (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge) by Tomoko Hayakawa tells the

story of four handsome boys who have been given the chance to get free rent,

but only on one condition: They must transform the landlady's niece into a

proper lady! Enter Sunako Nakahara, the agoraphobic, horror-movie-loving,

pockmark-faced, frizzy-haired, fashion-illiterate hermit who has a tendency

to break into explosive nose bleeds whenever she sees anything attractive.

This project is going to take far more than our four heroes ever expected; it

needs a miracle!



Othello, by Kodansha Manga of the Year award winner Satomi Ikezawa, stars

Yaya, the nicest girl in high school-and everyone's favorite doormat. No one

treats her well, but Yaya is just too shy and trusting to believe the worst

of her friends. When it all gets to be too much, Yaya goes away... and a new

personality, Nana, emerges! Nana is ready to show Yaya's false friends for

the slime they are, and to kick some serious butt in the process. But can

Yaya understand what's happening to her mind?



"Othello and The Wallflower represent a great next step from our manga launch

in May," said Del Rey's Director of Manga Dallas Middaugh. "Readers have

praised our translation work and extra materials, and we intend to bring the

same level of quality to these works. Both represent some of the finest shojo

coming out of Japan today, and I hope everyone enjoys reading them as much as

I have!"



These new titles round out the recently launched Del Rey manga program, which

includes Tsubasa, xxxHOLiC, Gundam Seed and Negima! The titles launched in

May 2004 and scored the top two and four out of the top twelve slots on the

Nielsen Bookscan graphic novel bestseller list for the week of their debut.



About Del Rey Books:

Del Rey Books (http://www.delreybooks.com) was founded in 1977 as a division

of Ballantine Books under the guidance of the renowned Judy-Lynn del Rey and

her husband, Lester del Rey. Del Rey publishes the best of modern fantasy,

science fiction and alternate history in hardcover, paperback, and now e-book

formats. The Random House Publishing Group is a publishing group of Random

House, Inc, the U.S. publishing company of Random House, the trade book

publishing division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading

international media companies.



About Kodansha Ltd., Publishers:

Kodansha is the largest trade book publisher in Japan. Founded in 1909, the

company by virtue of its long history, the quality of its publishing, and its

established network of sales and marketing is regarded as the trade book

market leader in the publishing business in Japan. Moreover, Kodansha has

been recognized as the leading publisher with a mission to introduce Japan

through its publishing business.