In this week’s Flipped column, David Welsh interviews Yumi Hoashi, the EIC and VP of Magazines for Viz. There’s lots of talk about branding and what to expect next in Shoujo Beat, and I thought this was interesting:
According to our reader surveys, each issue has over 10% (and sometimes even close to 20%) of people who have been introduced to manga through Shojo Beat magazine.
Hoashi mentions that Shonen Jump titles get a big boost from anime and says, “If we can get our Shojo Beat titles on TV, then we’d be in a better place.”
And this took me by surprise:
For Shonen Jump, we rated the magazine T for Teen, because we feel that the content is suitable for that age group. For Shojo Beat, we rated it T+ for Older Teen, because the content is more geared toward that age group. There are some titles, like Crimson Hero or Baby & Me, that can be enjoyed by younger readers, but as most of the other titles are geared toward the older age bracket, we rated the magazine T+.
I guess I’m a bad parent, because I didn’t even realize the magazines were rated. Not only that, my kids have been reading Shoujo Beat for a year, since they were 10 and 12. However, it doesn’t seem to have done them any harm, other than to instill a desire for lime-green shoes that I’d have to go to Tokyo to buy.
Elsewhere on the net, Ed Chavez at MangaCast looks at the Japanese magazine Monthly IKKI. It’s a seinen (young men’s) manga magazine, and a few of the titles have been picked up by Viz.
And Seven Seas posts an interview with Adam Arnold about Aoi House, his webcomic which has just migrated to the printed page. As Seven Seas interviews often do, this one goes beyond self-promotion to some interesting conversations, including Adam’s account of what goes into editing a licensed manga.
I can see why some parents might be concerned about the sexual themes of Absolute Boyfriend (even if the content is fairly mild), there was also some grumbling at last year’s San Diego panel that the version of Nana to appear in Shojo Beat was altered, though it was promised the collections would be restored.
In both cases, though, I suspect those titles handle sexuality that would create an opportunity to talk about sex, by talking about the choices those characters make… ‘course I’m speaking as a non-parent.