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4 AKB48 Members Each Get Own Young Jump Manga Series

Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine has announced on Thursday that four members of the all-female idol group AKB48 will get each get her own manga series. The four manga series for Mayu Watanabe, Yuki Kashiwagi, Rie Kitahara, and Rino Sashihara will alternate every issue, so each series will effectively be a monthly title. The tentative titles for the four series are Mayuyu Manga-ka Debut Keikaku (Watanabe), Yukirin no The Idol Quest (Kashiwagi), Kita-Rie no Mōsō Bungaku Shōjo-dō (Kitahara), and Sasshii Bishōjo-ka Keikaku (Sashihara). Each title will reflect each member's personality.

The first of the manga series will launch in this year's 38th issue on August 19. Kashiwagi also adorns the cover, front photo spread, and double-sided poster of the 35th issue, which shipped on Thursday.

ANN interviewed two of the AKB48 members with the upcoming manga series — Kitahara and Sashihara — during their visit to Anime Expo in Los Angeles earlier this month. Watanabe, Kashiwagi, and Sashihara were also part of the eight-member unit that created their own anime short for AKB48's regular television program, AKB48 Kami TV Season 2, last July. Watanabe and some of the others starred along with the rest of AKB48's Team B in an earlier online manga called AKB48 Sprout in 2008.

Source: Natalie