Manga Mavericks Licenses Hana Ikuta's Oni & Dawn, Minami Q-ta's Ball & Chain Manga
Manga Mavericks Books announced at Anime Boston on Saturday that it will release Hana Ikuta's Oni & Dawn: Bakumatsu High School Girls (Bakumatsu Joshi Kōsei: Oni to Yoake) manga and Minami Q-ta's Ball and Chain manga.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.Ikuta stated about the English release: The manga is a three-volume series that Two Virgins published in Japan in 2022-2024.Manga Mavericks will release the three volumes in a single volume at A5 (5.83" x 8.27") size. Ikuta debuted as a manga creator in 2017 and is also known for What is Normal Love? and The Shadow and the Flower. Tokyopop will release The Shadow and the Flower in English.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.Ikuta stated about the English release: Manga Mavericks also stated in its announcement that manga creator Minami Q-ta is also non-binary.The manga was nominated for the 30th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in February, and also ranked at #3 on the 2025 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of manga for female readers. The manga runs on the SHURO website, and Magazine House has so far published three volumes.Manga Mavericks will release the manga in 2-in-1 omnibus format at A5 size.Star Fruit Books previously licensed Minami Q-ta's Yurayura, Below the Ceiling, Pop Life, The Blood Red Boy, Birds of Passage, and Not All Girls Are Stupid manga.Source: Press release
