According to this report on ANN Tokyopop has taken over two more licenses from ADV: Aria and Peacemaker Kurogane. The report says they will release the prequels, Aqua and Peacemaker, first, so that retailers won’t have two different editions at the same time.
If this is true, I think it’s a good move for Tokyopop, picking up series that already have loyal followers. It will be interesting to compare editions and see who does a better job.
About Brigid Alverson
Brigid Alverson has been reading comics since she was 4. After earning an MFA in printmaking, she headed to New York to become a famous artist but ended up working with words instead of pictures, first as a book editor and later as a newspaper reporter. She started
MangaBlog to keep track of her daughters’ reading habits and now covers manga, comics and graphic novels as a freelancer for
School Library Journal,
Publishers Weekly Comics Week,
Comic Book Resources, the
Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, and
Robot 6. She also edits the
Good Comics for Kids blog at School Library Journal. Now settled in the outskirts of Boston, Brigid is married to a physicist and has two daughters.
clap clap clap clap!
For everybody who doesn’t know about Aria — it’s a sugar sweet story mixed with amazing characterization in a science fiction setting. The actual story is literally about having fun & doing your best.
Plus, the art is amazing on a level comparable and even surpasing Akumatsu, Obata and CLAMP.
One with sound effect translations (ADV) and one without (TP)… I think it’ll be a lose/lose situation for fans. TP would be stupid to not use the ADV versions as a basis for what they do with their new editions. But we all know that won’t happen…especially considering how heavy their adaptations can end up being.
I’m estactic! However, I hope Tokyopop goes the extra mile and will include the cute color page in the Aria manga like ADV did. (There is hope, perhaps, since Tokyopop included the color page for the one-shot Rizelmine manga.)