Manga creator Makoto Raiku announced on Saturday that the Konjiki no Gash!! 2 (Zatch Bell 2) Series will launch on various digital book services in mid-March. Raiku will announce the precise launch date when it is decided.
Raiku is best known for his Zatch Bell (Konjiki no Gash!!) manga series, which he launched in Shogakukan‘s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in 2001 and ended in 2007. Shogakukan published 33 compiled book volumes for the series. Viz Media released the first 25 volumes of the manga in North America before discontinuing the title. Viz describes the story:
Kiyomaro Takamine is a brilliant junior high student whose inflated ego (and tendency to blow the grading curve) has made him a major target for teasing at school. So his father sends him a bizarre birthday present — a strange little boy named Gash — to help him make friends and reform his bad attitude. Gash brings with him a mysterious red volume of spells, and Kiyomaro discovers that Gash has magic powers that are unleashed by reading from the book! But there are more surprises to come, and Kiyomaro’s destiny is about to change forever!
The manga inspired a 150-episode television anime that ran from 2003 to 2006, as well as the Zatch Bell: 101st Deviland the Zatch Bell: Attack of Mechavulcan anime films in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Toonami aired 77 episodes of the anime from 2005 to 2007. Viz Media released the first 100 episodes of the series through DVD compilations from 2005 to 2007, and the same episodes are available in Crunchyroll.
Raiku stopped working with Shogakukan after settling a lawsuit with the publisher regarding five color art pieces by Raiku that the publisher had lost.
Raiku launched his Animal Land (Dōbutsu no Kunimanga in Kodansha‘s Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in 2009, and ended it in 2013. Kodansha published 14 compiled book volumes for the series. Kodansha Comics published the manga in North America.
Raiku launched the school fantasy manga Vector Ball in April 2016, but abruptly ended it in March 2017.
Source: Makoto Raiku‘s Twitter account via Hachima Kikō