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Viz Licenses Children of the Whales, SP Baby, Juni Taisen (Updated)

Viz Media announced during its panel at Anime Boston on Friday that it will release Abi Umeda's Children of the Whales (Kujira no Kora wa Sajō ni Utau, pictured at right) and Maki Enjōji SP Baby (SP x Baby) manga, as well as NisiOisin and Hikaru Nakamura's Juni Taisen: Zodiac Warriors light novel. The company will also release the Tokyo Ghoul Illustrations: Zakki art book and the Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories book, both of which are slated for this winter.

Viz Media also announced that it will release the first volumes of the Naruto: Chibi Sasuke's Sharingan Legend, Astra Lost in Space, and The Promised Neverland digitally and in print. In addition, it will release ēlDLIVE, The Emperor and I, and Tokyo Ghoul: Jack digitally. Astra Lost in Space and The Promised Neverland are slated for this winter. Viz Media is already offering chapters from these series online.

Viz Media also announced that it will release Death Note in an all-in-one edition this August. Viz Media confirmed with ANN that the release will be the same as the Japanese edition, which is 2,400 pages and includes a special story that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in November 2008 to commemorate the release of the third Death Note movie, L: Change the World.

Finally, Viz announced that its stream of the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations television anime will premiere on its website on April 12. Hulu and Crunchyroll will stream the series beginning on April 5.

The Children of the Whales manga's story takes place in a world covered in sand. A boy named Chakuro lives on the giant vessel Mud Whale that drifts over the sea of sand. Chakuro and his friends have never seen anyone from the outside world, and they spend their days yearning to explore and learn about it. One day, a ruined ship suddenly drifts ashore, and Chakura meets a girl inside.

Viz Media will begin releasing the manga this November.

Umeda launched the series in the Monthly Mystery Bonita magazine in 2013 as her second shōjo manga. Akita Shoten released the ninth compiled book volume on March 16. J.C. Staff is adapting the manga into a television anime that will premiere in October. The series inspired a stage play adaptation that ran at AiiA 2.5 Theater Tokyo last April.

SP x Baby follows a part-time worker named Tamaki who is in the middle of searching for a full-time job so he can pay for his brilliant younger brother's tuition.

The series launched in Shogakukan's Petit Comic magazine in August 2014, and ended in December 2015. Shogakukan released the manga's second and final compiled book volume last March.

Enjōji ended her Dear Brother! manga in April 2014. Viz Media licensed Enjōji's 10-volume Happy Marriage!? manga series in North America, and the company released all 10 volumes of the manga.

Juni Taisen centers on the "greatest battle royale novel ever," where 12 warriors who are burdened with the names of the 12 Chinese Zodiac members fight with each other's lives and pride at stake, all to grant just one wish.

Viz will release the novel in a hardcover format this October.

Nisioisin (Monogatari Series, Medaka Box) and Nakamura (Saint Young Men, Arakawa Under the Bridge) published the novel in May 2015. Graphinica is adapting the series into a television anime, which will debut with the "first 12-episode season" this year.

NisiOisin and Nakamura previously collaborated on the one-shot manga "Dōshitemo Kanaetai Tatta Hitotsu no Negai to Wari to Sōdemonai 99 no Negai" (The only wish I want granted by all means is comparable to 99 wishes) in Shueisha's Young Jump magazine in January 2015. The stories of the one shot and Jūni Taisen are connected.

Viz Media describes Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories:

A stunning must-read release from the master of horror manga. This volume includes nine of Junji Ito's best short stories, as selected by the author himself and presented with accompanying notes and commentary. An arm peppered with tiny holes dangles from a sick girl's window… After an idol hangs herself, balloons bearing faces appear in the sky, some even featuring your own face… An amateur film crew hires an extremely individualistic fashion model and faces a real bloody ending… An offering of nine fresh nightmares for the delectation of horror fans.

Viz Media will release the volume this December.

Update: More information on Death Note omnibus added.