MangaBlog

While the rest of us were sending e-mails and making phone calls about the rumor that Kodansha was going to set up shop in the U.S., Japanator’s Dick McVengeance actually showed up at an event and asked Del Rey’s Ali Kokmen what the deal was. I quote:

After a bit of a laugh at it, Ali told me that it was totally false. He was at BEA, and heard nothing of Kodansha’s move, and when the rumor hit that Kodansha was coming in, Del Rey had someone in Japan setting up new Kodansha licenses for 2009 and 2010. So, that would seem to be a rumor that got busted.

Nothing to see here folks, move along. For now, anyway.

As the hubbub of this week starts to die down, people are sorting themselves out a bit. Tokyopop publisher Mike Kiley sent a letter to creators, reassuring them that they will be paid and they should continue working on their projects. That’s at The Beat, where Heidi also rounds up the creators’ reactions to everything that has been going on. Kethylia takes a look at the bigger picture and possible fallout. At Bags and Boards, one former employee condemns Tokyopop for the way they went about letting people go. David Welsh reaches out to those who were laid off, looking to talk to them about their work and their hopes for the future. (Image from a headier time pulled from the archives of Kevin Melrose’s Thought Balloons blog; in the post he points out the typo in the bottom line, which in retrospect could have been a harbinger of things to come: Good ideas, sloppy follow-through.)

And is Kodansha really going to set up an American arm and cut out its U.S. licensees? Despite a flurry of speculation and inquiry yesterday, no definitive answer emerged, although Cthulhu, the anonymous commenter who started the whole thing, clarified that the news came not in a public announcement but in an overheard conversation. I checked in with a couple of people, as did numerous other bloggers, but so far there is nothing to report.

At the MangaCast, Ed Chavez has a podcast interview with Netsu Maika, the creator of the fanservice-friendly My Dearest Devil Princess.

Eisner-nominated writer, blogger, and librarian Robin Brenner is surveying GLBTQ readers about their tastes in yaoi and yuri manga.

John Jakala takes everyone’s advice and reads Firefighter! Daigo of Fire Company M. He likes what he sees, but the series is hard to find and may be out of print.

The Manga Villagers pick the best of this week’s new releases.

Manga is the new rock and roll: Looking forward to next month’s Japan Expo (in Paris), Xavier Guilbert meditates on manga as a medium of youthful rebellion. It’s in French, but even if you can’t read it, it’s worth a click for the lovely header art.

At Manga Life, Park Cooper mixes press releases and snark in his latest Manga Bulletin, Barb Lien-Cooper is looking for good manga ghost stories, and translators Alethea and Athena Nibley write about thinking in Japanese and English.

Josef Stalin kicks ass in the latest installment of Dance! Kremlin Palace! linked at Same Hat! Same Hat!

ComiPress has the info on the First UK International Manga Art Show, coming up in July.

News from Japan: Raiko Makoto, creator of Konjiki no Gash!!, is suing publisher Shogakukan for losing some of his original art, according to Canned Dogs.

