Broccoli Books Announces New Title, sola and Honoka Level Up!

Los Angeles, CA (January 25, 2008) – Broccoli Books is extremely proud to announce that they have acquired the publishing rights and license for the extremely popular manga series sola by Chako Abeno and the video game-centric manga series Honoka Level Up! written by Akiyoshi Ohta and illustrated by MATSUDA98.

About sola
sola is a continuing series serialized through the monthly Japanese seinen manga Dengeki Daioh, which is published by MediaWorks.

Yorito is a high school student who likes to take photographs of the sky. A chance meeting introduces him to Matsuri, but she is no ordinary girl—it turns out that she's actually a 350 year-old Yaka, an immortal being that cannot go out into the light! As such, Matsuri has been forced to live a life of solitude, and Yorito is the first friend she's ever had. But there is much more to the Yaka than first meets the eye, and a sword-wielding man named Takeshi seems intent on harming Matsuri, but for what reason? Thrust into a supernatural battle, will Yorito have the courage to protect their friendship for Matsuri's sake?

About Chako Abeno
Chako Abeno is a prolific illustrator and manga artist whose works include the manga in white Pure Story and My-Otome zwei.

About sola project
The manga sola is part of a huge mixed media venture known as sola project, which encompass manga, anime, drama CDs, music CDs, and internet radio shows. All of them are based off of the original story by Naoki Hisaya and character designs by Naru Nanao. Naoki Hisaya is most widely known for being the main writer for the highly successful visual novel Kanon while working under Key/Visual Art's. Naru Nanao is a famous character designer whose works include the original character designs for the D.C. ~Da Capo~ visual novel by Circus and the female character design for the game series Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two by Minori.

The animated sola was well received in Japan, earning the best anime that aired in 2007 in a poll from the company Spider Networks. Over 2 million votes in Japan were tallied for sola to result in first place.

About Honoka Level Up!
Honoka Level Up is serialized in the monthly magazine, Monthly Dengeki Comic Gao!

As a lonely girl who draws for fun, Honoka was just a regular student until the day her uncle, Ryuichi, hired her to work as a character designer at his newly created game company. Now thrust into a complex, corporate world, newcomer Honoka begins to learn the ins and outs of the video game industry: the politics involved, each person's responsibilities, and how a game is put together. It’s a lot to take in, but one thing's for sure—she's going to step up her game if she wants to succeed, as putting together a video game is no easy task!

A realistic story about what it's like to work for a video game company. Learn about the gaming industry through Honoka's eyes.

About Akiyoshi Ohta
Akiyoshi Ohta is a superb writer for manga and video games. His experience working in the video game industry provides realistic situations in Honoka Level Up!. He has also worked on titles such as CLANNAD Anthology Novel 2 and We Are – Cruel Angels-.

About MATSUDA98
MATSUDA98 (Read as Matsuda Kyuu Hachi) is a manga artist, illustrator, and doujinshi creator. Her unique and cute art style has been used for the trading card game, Aquarian Age Saga II, and the Ragnarok online anthology comic. She also has multiple color magazine illustrations, novel covers, and other arts throughout the anime, manga, and game industry.

About Broccoli Books
Broccoli Books specializes in publishing Japanese comics, illustration books, and graphic novels. Broccoli Books is a division of Broccoli International USA. More information is available at http://www.broccolibooks.com.

Information About Other Broccoli International USA Divisions Can Be Found At:
Broccoli International USA, Inc. http://www.bro-usa.com (Corporate)
Synch-Point http://www.synch-point.com (Anime Production)
Broccoli Books http://www.broccolibooks.com (Manga Production)