Kasumi "Volume 3" (lost unpublished third volume of manga-styled supernatural comic series; existence unconfirmed; 2009)
Cover for the first volume of Kasumi
Status: Existence Unconfirmed
Kasumi was a contemporary fantasy manga-styled comic book series originally published and serialized in English, targeting the English language. It was written by Surt Lim and drawn by Hirofumi Sugimoto. The series translator was Harumi Ueno, a bilingual translator who communicated to both over instant messaging and email. Their art director was Stanley Adrianus. They also had assistance from Natuki and Bon Komamiya in the second volume. It was copyrighted and lettered by Monkey LLC [1] and published by Random House Inc. through their Del Rey imprint.
Premise
The story was about a girl named Kasumi Morioka, who gained the power to turn invisible after falling from a large tree in a forest. Afterwards, she was unconscious for a day and transferred to a prestigious private school named Seiran High School. She has to deal with making new friends, fending off bullies, and controlling her powers. Overtime, Kasumi realized that she was not the only student with magical powers, and learned the reason why she had this power.
Quiet Cancelation
The series only released two volumes, with almost a year between them. Del Rey published the first volume on July 28th, 2008 and the second volume was released in March 24th, 2009.[2] A third volume was suspected to release around November 2009, given the previous one was released eight months after the first, but it fell through likely due to low sales. The only proof of its existence was a sneak preview page at the end of Kasumi Volume 2. It depicted Reina Takemoto, crying alone in a classroom, before being brainwashed by an unknown man with glasses.
Since Kodansha and Del Rey collaborated to create Kodansha USA in 2010, it began to publish more Kodansha manga with Del Rey licensed manga.[3] However, none of their original English language manga were retained, including Kasumi. Both volumes are unavailable at Random House website and the Kasumi website, making a full publishing of Kasumi Volume 3 unlikely.