The manga serialization in Newtype Ace with Mizuki Sakakibara as the artist is starting now, and Yaraon already has some sample photos.

I actually haven’t read anything else drawn by Sakakibara so I have no idea how this compares to her usual work. The comic itself looks good judging from the sample photos, but I don’t like the coloring style in the cover and the poster that I included in the previous entry.

This first chapter seems to follow the first anime episode with some alterations. The 2nd sample picture shows a scene that wasn’t in the anime. There’s furigana, like in the first comic anthology, so those not so well-versed in Japanese will have an easier time reading this.

(This manga will go on my “to buy when out as tankobon” list. Like my book shopping list isn’t long enough as it is.)

Update: I was wondering why the magazine cover says 100 pages of Tiger & Bunny yet I was told Sakakibara’s manga chapter is 54 pages. A photo of the list of contents shows three other Tiger & Bunny stories, all by the artists featured in the first anthology from Asuka Comics. I can’t make out the page numbers but the other three stories are definitely enough to bump the page count to 100.

Samples:

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Tiger & Bunny Official Guide Book
HERO GOSSIPS
Publisher: Kadokawa Shoten
ISBN: 9784048547123
Size: A4 / 112 full color pages
Price: 1050 JPY
Buy: [CDJapan] [Hobby Search] [Amazon.jp]

Features:

• Two-sided poster.
• 100 questions to the eight Heroes and answers to them – everything from first crushes to sleep wear and current interests (written by Masafumi Nishida).
• 48 hours with the Heroes – private lives of the Heroes for two days (written by Masafumi Nishida).
• Staff & Cast interviews:
• Staff: Keiichi Satou (director), Masafumi Nishida (screenwriter), Masayuki Ozaki (executive producer), Kazuhiko Tamura & Chinatsu Matsui (producers).
• Cast: Hiroaki Hirata (Kotetsu) & Masakazu Morita (Barnaby) Hero partner talk, round table discussion with the other six Heroes’ voice actors.
• Photos of the eight main cast members taken for this publication.
• Scenes of choice for all Heroes.
• Guide to all 25 episodes of the series with pictures and commentary.

The publisher is also running a campaign where buyers within Japan may also opt in for a lottery for 500 commemorative pins and 100 Apollon Media business cards.

(Source: Yaraon)

Tiger & Bunny may not be able to beat Madoka Magica in numbers of sold Blu-rays (which may be due to print amounts), but it’s a clear winner in number of sold official anime guide books.

These numbers include only the Official Hero Book, I didn’t find information on how well Hero TV Fan vol. 1 has been selling.

1. Tiger & Bunny Official Hero Book ………………….. (980 JPY) …. 26,212 copies
2. Puella Magi Madoka Magica Official Guide Book … (2,000 JPY) ….. 18,827 copies
3. Bakemonogatari Anime Complete Guide Book …… (3,150 JPY) ….. 15,096 copies
4. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun Official Visual Book …… (1,890 JPY) …. 14,271 copies
5. K-on! TV Anime Official Guide Book …………………. (1,679 JPY) ….. 7,874 copies

Source: Yaraon.

More Official Books

2nd volumes of Official Hero Book and Hero TV fan that cover episodes 14-25 are coming out in late October. There are also two complete series guide books coming out in late September, Hero TV Gossips from Kadokawa Shoten and Tiger & Bunny Roman Album from Tokuma Shoten. They’re available for preorder for example at CDJapan.

(I’m not quite sure why they’re making so many guide books but… I’m still going to buy them all, despite overlapping content.)