NYCC: Del Rey panel

Del Rey’s panel was relaxed, with a lot of back-and-forth between the panel and the audience. They announced some actual new titles, showed the trailer for “The Bugmaster,” the soon-to-be-retitled movie based on the Mushishi manga, and gave a backstage glimpse at the manga-making machinery at Del Rey.

New titles first. The Del Rey folks did something that other publishers should immediately imitate: Each title announcement included a suggestion for who would like this particular manga.

Shiki Tsukai, written by Toru Zeku, art by Yuna Takanagi, due out in September

This was serialized in Sirius magazine in Japan. The title means “Keeper of the Seasons,” and according to Dallas Middaugh, the main character is one of the defenders of the universe, magical warriors who control the seasons. This is suggested for fans of Negima and Tsubasa.

The Complete Guide to Manga, by Jason Thompson, due out July 10

This book will include detailed listings of over 900 manga series. Of course, it will be outdated within minutes of being published, but Del Rey plans to post updates on the website and possibly publish revised editions if it sells well.

Pumpkin Scissors, by Ryuoutaku Iwanaga, due out in November

Middaugh described this one as military sci fi with a sense of humor and compared it to Fullmetal Alchemist. The anime is in development from GDH.

Psycho Busters, by Yuya Aoka, art by Akinari Noa, due out in November

Aoka is the creator of GetBackers. This one was summed up as “government conspiracies and psychic teenagers.”

Aventura, by Shin Midorikawa, due out in December

From the Power Point slide: “Fantastic art and a story set in a school for magic that bears absolutely no resemblance to any other hypothetical schools for magic.” From Middaugh: “This is probably why I shouldn’t write these Power Points late at night.” Seriously, they showed a trailer for this and the art looked pretty nice.

Middaugh then ran through the already announced titles that are coming out in the next few months: Princess Resurrection, Train Man (the novel), Dragon Eye, My Heavenly Hockey Club, Le Chevalier d’Eon, Alive, and Mushishi.

That was a good enough segue into the trailer for “The Bugmaster,” which debuted at the Venice and Cannes film festivals. Marketing director Ali Kokmen explained that the rights for the U.S. release are still being negotiated, but he does expect the name to be changed. (Not a bad idea: Google “Bugmaster” and the first hit you get is an exterminator.)

Then the Del Rey staffers, including licensing and acquisitions director Mutsumi Miyazaki, translator Elina Ishikawa, editor Tricia Narwani, production manager Erich Schoeneweiss, and Kokmen, gave a detailed account of the steps they went through to produce the upcoming title Mamotte! Lollipop, from licensing through promotion. My favorite moment was Dallas’s description of a conversation with a translator about a particular sound effect. “It’s the sound of something appearing suddenly from the dark,” the translator said; Dallas settled for “Whoosh!”

Middaugh also admitted, in a backhanded way, the importance of scanlations when he explained why the company made a trailer for Aventura. “Aventura is a manga that is out in Japan, but it’s very recent, only 2 volumes,” he said. “As you know, clearly we think it is something special, but a lot of the way manga and anime get buzz in the U.S. is somebody picks it up, translates it, and puts it on the web. With recent series like Aventura, there isn’t time for that to get out, so we make a trailer, show it to you, and hope there will be buzz about it.”