Kodansha reactions

The big news of the day, in case you spent yesterday in a cave with no internet, is that Kodansha, the biggest publisher in Japan, is setting up a U.S. subsidiary specifically to sell manga. Check out the comments on yesterday’s post for a lively discussion of what this might mean.

For U.S. fans, speculation revolved around the fate of several companies that license Kodansha titles, particularly Del Rey, a fan favorite that has built its reputation with several very popular Kodansha series. Dark Horse also has a number of Kodansha titles.

Del Rey editor Dallas Middaugh quickly hit the blogosphere to let fans know that his company will continue to publish current titles and license new ones, at least for the immediate future.

Gia Manry actually talked to someone at Kodansha, senior foreign rights manager Tomoko Suga, and this is what she got:

Unfortunately she couldn’t give me very many details on the company’s plans in terms of titles, genre, or dates– basically they’ve set up the company name and that’s about it so far. She DID tell me that there are going to be no immediate or direct changes to Kodansha’s deal with Del Rey Manga. This is slightly different from simply saying that Kodansha wasn’t pulling any licenses, as it means that presumably Del Rey Manga will be able to continue to license Kodansha titles (as most people have been speculating).

On the other hand, Gia wonders if Kodansha will hold back on the juicier titles in the more distant future.

As for Dark Horse, Christopher Butcher notes on Comics 212 that they no longer hold the license for Akira. And Tokyopop will no longer be publishing Beck, although a commenter says that may simply be because of poor sales. Chris also has some insight into Del Rey’s fate:

Also, just a quick guess here, but I would find it surprising if Kodansha pulled any licenses back from Del Rey, as they’ll likely be relying on Del Rey parent company Random House for distribution in America (under the auspices of the Kodansha/Random House “deal”), and that would likely sour the working relationship. Which isn’t to say that it won’t happen of course, but is far less likely and has not, to the best of my knowledge, happened yet.

Translator John Thomas speculates a bit at Mecha Mecha Media, and notes that Dark Horse has announced the next volume of Eden, although there’s no news on Blade of the Immortal.

At the Icarus Blog (possibly NSFW), Simon Jones pays homage to Cthulhu, the anonymous commenter who first alerted us all to the possibility of this happening, and scans the Japanese media:

Ahem… the English version of Nikkei apparently requires a subscription that I’m too cheap to fork over, but a quick search on the Japanese website turns up this brief article which mentions the words ”KodanshaUSA,” “New York,” “September,” and “$2,000,000.00 capital“ in the same paragraph. Tremble in fear, mortals!

Tiamat’s Disciple has some thoughts as well. Matt Blind, who doubted the story when Cthulhu initially leaked it, admits that he was wrong.

At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala just wants to know where to send his wish list. (If you want to make your own suggestions, go here for a look at the possibilities.)