Farewell to Broccoli?

Here’s some sad news, if true: Broccoli USA, parent company of Broccoli Books and publisher of Kamui, the Galaxy Angel series, and Juvenile Orion, is dissolving, at least according to Gia’s interpreteation of a press release (in Japanese). The statement gives the reason as competition in the manga industry and says the company will be liquidated by February 2009. A commenter notes that all licenses will revert to Broccoli Japan. Simon Jones has a little more detail and notes that their production values were widely admired in the industry and probably pushed improvements across the board. Anime Biz has still more, including the info that operations here will shut down by December 31. ANN wraps it up, and the mourning begins in their forums. (Illustration is my favorite Broccoli title of all time, E’S.)

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha talks to Eiji Han Shimuzu about the Emotional Content collective and their manga biographies.

Lori Henderson lists this week’s new releases at Manga Village. The MangaCast team makes their picks as well.

For those who like to think ahead, Manga Recon lists CMX’s March releases.

Casey, Bamboo, and Robin discuss yaoi at ANN.

Alethea and Athena Nibley continue their discussion of the challenges of translation at Manga Life.

Adults only, please: Scott VonSchilling enjoys the series Kodomo no Jikan but has no desire to read yaoi; Hisui and Narutaki at Reverse Thieves love yaoi but find lolicon disturbing. Each was convinced that the other was missing something, so they traded genres: Scott read Gerard et Jacques (warning! NSFW image) and Hisui and Narutaki read Kodomo no Jikan. No one is converted, but the discussions are really interesting, as each makes the effort to see beyond their own preconceptions and critique the underlying story.

Same Hat alerts us to another Shintaro Kago scanlation—as always, not for the faint of heart!

Reviews: Erica Friedman has a delightful review of vol. 4 of Lady Snowblood at Okazu. Over at Manga Recon, Kate Dacey reviews solanin, Isaac Hale and Sam Kusek team up for some Manga Minis, and Kate Dacey and Michelle Smith go On the Shojo Beat. Katherine Farmar reads You & Harujion and Lori Henderson checks out vol. 1 of Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom at Comics Village. Lori also enjoys the Viz Kids novel vol. 1 of Naruto, The Boy Ninja at Good Comics for Kids. Ed Chavez has an audio review of vol. 1 of Higurashi at MangaCast. Carlo Santos reviews vol. 1 of Ghost Slayers Ayashi and Casey Brienza reads vols. 1 and 2 of The Flat Earth/Exchange at ANN. Ed Sizemore takes a look at vols. 3 and 4 of Rosario + Vampire at Comics Worth Reading. Hazel takes a look at vol. 1 of Chibi Vampire at Anime Infatuation. New at Manga Life: David Rasmussen on vol. 3 of The Record of a Fallen Vampire and vol. 2 of Blank Slate, and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 32 of Boys Over Flowers and vol. 2 of Sugar Princess. Deb Aoki finds vol. 2 of Black Jack both entertaining and confusing at About.com. You would think there would be nothing left to say at this point, but Edward Zacharias has a lenthy critique of vol. 32 of Naruto at Animanga Nation. Kris reads Sighing Kiss, Paradise on the Hill, God of Dogs, Stop Bullying Me!, and Constellations in My Palm at Manic About Manga. Connie checks out vol. 15 of Saint Seiya and vol. 11 of Ouran High School Host Club at Slightly Biased Manga. Tangognat enjoys vols. 1 and 2 of Song of the Hanging Sky. Emily’s latest find is Teppen! at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom and the VIZBIG edition of vol. 1 of Vagabond at Prospero’s Manga. Julie reads vol. 15 of Skip Beat! and vol. 14 of Tail of the Moon at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Lissa Pattillo checks out solanin and guest reviewer Marsha Reid enjoys vol. 1 of S.S. Astro at Kuriousity.

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Comments

  1. That’s a real shame about Brocolli. They put out some very high quality books

  2. Whoa…that lolicon/yaoi trade ended up as a gigantic mess, but boy was it funny to read the horrified reviews. Thanks for the link. ^_^

  3. I wasn’t a big fan of Brocolli. I never understood why people were so enamored with their production value. Ok, they had nice paper, but maybe since I’m from the ghetto, I thought the paper was TOO nice, TOO white, and TOO slick. Also, they bound their books so tightly it was like you had to work out just to keep the book open. And really, none of their titles appealed to me. And I consider my tastes pretty eclectic. Also, their release schedules have not been that good either. How long has it been since My Dearest Devil Princess #2? I guess I’ll never get to see how that series progresses. While I can lament the loss to fans of their books, it’s not really gonna affect me. Now if Tokyopop or Viz or Seven Seas or Yen went down, then I would be upset.

  4. Sesho—>

    It isn’t just about paper quality, which is pretty much the last thing I look at.

    There are issues with earlier, post-TP American editions of manga that many readers might not have cared about, but people who work on manga do notice (and some publishers were worse offenders than others). Issues such as manuscript scanned as low-resolution greyscale rather than hi-resolution bitmap, line that are too dark or too light, and my biggest pet peeve, improperly-centered pages… all very common problems with the earlier output of other pubs, but non-existent in Broccoli’s books. The mere fact their books share the same dimensional aspect ratio as Japanese editions puts them up a notch against the rest.

  5. I just want to give a shout out to Fawn Lau, one of the best manga layout/lettering/production designers around, who deserves much of the credit for Broccoli’s production quality. She also did great work one some of Tokyopop’s best looking books, helped GoComi get its start, and now she’s kicking ass at Viz. Production folks don’t get a lot of attention, as they seldom speak at conventions or give interviews, but they can really make the quality difference. Ganbatte, Fawn!

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  1. […] the lolicon phenomenon, reads Kodomo no Jikan (which you may remember as the infamous Nymphette).As Brigid Alverson notes, “No one is converted, but the discussions are really interesting, as each makes the […]