Love Manga

The USA Today’s Top 150 arrives and three manga make the cut this time around.

As to be expected both Naruto and Fruits Basket are still going strong, in fact very strong.
In its second week in the chart Naruto vol.11 rises 12 places to #21 which is now the highest position for any manga on the chart beating out Fruits Basket vol.14 which previous held that record four weeks ago with #24.
This weeks chart though sees it slip down to #110 which should mean it’ll survive for maybe one week more.

These two are not alone though, as Death Note vol.07 debuts at 114. It is the highest position so far for the series which has only ever seen volume 4 and 5 ever make the chart before.

Okay, so that wasn’t really surprising, but ICV2 publishes in their Talk Back section a response from Ed Sherman of Rising Sun Creations on the whole Tokyopop online exclusivity mess.

I have to say that I agree to a certain extent on what he’s saying, though after the biased interview with Levy and Kiley its not exactly unfair to see the retailers version either.

It does not bother me that Tokyopop is making the manga listed in the interview Web-only exclusives. These are all titles that were poor sellers at best. We liquidated all of those titles long ago. What does bother me is that Tokyopop is expending money and effort to promote these titles which it should just forget about. Instead they should get back to publishing and supplying higher quality manga to the traditional retail market.

Again the bottom line for these titles going to online exclusive is because they just DO NOT sell like they should be doing. So sticking them in an exclusive online shop and charging them at full price is obviously going to help them sell more. ^.^
Though you could look at it from the consumers point of view too. If these titles were not selling, I mean Sherman says he liquidated all Dragon Head titles long ago, then surely it might stand to reason that Tokyopop could drop these titles. So sorry if I get a little greedy here, but if the only way to keep a title like Dragon Head running a little more towards completion is to have to buy it from the Tokyopop store then I’d certainly consider it. Notice consider it, not out right jump at the chance. Even I, don’t have enough love for a title to suddenly start paying double for the privilege.

It doesn’t make sense to pursue promoting poorer-selling titles online when there are so many hot Tokyopop titles that have been out of print for so long. I cannot get copies of Kingdom Hearts #1-3, Loveless #1, or Battle Club #1, just to name a few.

This is a tricky one. I’d certainly agree for new volumes, even I cannot really see the point of making new acquisitions straight into Tokyopop Online Exclusives, but for existing properties as a reader I’d at least like them to continue. Ultimately I’d like them to continue at the retailer I was happily buying them all from before, but that’s not going to happen now so I have to make the choice if I want the extra hassle Tokyopop seems so keen to throw in my way.

My read on all of this is that Tokyopop is in trouble. When they cannot keep hot titles in stock, there is obviously a problem. I hope that this is not the case. Tokyopop has always treated the direct market well, and they are responsible for creating the American manga market. But this Web exclusive project just strikes me as an act of sheer desperation. Am I wrong?

Well this is not the first to say that, and I suspect wont be the last. Are they in trouble, I don’t know. It certainly isn’t good when you come up with something like online exclusives, because no matter how much positive spin you put on it, the titles are only there because they are not selling well. I’m not so sure I’d like to go as far as saying this is an act of sheer desperation, but then again I’m not a retailer so slightly less involved then Sherman is.

One last thing: the old Tokyopop Website was a perfect example of how a Website should be done. The new Website is just plain confusing. I do not even go there anymore. What happened?

Need I really say that I completely agree with this. The new Tokyopop site is here to stay, and we will make the best of it, and there are truly some great parts , just unfortunately at the moment there are more equally distressing parts. I’m desperately trying to be optimistic here.

Publishers Weekly had a good day yesterday what with the Tokyopop interview and then this little piece which hit the Publishers Weekly Daily newsletter.

Seven Seas who have already established themselves as a solid global manga publisher and are slowly starting to prove their worth in the licensing department are now also set to delve into the non-licensed novel business according to PW.

The children’s novel Diva v. Poe written by Kurt Hassler (yes THAT one) and with illustrations by Spiro Dousias will be the first foray into this new market for Seven Seas.

