The Ancient Magus' Bride's Kore Yamazaki to Attend Crunchyroll Expo

Crunchyroll announced on Monday that it will host manga creator Kore Yamazaki at this year's Crunchyroll Expo event. Yamazaki will participate in a discussion about her The Ancient Magus' Bride manga, and will have an autograph session.

Yamazaki made her debut with her Futari no Renai Shoka (Our Romantic Bookshelf) manga in Hobunsha's Manga Time Kirara Forwardmagazine in 2012. She ended the series in 2013. Her next series is The Ancient Magus' Bride (Mahō Tsukai no Yome), which launched in Mag Garden's Monthly Comic Blade magazine in November 2013, and later migrated to the publisher's new Comic Garden magazine in September 2014. The manga has seven volumes out in Japan. Seven Seas Entertainment's North American releases of the manga volumes have ranked several times on The New York Times newspaper's manga best seller list.

Yamazaki launched another series titled Frau Faust in Kodansha's Itan magazine in 2014, and the manga now has four volumes out in Japan. Kodansha Comics licensed the title for North America.

Yamazaki's The Ancient Magus' Bride manga is inspiring a three-prequel OVAseries titled The Ancient Magus' Bride: Those Awaiting a Star. The third episode will premiere in theaters in Japan on August 19. The manga is also inspiring a television anime adaptation in October. Crunchyroll is streaming the prequel OVAand will also stream the television anime. Crunchyroll screened the first three episodes of the television anime at this year's Anime Expo, and also screened it in 300 theaters in the United States on July 26.

Crunchyroll announced its plan to have its own convention after reaching 1 million subscribers in February. Crunchyroll Expo will be held on August 25-27 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. Other announced guests include illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, animator Hiroshi Shimizu, and figure skater Johnny Weir.