The North American manga publisher Vertical has announced at Comic-Con International on Wednesday that it licensed Usamaru Furuya's Lychee Light Club (Litchi Hikari Club) manga. The story revolves around nine students at an all-boys school who create a god-like Lychee machine — that runs on lychee fruits — to seek out the beautiful women of the world. However, the machine eventually becomes self-aware "and is soon equally capable of measuring beauty and executing justice." The one-volume manga originally ran in Ohta Publishing's Manga Erotics F magazine from 2005 to 2006, and the English version will ship on April 29, 2011.

Furuya's other manga works include 51 Ways to Save Her, which DC Comics' CMX Manga announced at last year's Comic-Con International, but did not release before shutting down earlier this month. Viz announced at Anime Expo on July 3 that it licensed another Furuya manga, Genkaku Picasso.

Vertical Marketing Director Ed Chavez noted that Kanata Konami's Chi's Sweet Home has become the publisher's best-selling manga release (after Osamu Tezuka's Buddha) after just three weeks of sales. The second volume of Kou Yaginuma's Twin Spica manga has also sold 20% more copies that the first volume did. Vertical plans to announce one to three new manga licenses before the end of the year.