Kodansha USA Acquires Licensing Rights for Cells at Work! Lady and Drops of God: Mariage – Exciting Announcement

Kodansha USA Publishing announced on Thursday that it will publish the following manga digitally in September:

Title: Cells at Work! Lady
Authors: Shigemitsu Harada (story), Akari Otokawa (art), Akane Shimizu (supervision)
Debut Date: September 12
Summary: Life as a lady can be tough, but life IN a lady is that much tougher. From periods to pregnancies, it can be an emotional ride…especially when you’re the size of a cell. Thankfully, Macrophage, Killer T, Helper T, and White Blood Cell are joined by a host of hard-working allies equipped to deal with the daily struggles of lady life in this female-focused spin-off of Cells at Work!

Otokawa and Harada launched the Cells at Work! Lady (Hataraku Saibō Lady) spinoff manga in Morning two in January 2020, and ended it in September 2022.

Kodansha USA Publishing is also releasing the following spinoff manga in English: Cells at Work: Bacteria!, Cells at Work!: Neo Bacteria!, Cells at Work! White Brigade, Cells at Work! Baby, Cells NOT at Work!, Cells at Work! Code Black, Cells at Work and Friends!, and Cells at Work: Platelets!

Title: Drops of God: Mariage
Authors: Tadashi Agi (story), Shū Okimoto (art)
Debut Date: September 26
Summary: One last challenge stands between Shizuku Kanzaki and his father’s fortune—to identify the wine his father called “The Drops of God” in his will. Problem is, he’s up against Issei Tomine, a famous wine critic his father adopted shortly before his death. Alone and penniless following his journey around the world to gain knowledge and train his senses for the final showdown, Shizuku stumbles into a western-style izakaya to work for food and a place to stay. But when Shizuku uses his newfound smarts to save the struggling business, a competing chain launches an identical menu and enlists the help of a rising sommelier to go head-to-head with them. In order to stay on top and survive this brutal business, it all comes down to perfecting the food and wine pairings—the blissful mariage of flavors which delights the senses.

Siblings Shin and Yuko Kibayashi — under the pen name Tadashi Agi — launched The Drops of God manga with artist Okimoto in Kodansha‘s Morning magazine 2004. A live-action series based on the manga aired in Japan in 2009. The manga ended in June 2014, and the 44th and final compiled book volume shipped in July 2014. The manga’s final arc, titled Marriage ~Kami no Shizuku Saishūshō~ (Marriage ~The Drops of God Final Arc~), launched in May 2015, and it ended in October 2020.

The manga inspired an internationally co-produced, multilingual live-action television series that premiered on Apple TV+ on April 21. The series will begin streaming on Hulu in Japan on September 15.

Source: Email correspondence