Manga about office worker reincarnated as historical figure Hanbei Takenaka launched in 2019
AI localization company Orange Inc. added Yu Aoyama and Akira Kazumiya‘s Tensei! Hanbei Takenaka: Surviving the Warring Feudal Japan with Fellow Tensei Warlords (Tensei! Takenaka Hanbei: Minor Bushō ni Tensei Shita Nakama-tachi to Sengoku Ranse wo Ikinuku) manga to its “emaqi” e-bookstore service during the week of December 27.
The company describes the manga:
An unambitious office worker in his 30s awakens one day to find himself reincarnated as Hanbei Takenaka, the legendary strategist of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Simultaneously, seven other modern Japanese men also find themselves reincarnated as warlords of the Sengoku era, Japan’s warring states period.
In a mysterious white void, the men all discover a PC displaying a “Chat-Shitsu” page, allowing them to communicate with each other. Can they work together to survive against seasoned warlords like Nobunaga Oda, Ieyasu Tokugawa, and Kenshin Uesugi?
Aoyama launched the story on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in 2016, and the last update was in February 2022. Futabasha shipped the fifth and final volume in May 2020. Megumi Nagahama illustrated the novels.
Kazumiya’s manga adaptation launched on Futabasha‘s Gaugau Monster website in 2019. The seventh volume shipped in November 2023.
Orange launched the emaqi service in the United States and Canada on September 3. The “emaqi” platform featured approximately 6,000 volumes of manga from 13 publishers in its launch, with plans to add at least one new title previously unpublished in English every week. Orange Inc. announced that it has secured translation, publishing, and distribution rights from publishers including Shonengahosha, Futabasha, and Akita Publishing. The company also acquired distribution rights from Kodansha USA Publishing.
The company’s partnership with Shueisha to localize one-shot manga from Shonen Jump+ allows readers to read newly translated stories in English several times a week, for free. Both the emaqi and Shueisha‘s MANGA Plus services are simultaneously publishing the one-shot manga. MANGA Plus had also announced its new program to release all one-shots from the Shonen Jump+ service in English simultaneously.
Readers can create a free account on emaqi and access the platform’s wide range of content. Each manga has a detailed synopsis, and sample chapters or previews that are available for readers to try out. Readers can buy individual volumes of a manga title, or subscribe to an ongoing series directly through the platform.
emaqi is web-based, and Orange is considering launching the service as a mobile app next year.
Source: E-mail correspondence