Reviews: At Okazu, Erica Friedman reviews the light novel Maria-sama ga Miteru: Margaret ni Ribon. Ferdinand enjoys vol. 1 of Hotel Africa at Prospero’s Manga. Connie checks out vol. 12 of Hikaru no Go and ION at Slightly Biased Maga. Matthew J. Brady goes on a manga binge at Warren Peace Sings the Blues, with reviews of vol. 10 of Nana, vol. 3 of Parasyte, and vol. 8 of The Drifting Classroom. The Boys Next Door blog posts reviews of vol. 1 of Steal Moon, The Devil’s Secret, and vol. 9 of Love Mode. Deb Aoki reads vol. 1 of Rosario+Vampire at About.com. Emily takes a look at another untranslated shoujo title, Koi Beta!?, at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Tangognat finds Demon Diary to be vastly inferior to Vampire Game. Orangedew has brief reviews of a lot of different manga, some still unlicensed. (Via When Fangirls Attack.) Greg McElhatton reviews vol. 2 of Aria at Comic Book Resources. ComiPress translates a review of Kara no Kyoukai. At Anime on DVD, Danielle Van Gorder reviews Red, Matthew Alexander takes a look at vol. 6 of Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution, and Ben Leary reads the possibly doomed Tokopop manhwa vol. 1 of I Wish… David Rasmussen reviews vol. 11 of the Hardy Boys manga and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlaine checks out vol. 1 of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro at Manga Life. Ed Sizemore reads vol. 3 of Wild Ones at Comics Worth Reading. Lissa Pattillo is both intrigued and appalled by vol. 2 of Sundome. Isaac Hale gives a B+ to vol. 13 of Kekkaishi at PopCultureShock. Casey Brienza gives Disappearance Diary a thumbs-up at Anime News Network. LJ’er Leaf Diaries reads the “really weird” unlicensed manga ME-TERU no KIMOCHI. The Anime Pulse guys do an audio review of Basilisk and Black Cat.

Let’s start with the latest anonymous rumor to hit the internets, shall we? Someone going by the handle of Cthulhu, who claims to be an industry insider, posted this comment on Comics212 last night:

Kodansha is forming their own manga publishing biz over here and says they will no longer be licensing to Del Rey or Dark Horse or anyone else. In fact, they are aggressively cutting off the existing contracts and at least one company had to make a panicked phone call to their printer to cancel several dozen reprints.

“Cthulhu” further claims that this was announced at BEA but no one noticed, and that the company will open its doors in September in LA, “sharing space and staff with a multimedia division.” Keep reading that thread, and check out this one at The Beat, for some discussion. An interestingly wide range of people have heard nothing about this, although some are not surprised. Anyone who can shed light on this is welcome to post in the comments or e-mail me directly at the address on the upper right. (Cover of Pocyomkin, just cuz I liked it, from the Kodanclub website.)

At The Beat, Heidi lists the Tokyopop folks who lost their jobs this week, including Rob Tokar, Tim Beedle, Hope Donovan, and Paul Morrissey. That’s a lot of talent to be leaving the room all at once. Lissa Pattillo quotes a BLU editor who is upset at losing a colleague, and Gia hears from some former employees (in comments) that they weren’t given any warning, just brought to the conference room first thing and given the bad news.

Meanwhile, Rivkah Greulich must have negotiated a good contract, because she says Tokyopop has to pay her for Steady Beat whether or not it sees print—and that she is determined to issue a print edition one way or another. And then she posts some of the pencils, so we’ll see why.

In other news, ICv2 posts the Bookscan top 20 graphic novels list for May. In case you were thinking the manga world was imploding, 17 of the 20 are manga, and only 3 are Naruto.

The MangaCast team goes over this week’s new manga, and Ed posts his Big List of Spanish releases.

Chloe Ferguson’s discusses light novels in her latest Panelosophy column at ComiPress.

Review: Orange Skirt reviews the Ouran High School Host Club manga and anime at Sleep Is For the Weak. Lissa Pattillo reads vol. 1 of Croquis Pop at Kuri-ousity, and by the end she still isn’t sure whether she likes it or not. FWIW, I just finished it and had a similar reaction. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell reviews vol. 11 of Claymore, Rachel Bentham checks out vol. 30 of Boys Over Flowers, and Holly Ellingwood gets an advance look at The Devil’s Secret. There’s a trio of new reviews up at Comics Village: John Thomas on Haridama: Magic Cram School, Charles Tan on vol. 6 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and Lori Henderson on vol. 8 of Inubaka. Julie checks out vols. 1 and 2 of Magic Lover’s Tower at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Tiamat’s Disciple is a bit disappointed by vol. 2 of Legend. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reads Museum of Terror 3: The Long Hair in the Attic, vol. 1 of Selfish Mr. Mermaid, and vol. 1 of Kingdom of the Winds. Deb Aoki looks at an unusual 4-koma release from Yen Press, vol. 1 of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro. Erica Friedman doesn’t find much yuri in vol. 2 of Gakuen Alice, but she’ll keep reading it anyway.

