Weekend reading

Over at Anime on DVD, manga reviewer Ed Chavez has a lengthy and thorough 2005 Manga Report Card for Viz Media. It’s a worthwhile read, but if you’re short on time, here’s the executive summary: Viz is the king, dominating the market with a solid lineup (quality), plenty of titles (quantity), and a new and improved branding strategy. The fact that Viz is owned by two major Japanese manga publishers, of course, means they have plenty of titles to choose from. On the downside, Ed knocks them for poor communication skills, poor print quality, and occasionally changing the content.

I’d say Ed’s right all around. Even with their recently redesigned website, it’s hard to find information about a particular title, and Viz does a poor job of announcing which books are coming up. That news usually comes from retailer sites like Barnes & Noble or Right Stuf, rather than in the form of press releases and promotion from Viz themselves. On the other hand, as the mother of two girls I can testify that the Shojo Beat branding strategy is brilliant, and as they release tankoubon of the stories serialized in that magazine, Viz will actually compel me to buy the same product twice.

ICv2 previews its new retailer’s guide to manga and anime with this speculation: there will be plenty of manga on the market but less will come from the big two. Both Viz and Tokyopop are planning “only modest increases” this year, while CPM and Del Rey will be releasing more, and—who knows?—some new publishers may make the scene.

Meanwhile, if you missed David Welsh’s Flipped column, hurry up and read! This week, David interviews manga veteran Jake Forbes, currently editor of Go!Comi. It’s a friendly interview, as David is clearly a fan of the Go!Comi titles, but it’s hard to fault him for that. Jake talks about the current Go!Comi line and reminisces a bit about Fruits Basket, which he edited in the early days.