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VIZ MEDIA ADDS PUNK ROCK, HIGH FASHION, TEENAGE LOVE AND REBELLION TO ITS LIBRARY WITH THE RELEASE OF TWO NEW NOVELS: MISSIN’ AND MISSIN’ 2: KASAKO

Pair Of Novels Show Author’s Style of Combining Pop Culture Sensibilities With Music, Fashion and Romance

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, lets readers explore themes of obsession, alienation, love, rococo and haute couture fashion, and punk rock and rebellion with novels MISSIN’ and MISSIN’ 2: KASAKO, written by best-selling author Novala Takemoto. MISSIN’ and MISSIN’ 2 are the latest additions to VIZ Media’s SHOJO BEAT imprint and will hit store shelves today. The novels will be available separately for $8.99 US / $10.50 CAN each or as a slip-case packaged set for $16.99 US / $19.99 CAN.

How far can you go to get what you want before you lose your mind?

Enter a strange world created by novelist Novala Takemoto (author of KAMIKAZE GIRLS, also available from VIZ Media) where music and the lost art of maidenly virtues walk hand-in-hand with madness. His characters stress, obsess, and sometimes get what they want... but often the life they thought they wanted is not always what they expected!

MISSIN’ focuses on obsession and how it can bring one to the brink of madness. In this bittersweet short story, the themes of KAMIKAZE GIRLS (rococo, punk rock, high fashion and rebellion) are pushed even further toward the edge of reason. A young woman estranged from the modern world longs for the feminine ideals and companionship depicted in the tales of a bygone era. When she finds her mentor in a rebellious punk rock singer named Missin, how far will her infatuation take her in a world where no one understands? And in "Little Shop at the End of the World," the designs of the legendary Vivienne Westwood keep a young woman with a secret from losing her mind.

MISSIN 2: KASAKO is the stylish, stressed-out sequel to MISSIN'. Stalker turned rock star Kasako has everything she ever wanted. But between the restraints of forbidden love, a suffocating record deal, and fans overdosing at their concerts, Kasako must find a way to keep hair-trigger tension pitched to a dangerous high without destroying herself. Kasako has never been what you'd call a stable girl--and this new fast-paced life may be just enough to finally push her sanity over the edge. Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. And your dream life may turn out to be a nightmare!

”Novela Takemoto took Japan and then the U.S. by storm with his hugely popular novel, KAMIKAZE GIRLS, and these works, MISSIN’ and MISSIN’ 2: KASAKO show the early urgent energy and pop culture themes that later brought the author international recognition,” says Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President Sales & Marketing, VIZ Media. “Takemoto is loved by readers for his incorporation of all that is dark, cool, different and defiant, and these new novels will delight fans of rock and roll, high fashion, romance and rebellion in all its wonderful forms!”

Novala Takemoto was born in Kyoto and was a candidate for the Yukio Mishima Prize for Literature two years in a row with EMILY in 2003 and LOLITA in 2004. He has published more than a dozen works. In addition to KAMIKAZE GIRLS, Takemoto's other novels include Uloko Hime, Twins, A Child Abandoned by Deus, and Calps Alpis. In Japan a collection of his essays as well as a picture and photo book have been published, and his sequel to Kamikaze Girls was published in June of 2005.