E-books have been in the news a lot lately, what with the iPad, Amazon vs Publishers, and the Nintendo DSi XL all relating to e-books or e-readers in someway.  But none of this news has really had much of an impact on manga readers except to build up hope that we might one days see manga on these platforms.  Well, finally news comes from Japan through mobile manga provider NTT Solmare, that 3 publishers will not only be bringing out manga magazines for mobile devices in Japan, but that they plan to release these for the US as well.

These magazines won’t just be re-releases of previously printed material, as most mobile manga has been.  These will have new titles premiering on the mobile platform.  NTT Solmare has released some mobile manga already, but only on the Apple apps store for iPhone/iTouch users only.  This new inititive intends to reach out to other mobile platforms and to e-readers such as the Kindle.

What really makes this announcement exciting is some of the creators that are being tapped for the debut.  One of the creators is Sakura Kinoshita.  I love her work even through it hasn’t done so well over here.  She’s only had two titles licensed so far, Mythical Detective Loki Ragnorok and tactics.  Both were licensed by ADV Manga and only had two volumes released before they stopped publishing.  tactics was picked up by Tokyopop, but has been a slow seller.  To get to read a new series from her would be totally awesome!  And the title of one of the proposed magazines, Takeshobo’s Shin Kindan Grimm Dowa (Grimm’s True Forbbiden Fairy Tales) sounds like it will be full of cool titles as well.  I love the Japanese take on fairy tales.

This is an announcement to really look forward to.