Newsarama talks with Viz PR director Evelyn Dubocq about the company’s recent successes and their plans for 2006. Evelyn earns her salary by emitting a relentlessly positive attitude about her company and dropping a few tidbits of actual news into the interview, such as the fact that the April Shojo Beat will include an interview with manga pioneer Keiko Takemiya, whose works include the shonen-ai classic The Song of the Wind and the Trees. And then there are the books
No matter what a reader’s interest, there is a shôjo story to captivate their attention. Crimson Hero, for example, is the first shôjo sports series, which depicts the adventures and drama of a girl’s volleyball player, while Kaze Hikaru puts a female spin on popular samurai dramas. Both are available in stores nationwide now.
With plans to release 30 or more manga a month, what doesn’t Viz have? OEL manga, that’s what. Here’s Evelyn at her best:
VIZ Media is committed to bringing the best established manga and anime titles from Japan to North America. Our parent companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan Production Co., Ltd., give us access to some of the hottest titles available and while we might choose to explore other options in the future, for the present, we will continue to publish compelling titles that come from our parent companies vast library.
Right. Got it. No OEL because we own everything anyway BWA-HA-HAaa. And some good news for those of us who like something completely different:
Proven successful titles like Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist will always form the core of our product lines, but we are also committed to providing an avenue for more esoteric and critically acclaimed favorites as well.
I think that with volleyball manga, they are already on the on-ramp to the road not taken.