Everyone is still reacting to yesterday’s news that Tokyopop is splitting in two, one unit for books, the other for all other media. That part actually makes sense, but the word that they will be cutting the number of releases in half, and laying off 39 employees (out of 90-100, so that’s a big bite), gave many people pause. Christopher Butcher parses the whole thing extremely well at Comics212, looking at several possible scenarios for the rest of this year and critiquing some of the critics. (Chris reads the ANN forums so you don’t have to!) Matt Blind has some interesting analysis of the business side at Comicsnob. At Shuchaku-East, Chloe hopes the pruning of their list will come more in the form of not picking up new titles than dropping established ones mid-series. At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson thinks the split is a good move for Tokyopop, as the digital stuff has been distracting from the books. I’m inclined to agree. Tokyopop suffers from an extreme lack of focus—they toss out a lot of ideas, some good, some bad, and then don’t follow up. I also agree with Lori that more focus on the global titles is not a bad thing, if they pick strong books and give them the support they need. As Johanna Draper Carlson observes,

Says Stuart Levy, CEO, “Few releases will allow for less cannibalization at retail.” Which seems to imply that they think people aren’t buying TP book 1 because they’re buying TP book 2. I don’t think that’s right, based on my own experience: instead of buying TP book 1, I buy a Viz or a Del Rey or an Aurora (when it comes to josei) title.

They need to fix that.

Recently downsized editor Peter Ahlstrom has some educated guesses on the fate of specific titles at the Anime on DVD forums. At the ANN forums he notes that the last volume of Grenadier has already gone to press, so that title is safe. (All you people who go on and on about “OEL crap”: Grenadier is about a pistol-totin’ mama who pops bullets out of her cleavage. This is quality comics?) Also he sees the Korean titles, particularly Rebirth, as likely to be cut.

John Jakala lists his 25 favorite manga characters, and then he ruminates some more on what he likes about particular manga. Whoever is in charge of “pruning” series at Tokyopop might want to take a look.

In this week’s PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha interviews Yoshinori Natsume, creator of Togari and the new DC mini-series Batman: Death Mask.

Ed Chavez takes a look at manga in the June Previews and the whole team lists their picks from this week’s new manga at the MangaCast.

John Thomas discusses how a story can stay alive through mulitiple media at Mecha Mecha Media.

ANN has a rundown of recent new title announcements.

Here’s a profile of Filipina-Austrian manga creator Tara Starnegg.

At the Studio QT Bleargh, Susie looks at the other side of the coin: Chopping up manga to fit into the Kindle reader. Coincidentally, Japanator posts a shot of an iPhone with a full page of manga on it.

This writer seems to be a little bit confused:

The graphic novel and even more specifically, “Manga,” is derived from Japanese culture. The book starts at the back and reads forward, plus the pages read from right to left. A first-time reader could get confused, but with practice it is easily mastered.

But it’s hard to argue with this advice:

Because of this, I suggest readers buy “Manga” in bundles so they’re not tortured by the unfulfilled ending by reading just one.

Yes! Buy it by the truckload!

News from Japan: ANN has this week’s manga rankings; once again, Nana tops the list.

