Four different manga series — Yuto’s Hanamaru Kindergarten, Michiaki Watanabe’s Violinist of Hameln: Shchelkunchik, Dai Sato and Masaru Gotsubo’s Yuzuko Peppermint, and Kazuya Machida and Yukisuke Yanagi’s Karasu — all ended in this year’s 21st issue of Square Enix’s Young Gangan magazine on Friday.
The Hanamaru Kindergarten (Hanamaru Yōchien) comedy centered around the light-hearted antics of a class of kindergartners and their teacher. The manga inspired a television anime by director Seiji Mizushima (Fullmetal Alchemist, Gundam 00) and the studio Gainax last year. The manga’s 11th and final compiled book volume will ship on December 24. Yuto is still drawing another manga series called Sis Plus in Monthly Big Gangan magazine.
Violinist of Hameln: Shchelkunchik served as a sequel to Watanabe’s original hit fantasy manga Violinist of Hameln , which ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine from 1991 to 2001. Both series revolve around Hameln, a young boy who traveled the land and fought magical demons by playing his oversized violin. The manga’s 8th and final compiled book volume will ship next January.
The first Violinist of Hameln manga spawned both a 1996 movie and a 1996-1997 anime series featuring series script editor Yasuhiro Imagawa (Giant Robo, Pet Shop of Horrors). “Shchelkunchik” is the Russian word for “nutcracker,” as made famous by The Nutcracker ballet classic by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Yuzuko Peppermint inspired figures and a drama CD before ending, and the Karasu manga adapted a stage play production of the same name by the D-Boys actor group. The eighth Yuzuko Peppermint book volume and the fourth Karasu book volume will finish off their respective series next January.
Source: ANN