Vermilion Stella (朱色のステラ) is the illustrated memoir of Arisa Date, a voice actress who became a professional mahjong player because she watched the anime Saki and couldn't stop thinking about the game. When she went pro in 2019, a lot of people didn't take her seriously. Celebrity crossover. A face for the cameras. Not a real player.
The manga, illustrated by Ayato Sasakura and serialized in Kindai Mahjong, follows what happened next. Not a revenge arc. Not a single moment where everyone suddenly respects her. Just the slow, frustrating work of getting better while people are already watching and have already made up their minds about you.
For context on where she ended up: Date plays for KONAMI Mahjong Fighting Club in M-League. She set the M-League single-game scoring record with 105,500 points in the 2021-22 season. She won M-League Individual MVP the following year. She voices Seimi Narabe in The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls and has over 80 anime and game credits. Her pro nicknames include "Scarlet Valkyrie" (紅のヴァルキリー) and "THE ACE." She's published two books in Japan: Practice Workbook: Mahjong Point Calculation Magic Drill (麻雀点数計算魔法のドリル) and Arisa Date Pursues Two Paths: From "Love" to Calling (伊達朱里紗の二刀流).
The manga is about before any of those titles meant anything.
212 pages. Digital $9.99, print $15.00. Releases June 30. Pre-order now from Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Amazon, Walmart, or directly from us: https://mahjongpros.com/products/vermilion-stella-arisa-date-memoir-volume-1
