HERESY! Kodansha to Launch New Manga Mag

I don't often report on new manga magazines in Japan-- they start and folder faster than I can type 'em out, it sometimes seems --but I found this to be kind of amusing as an anecdote.

Kodansha decided to launch a new manga magazine this March, but apparently they had trouble deciding on the name. So they decided, as some companies do, to leave it up to the readers: they set up an online poll to determine the magazine's name.

The name that won the poll was "ITAN" (written in romaji), which translates to "Heresy." Other names listed on the poll including "Asura" (a fighting demon), "Hakobune" (ark, as in Noah's ark), "Ryuurei Kitan" (Elegant Mysterious Story), "Michisu" (probably a pun; "michisuu" means an unknown number, "michisugara" means "along the way," and "michisuji" is a route. "Michi" on its own means path), and "Shakara" (guessing this is a reference to "chakra").

They don't talk about the specific genre of manga here, but you can kinda see the aesthetic they're going for, eh? Actually, what they do say about the anthology is pretty amusing: the anthology will be entirely "original," "too new," "nonconformist-style" works.

I can appreciate the concept, of course, but they literally say "too new" (atarashisugiru, 新しすぎる), which cracks me up every time. But hey, here's hoping we get some really cool and unique manga out of it, right?
  
(Photo credit: EnjoyTokyo.jp)