DeAngelis said he expects strong orders from Borders and he’s in talks with B&N.

Am I the only one who finds that statement funny. Strong orders from a company where the writer of your book works. I’m sure there probably isn’t any conflict of interest but that never stopped me talking about it when Sokora Refugees came out.

“I’d say nearly 100% of manga readers are on the Web. Print ads don’t drive people to your site,” said DeAngelis,

I thought this was quite an interesting statement about the power the internet can have on some publishers decisions. I know that a publishers are not really all that on the net (Del Rey and VIZ Media to a certain extent) and some are a little too full on (Tokyopop and eigoManga) whereas someone like Seven Seas actually has a nice balance between content and community. Even if Jason DeAngelis had to add “It’s a children’s book,” noted DeAngelis, “the discussion in the forums would just confuse parents.”

This weeks PW Comics Week lands in my inbox and as usual I carve off the manga bits.

Well it looks like another Tokyopop interview gets rolled out today, this time with Stuart Levy, and its the main article no less.

So in all fairness I’m off to find other manga news items, and for the first time in many weeks Kai-Ming Cha lets me down with no other manga articles.
The Panel Mania for this week though does feature from Go! Comi’s up and coming series After School Nightmare.
Plus the Comics Briefly section runs the story about DramaQueen’s website launch for RUSH the global Boys’ Love anthology.

Okay okay, I’ll take a look at the Levy interview.
Called Passion and Business at Tokyopop and run by Calvin Reid it is a slightly less orthodox chat then the Mike Kiley interview from this morning and thankfully it doesn’t mention the manga lifestyle, though it gets dangerously close.
Oh and the new word at Tokyopop seems to be magic. It got used a few times in this interview and was used more then a few times by Kiley.

Except that I believed something in my heart. I felt magic about this material.

Right.

Anyway, there were a few bits that came up which might interest some people.
First was the discussion about where the next step is for Manga after last years prediction that it would become a $150m market.

They’ve been experimenting with the category for a while. Now with [our distribution and publishing alliance with] Harper, we can go into these stores together with a program… The other way the category can grow—which is the way I really want it to happen—is that B&N and Borders go through another aggressive increase in shelf space.

I think this particular problem has been building up for a while now and I know its certainly be raised a fair few times. In a way it ties in nicely with the reason behind the “online exclusives”, the fact that titles just cannot get that all important shelf space anymore. With Tokyopop and VIZ Media alone putting out roughly 800+ titles this year and more and more publishers getting involved, the whole graphic novel shelfing connundrum is only going to get worse.

-> About the direct market;

We’re very bullish on the direct market. So in my opinion we’re bringing the comics marketplace back to its roots.

No real comment, I just wanted to quote that last sentance.

-> The next challenge for Tokyopop in the realms of impossibility;

But the next challenge is how to get to young boys, because I’m cool with the young girls. I’ve got no complaints. They’re really smart, they know the topics and they appreciate the characters. But we’ve got to get the crazy boys. Boys are reading manga but not to the degree of girls. It’s still typically 60% to 70% girls.

After reading that Wired article which completely neglected to notice that boys read manga too I wondering more and more whether there is something to this. I do take these sort of statements which a pinch of salt, mainly because all my manga friends are fairly evening split when it comes to gender. Obviously my crowd are not the best global representation but I always see boys amongst the manga equally as much as the girls, but they are no where near as vocal in real life or online. Just maybe this is the more the perception? Almost want to go back so Simon’s Icarus webblog where he talks about the girls beating the boys hands down in the BL versus Ero-manga wars.

-> About his first manga which unfortunately happened to be Parasyte;

Now Del Rey is publishing it! My baby! The book that launched the manga revolution! It’s just wrong! For years a film was supposed to be made and never was. Supposedly there’s a script now, so if Del Rey lucks out with timing, they’ll have a film that I waited 10 years for. So I’m a little sensitive on this subject.

