About the Manga
Kyokai no RINNE began serialization in 2009, following nearly a year after she wrapped up her longest running series, Inuyasha. Weekly Shonen Sunday was busy celebrating their 50th anniversary at the time of Kyokai no RINNE's debut, and Takahashi herself was celebrating her 30th anniversary as a mangaka, two factors which both contributed to a significant amount of fanfair surrounding the debut of this series.
| Weekly Serializations in Shonen Sunday (少年サンデー) |
Rumiko Takahashi has published her work in Shonen Sunday since the beginning of her career in the late 1970s. Kyokai no RINNE was first published in Shonen Sunday 2009 Vol. 21-22, a double issue. Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha all ran in this weekly magazine during the 1970s, '80s, '90s and 2000s. Takahashi also semi-regularly publishes her work in other Shogakukan owned magazines such as Big Comic Spirits (Maison Ikkoku) and Young Sunday (One-Pound Gospel). Approximately 18 pages are published each week per chapter. Up to 21 other manga stories are published in Shonen Sunday each week alongside Kyokai no RINNE, some of the most notable that ran concurrently were Detective Conan by Gosho Aoyama, Cross Game by Mitsuru Adachi, The World God Only Knows by Tamiki Wakaki and Major by Takuya Mitsuda.
This is also the one of the only place to find the original color illustrations that Takahashi created for the series. Because the magazines are not meant to be kept these color illustrations have been particularly challenging to find. Each week a different artist is commissioned to do the cover and the first few pages which are done in color. With the exception of artbooks, these color pages are usually never reprinted. These days many artists use computers to color their work, but Rumiko Takahashi has stated she does not own a computer. She primarily uses watercolor for her coloring work. |
| Tankobon (単行本) |
A few months after a title has been published in Shonen Sunday, they are collected into a small graphic novel called a tankobon. As a series gets older it is sometimes collected into other formats such as wideban, bunkoban, or shinsoban formats. At 40 tankobon volumes Kyokai no RINNE went on to become Takahashi's second longest series after Inuyasha.
Shonen Sunday tankobon are all printed in the Japanese B6 format (12.8 cm × 18.2 cm or 5.04 in × 7.17 in). |
| Art Books |
Kyokai no RINNE has not had any art books dedicated solely to it, but it has appeared in some compilation art books dedicated to Takahashi's work.
One of the best overall overviews of Takahashi's career is Rumic World 35 which is a three volume boxset comprising All Star, Showtime and the collected children's manga MOON, The Great Pet King. The first two volumes mentioned contain character profiles, items, locations and color art for all of her series up to Kyokai no RINNE to celebrate 35th anniversary of her debut. |
| Miscellaneous Books |
Kyokai no RINNE has not gotten as much merchandising as Rumiko Takahashi's other series. Beyond the manga release the only other books that were made were the Shogakukan Junior Bunko (小学館ジュニア文庫) novelizations.
Unlike some of the prior novelizations of Takahashi's work such as those for Urusei Yatsura and the Mermaid Saga these novels do not contain any illustrations by Takahashi. Rather,these novels are adaptations of anime scripts which in turn are adaptations of Takahashi's original manga stories so the credits on the book are ornate. The three books are:
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| Foreign Editions |
Rumiko Takahashi's works are published in a variety of languages. The American distribution rights are handled by Viz Media, one of the leading manga translation companies which is owned by Shogakukan and as of 2002, Shueisha.
For the first time ever a manga series was published concurrently in Japanese and English, and this was the series that first introduced that possibility. Each Wednesday, when Kyokai no RINNE is published in Shonen Sunday it is posted up a few hours later in English at TheRumicWorld.com. Unfortunately this experiment only lasted until chapter 90 when Japan was struck by the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, and a major disruption to publication and other services began. As some Japanese readers could not receive Shonen Sunday on time, it was thought to be unfair that global readers should continue to get the manga easily online, and so the series never returned on its same day publication schedule. |