Rumor: Cardfight!! Vanguard Manga to See English Translation

The following is being treated as a partially substantiated rumor and the story may develop significantly as more information comes to light. Please read with caution.

While the Cardfight!! Vanguard media franchise is known internationally as an anime and Trading Card Game, for the past two years the third piece of the puzzle that has yet to see English-language localization has been the original manga written by franchise creator Itou Akira. First debuted at the 2010 Tokyo Toy Show along with a preview video of the anime, and acting as the source material for the animated series, the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga has so far had only one official adaptation, of its first chapter released in preview materials during the 2012 World Championships and at promotional events. Outside of these fragmentary distributions, potential readers have been forced to rely on web-based fan translations or Japanese language mastery to read the manga. But if Amazon is anything to go by, this is about to change.

Amazon.co.uk has put up a preorder listing for volume 1 of the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga, published not by Kadokawa Shoten as the Japanese volumes were, but by VERTICAL. A New York-based publisher of Japanese popular media, VERTICAL is most noted for its translations of the manga adaptations of 5 Centimeters Per Second, Summer Wars and the works of classic artist Tezuka Osamu. The company was also responsible for translating Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN. The English volume 1 is listed at 180 pages long, compared to the original Japanese volume's 193 pages. The reason for this discrepancy in page count is unknown. Volume 1's ISBN-10 is 1939130417 and ISBN-13 is 978-1939130419, and its release date is March 27 2014 according to the Amazon listing. Note that the preorder listing is exclusively on Amazon UK, but the New York publisher suggests that the manga will be released in the United States as well.

The current blurb on Amazon reads "From the makers of the YuGiOh trading card game comes Cardfight!! Vanguard, the manga that inspired the hit Vanguard card game. In similar fashion to YuGiOh and Magic the Gathering, the teenage cast of Cardfight!! Vanguard play a high-fantasy themed card game - initially they play for kicks, but eventually the stakes grow much higher... The basis of the hit trading card game and animation franchise, Cardfight!! Vanguard is a modern fantasy tale of trading card playing and making friends through gaming." There are some small inaccuracies within the description, as Itou was only involved as an assistant on the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and the author of the Yu-Gi-Oh! R spinoff, with no involvement in the card game outside of designing promotional cards.

Presuming that the information is correct, one point that is uncertain about this volume is whether or not the Alfred Early promo card that was included in the Japanese release will be brought over for the manga's English language release, as the card was already distributed with boxes of VGE-BT07: Rampage of the Beast King in 2012. As the release of VGE-BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights is nearing, and it was within this set that the manga cards were rereleased in Japan in RRR rarity promo cards as box toppers, the release of the English manga would be the perfect opportunity to distribute these foiled reprints for westerners.

Rumor: World Championship 2013 Locations, Restricted List Will Not be Modified for WCS2013, Ride to Victory to See International Release

Updated 7/10/2013: Bushiroad USA has confirmed much of the information below.
Cardfighters that attended day 2 of Bushiroad's Anime Expo 2013 event have leaked information on the upcoming WCS2013 international tournament, confirmed since February but now with concrete dates and locations provided. This information is being attributed to Bushiroad's general manager for the Cardfight!! Vanguard USA Facebook page "Doctor K" J-Kim, who was hosting a Q&A panel that day.

WCS2013 will be taking place in December 2013, with the North American national championship taking place earlier on, in November. Seven qualifier locations have been put out so far;

1. Dallas, Texas - September
2. Chicago, Illinois - September 15th
3. Hawaii (exact city to be announced) - September
4. Seattle, Washington - September
5. New York, New York - September
6. Atlanta, Georgia - October 13th
7. Los Angeles, California - November

Additionally, Los Angeles is speculated to be the location of the championship finals. The location list suggests that this will be in the same format of WCS2012, with cardfighters attending each qualifier independently and the top two of each tournament going on to the finals, rather than using the Challenge Cup format of qualifying at a shop before going to a qualifier. While this information has not been confirmed by Bushiroad, it is considered very likely to be accurate based on the source attributed and the timing of the AX2013 event.

While there was some discussion that the English format restricted list may be modified to be closer to Japan's January 2013 list following the Challenge Cup, as Dragonic Overlord The End accounted for five of the top eight decks used in the Challenge Cup finals, according to this AX leak the restricted list will not be modified prior to the WCS2013 regional qualifiers. Furthermore, the reason for the sudden flurry of releases in English from EB04 through BT11 is because Bushiroad is moving towards simultaneous English and Japanese releases for Cardfight!! Vanguard. Simultaneous release appears to be becoming Bushiroad's default policy following the announcement of the Future Card Buddyfight franchise, and this direction will support Bushiroad's overall goal of creating a competitive environment more similar to Weiss Schwarz so that even underrated and unpopular clans will be able to do well, making favorites more practical.

Doctor K also alluded that official tagfight tournaments and an English release of the Nintendo 3DS Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG simulator, Cardfight!! Vanguard Ride to Victory!! are both being considered by Bushiroad's Japanese and international branches. Fighters have been anxious for the game's international release ever since it was first announced, and Bushiroad has appeared responsive, replying to inquiries about the game through Facebook and uploading videos of the game for those that are eager for it to be distributed in other regions.

(via Trigger Capital)

Rumor: Extra Booster 04: 暗雲の刺客/Assassins of the Dark Clouds

The following is a rumor that has been officially dismissed and remains here purely for historical purposes. Please do not treat it at as fact.

Last night this image began circulating in the Japanese blogosphere, allegedly depicting EB04: Assassins of the Dark Clouds. Immediately jumped upon as a set to fully expand the fan-favorite clan Nubatama, which has not seen any support since March of last year, several factors nevertheless point to the set image being a clever fake;

• All sets since BT06 have included an English subtitle below their original kanji, and all sets since BT01 have included furigana above said kanji to act as pronunciation guides.
• The set image itself appears to be a poor photoshop, as the font for VG-EB04 lacks the white outline of previous sets, and Bushiroad's copyright information is not present anywhere in the image.
• Clan text for unrevealed cards always uses the United Sanctuary's orange, while the cards shown in the image use the Dragon Empire's red.
• Nubatama itself has been purposely replaced by Murakumo. ZANBAKU, FUSHIMI and the Arrestor series--which were originally Nubatama cards in their manga debut--were converted into Murakumo in Comic Style Vol.1, and Bushiroad has been pushing for Murakumo to be the only ninja clan ever since. Hand control itself, while not currently overpowered in any way, is a dangerous mechanic to play with and possibly too difficult to make truly balanced if given to a complete clan.

As templates for fan-made cards have been circulating for some time now, the cards in the EB04 image cannot be taken as evidence of the image's authenticity.