Yes, Tokyopop published way to early and now we are going to be treated to a re-release by Del Rey in the format that Tokyopop helped to create in the West but that has been tweaked by the quality publishers Del Rey. Personally it is a win win situation for us consumers. ^.^

-> Then we move into the global scene;

So licensed stuff is great, but my dream is to create my own stuff, too. Tokyopop is a business and a passion. I call myself a DJ–a good DJ remixes, samples, creates and sometimes simply plays other people’s stuff, passively introducing cool shit. Other times you’re making your own stuff from scratch. That’s who I am.

Okay, your losing me a bit here. It is a long interview and this sort of answer makes my enthusiasm wane.

-> Outside the US;

There was no manga in the U.K. until we went in. So it was similar to the U.S., a couple of imported things, and Borders and Diamond were doing some things. But there were no local publishers. We’ve been working on it for two years. We’ve just announced a new deal with Pan Macmillan, the number-one publishing company in the U.K. Our London offices are in the Pan Macmillan offices and we’ve just moved our people in. Like teaming up with Harper, in the U.K. our plans are to build the market.

I knew that Tokyopop UK had just gone through some recent changes but wasn’t quite sure what. Signing up with Pan Macmillan is pretty damn good, they are huge over here in the UK, even the publisher I worked for had all distribution done through Macmillan. In a way though I’d love to see the UK side become more like the German side, with its own editorial department and such like. Maybe with a few more Rising Stars of Manga competitions under its belt we can finally get that here too.

-> And to finally to end on, were back to those Tokyopop contracts;

In exchange, we pay money upfront so you can eat. It’s a very, very healthy, respectable sum of money. Everything’s deal by deal, but generally speaking, in exchange we co-own it together. How much more fair can you get?

I’ve written little about the online exclusives that have appeared on the new Tokyopop’s site because quite frankly I’ve not made my mind up about them yet, but ICV2 has a sit down with Mike Kiley for a quick chat about just what it is Tokyopop are trying to achieve.

Part 1
Part 2

Throughout the article there is the overriding feel that the whole online exclusive part is still very much experimental for Tokyopop and that’s no bad thing. To suddenly move from being a publisher with strong distribution links to both the booktrade and direct market it requires a certain amount of readjustment to say, look your not getting these any more, its nothing personal but we are going to be releasing these ourselves.
But that to me isn’t as bad as the stigma which could potentially get attached to these titles. The audience is a knowledgeable one most of the time and they are quick to spot which titles sell and which don’t, and honestly moving a select section of titles out of regular distribution does imply that you have little trust in their selling ability. Even worse the idea that new titles, ones that have just been acquired are going to skip the whole trade part and become online exclusives from the get go, implies a lack of confidence in them. Kiley though is quick to stress that this isn’t the case;

With the volume 1s, it’s very consciously not an attempt to say, ‘Here’s the dregs or the bottom of the barrel’ or whatever. It’s very consciously more an attempt to say, ‘Here’s a book that we think is kind of quirky, interesting, can profit from a slightly different treatment prompted from the increased exposure it will get from this new audience that we’re cultivating online.’

I wouldn’t expect anything less, but I think we can say that the titles chosen haven’t exactly set the world on fire in terms of sales, in particular I’m looking at Dragon Head which is a real shame. But maybe Tokyopop are right, maybe this new web audience would be more likely to go with the online exclusives, maybe Tokyopop could actually push their own products to this new audience and draw attention to these flagging titles rather then flog Ford Mustangs. Who knows.

I quickly mentioned above the idea that Tokyopop are now taking titles away from retailers who have previously help establish them in the first place and ICV2 bring this exact point up with Kiley. I’m not going to look at the answer because really Kiley isn’t going to come out and say actually we hate all retailers and were planning on global domination, well not yet anyway. Instead I wanted to have a quick look at his answer in terms of market saturation.

There is an enormous diversity and breadth of product coming out every single month, and it’s a simple fact that the marketplace speaks with its ordering power. There are certain books, because of customer demand, or marketing, or exposure across other media that are very easy no-brainers. There are other books that are mid-list, and finally there are books that are very, very challenged in today’s environment to get that support.