Reviews: Johanna Draper Carslon has a spoilery review of vol. 6 of Kitchen Princess at Comics Worth Reading. Micole takes a look at vol. 10 of Cantarella at coffeeandink. German blogger Invaeon reads vol. 1 of Purgatory Kabuki at Manly Manga and More. Danielle Van Gorder gives good markes to vol. 1 of J-Pop Idol and Sakura Eries enjoys vol. 11 of Yakitate!! Japan at Anime on DVD. Lissa Pattillo looks at two recent manhwa releases from Yen Press, vol. 5 of Chocolat and 11th Cat Special, at Kuri-ousity. Julie looks at vol. 2 of Metro Survive at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Ferdinand has a few choice words about vol. 1 of Fairy Cube at Prospero’s Manga. Emily, who has decided to start updating more often (yay!) takes a look at Himegimi no Tsukurikata at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Scott Campbell reviews vol. 1 of Nightmare Inspector and Holly Ellingwood falls for Eternal Love at Active Anime. J. Caleb Mozzocco reviews Apollo’s Song, Mar, and Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go at Every Day Is Like Wednesday (found via The Comics Reporter). Leroy Douresseaux checks out Haridama: Magic Cram School at The Comic Book Bin. Sakura Kiss reviews Say Please at The Yaoi Review. At PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog, Phil Guie reviews vols. 1-4 of Ikebukuro West Gate Park and Carlos Alexandre checks out vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire. Casey Brienza is not impressed with vol. 1 of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro at ANN, although she does like the scent of it. Ed Sizemore has an interesting review of vol. 2 of Sundome at Comics Worth Reading, in which he confesses to his own fascination with it even as he recommends other readers avoid it.

Here’s a roundup of early reactions to the Tokyopop restructuring:

ANN has the official press release. The nut graf:

The move will allow the company to align its publishing business with current book retail trends, as well as aggressively pursue growth in the white-hot comics-to-film and digital space.

Fair enough, if a bit hyperbolic. In fact, it’s almost as if they read Christopher Butcher’s post on what it means to be a publisher, as opposed to an exploiter of intellectual property. This also reflects something that people were talking about at NYCC: the flood of manga in the past few years has increased competition for shelf space and overwhelmed some direct market retailers.

On the Anime on DVD forums, fans are split between worrying that their favorite series will be cut and sending good wishes to the 39 downsized employees. While none have been named yet, translator Peter Ahlstrom lists himself as “currently job hunting.”

And while commenters there are mostly hoping that Tokyopop will focus on Japanese imports rather than “that OEL crap,” commenter Draneor has some analysis:

But more importantly, it comes down to the fact that Tokyopop does not have primary access to the three largest manga publishers and thus are limited in what they can bring over. Shogakukan’s and Shueisha’s best titles go to Viz and Kodansha’s best titles go to Del Rey. Those three companies more or less dominate the Japanese manga industry (at least the demographics that are important in North America). Even Square-Enix has a deal with Yen Press (although their most popular title is with Viz).

That also sounds right to me. Tokyopop hasn’t had a mega-hit in a while. Giapet wonders about the same thing.

Despite the complaints about “OEL crap,” some of Tokyopop’s best (and best selling) titles have been global manga: Dramacon, The Dreaming, Fool’s Gold, and the Warriors manga spring to mind. Is their output uneven? Yes. So is their output of translated titles, however. Perhaps what Tokyopop needs to do is drop some of their weaker titles from both groups and focus on nurturing their global manga creators as well as getting the cream of the crop from overseas.

Simon Jones collects a lot of the commentary at the (NSFW!) Icarus Blog and adds his own take:

But there is potential upside with regard to the contract debacle from a few days ago… now that publishing and multimedia development are separate, in theory creators should also be able to negotiate subsidiary rights in separate contracts, which in my opinion is the way it always ought to be.

And this:

Trimming down 50% of their titles from the print schedule means that their import manga catalog will feel some, if not most of the fallout… there aren’t that many OEL and photo books. But it’s still too early to make a call here whether Tokyopop is moving towards OEL… or returning to their old bread and butter, for that matter. This split may even come down to internal strife; two opposing camps within Tokyopop wanting to go in different directions, and each not wanting one to burden the other (I love starting unsubstantiated rumors).

More will become clear, as he points out, once we learn who the downsized employees are.

UPDATE: Danielle Leigh gives her take at Manga Over Flowers, and commenters weigh in as well. And Chris Mautner is all over it at Blog@Newsarama; excellent snark in comments.