I don’t think its unfair to say that a large part of the problem is Tokyopop themselves. With a huge back catalogue and a seriously obscene amount of content out each month a good part of the reason quality titles get lost is because many retailers cannot see the wood for the trees. Just a quick flick through the “goodies for this week” posts that I do every week shows that in July Tokyopop had 28 titles the most from any publisher, even worse back in June they had 46 titles out in that month again more then anyone else, in fact more then all the other publishers combined outside of VIZ Media.
Something needs to give in that scenario and this online exclusivity might be just the ticket, only time will tell.
Just thinking about that, time will tell, but I’m not entirely sure how we do. I know we get the Diamond direct market charts and those of us willing to fork out lots of money can get access to the bookscan charts, but is there a way to gauge how successful the online exclusives are? One way would be to see if they continue with the scheme or add more titles but I was looking for something a little more concrete.

The second part brought up probably the more exciting part of this new scheme. Its the idea that it acts as an advanced marketing scheme which sounds a much better way of phrasing it then an online bargin bin for titles that don’t sell.

That isn’t a formal part of the new program, but it’s possible. I guess what I likened it to in the past is something like an indie film approach. A limited release pattern with word of mouth, very targeted kind of thing. Occasionally what that results in is a bit of a groundswell, and those films go into wider release. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes that happens. I don’t think it’s inconceivable that if we get something going as an online exclusive, if it really builds an audience and there’s a story there to tell and if retail is interested in it, I think those are things that could migrate over to a wider release pattern in certain cases.

That is something I’m quite willing to get behind. Yes, its a little cack-handed for sure, but there is a dedicated audience of Tokyopop fans now living on the website. How much closer do you need them to be before you start pushing manga towards them in an earnest attempt to sell them?
The results might be a little skewed though as the online audience one would think are already favourable to many titles that Tokyopop release which cannot be said for when they are given a trade release; but many companies would kill to have this kind of viral marketing. It’s got to be worth a try.

It’s a good chat with Mike Kiley even if some of the answers are a little stock, but it doesn’t really change my overall opinion of the online exclusives.

The concept is fine, and could really have the potential to be invaluable for Tokyopop, but to me they are an extra hassle in wanting to buy the titles I like. Everything I buy in terms of manga is done online at UP and its nice and convenient and most importantly, considering the volume I buy, cheap. The Tokyopop online exclusives are neither convenient or cheap for me, and I have to say there is probably a good chance that I’ll just end up with three incomplete series on my shelves (Neck and Neck, Arm of Kannon and Dragon Head), though I guess you could argue if they never moved to the online exclusives would Tokyopop have stuck by them in trade release anyway? At least this way there is a guarantee that the series will finish.

Now if Kindaichi Case File gets moved to online exclusive, then of course I’d have no choice but to buy, that goes without saying. ^.^

As always from the Comiclist.

A. D. VISION
Anne Freaks Manga Vol 3 TPB, $9.99

ANIME WORKS PUBLICATIONS
Apocalypse Zero Vol 5 GN, $9.99
Baron Gong Battle Vol 6 GN, $9.99
Kamunagara Rebirth Of The Demonslayer Vol 5 GN, $9.99

ANTARCTIC PRESS
AP How To Draw Hentai Advanced Intercourse #1 (adult), $4.95
Blue Grind One Shot (AA)(adult), $4.95
Gold Digger #77, $2.99
Gold Digger Swimsuit End Of Summer Special 2006, $4.50
Wings Of Luftwaffe #1, $3.50

BLU MANGA
Gerard & Jacques Vol 1 GN (Of 2), $9.99

BOOM! STUDIOS
X Isle #2 (Of 5), $2.99
Yoshitaka Amano Hero Vol 1 Px HC, $19.99

DARK HORSE COMICS
Haibane Renmei Anime Manga Vol 1 TPB, $14.95
Path Of The Assassin Vol 2 TPB, $9.95
Scary Book Vol 3 Faces TPB, $13.95
Usagi Yojimbo #96, $2.99

DC COMICS
Tenjho Tenge Vol 9, $9.99

DR MASTER PUBLICATIONS INC
Four Constables Vol 5 TPB, $13.95
Iron Wok Jan GN #19, $9.95
Lunar Legend Tsukihime Vol 3 TPB, $9.95
Real Fake Princess Vol 2 TPB, $9.95

ICARUS PUBLISHING
A G Super Erotic Anthology #40 (adult), $4.99

INFINITY STUDIOS
A Kiss For My Prince Vol 1 GN, $10.95
Blood Alone Vol 2 GN, $9.95
Now Vol 1 GN (New Printing), $10.95
Zero Vol 2 GN, $9.95

KITTY PRESS
Level C Vol 6 GN (adult), $9.99

NETCOMICS
Emperors Castle Vol 1 GN, $9.99
Land Of Silver Rain Vol 3 GN, $9.99
Madtown Hospital Vol 3 GN, $9.99
Manhwa Novella Collection Vol 1 GN, $11.99
Pine Kiss Vol 3 GN, $9.99

TOKYOPOP
Battle Vixens Vol 9 GN (Of 10), $9.99
Bus Gamer 1999-2001 Pilot Edition, $9.99
Confidential Confessions Deai Vol 2 GN (Of 2), $9.99
Dears Official Fan Book, $9.99
Girls Bravo Vol 5 GN (Of 10), $9.99
Greatest Stars O/T NBA Cinemanga Vol 7 Dynamic Duos GN, $7.99
Greatest Stars O/T NBA Cinemanga Vol 8 All Time Dunks GN, $7.99
Hands Off Vol 7 GN (Of 8), $9.99
Innocent W Vol 1 GN (Of 2), $9.99
Kamen Tantei Vol 1 GN (Of 4), $9.99
Laya The Witch Of Red Pooh Vol 1 GN (Of 2), $9.99
Mitsukazu Mihara Rip Requiem In Phonybrian GN, $9.99
Open Season Cinemanga GN, $5.99
Seikai Crest O/T Stars Vol 1 Queen O/T Empire Vol 1 GN (O, $7.99
Shrine Of The Morning Mist Vol 2 GN (Of 4), $9.99
Suikoden III Vol 10 GN (Of 10), $9.99
Vampire Doll Guilt Na Zan Vol 1 GN (Of 3), $9.99

VIZ MEDIA LLC
Der Mond Art Of Neon Genesis Evangelion 2nd Ed, $24.99
Megaman Nt Warrior Vol 10 GN, $7.99

This topic came up a couple of weeks back, but without having a place to write about it I put it on hold, so here you go now.

A little while back on the Digital Manga Publishing forum we learnt that the excellent Bambi and Her Pink Gun was going on hiatus, temporarily or more Worst like we don’t know but volumes 01 and 02 are all were getting at the moment.

This brought about an exchange over IM about just what it means to be DMP at the moment and whether the traffic is all one way where June Manga is concerned, what about the special relationship that DMP enjoys with Dark Horse? Which then prompted a post over at DH boards asking that exact question. The response was less than stellar.

So I was thinking is there room for DMP or are they just sustained through the more than successful June Manga releases and one with 801 Media when it finally launches?

The best place to start seemed to be through looking at what is actually available as a DMP title. At the recent Anime Expo and Otakon conventions both June Manga and DMP announced new titles but the ratio was 5:1 for AX and 6:1 for Otakon in favour of June titles. The only two new licenses was another Fumi Yoshinaga title in Flower Of Life and the probably highly anticipated Vampire Hunter D manga.

Add to that we have the Business manga (Project X), the Edumanga and the How to Manga (Gloom Party), all quite eclectic and on-going. Next up we have Enchanter, of which the first volume is out, Princess Princess which is due out soon and the two new titles mentioned already.
What we are missing is Bambi which we now know is on hold, Worst which is cancelled and IWGP whose fourth and final volume is due out this August but I’ve not heard anything yet and has been over a year and a half ago since volume 03.

I’m not including the completed series like Antique Bakery, Cafe Kichijouji de or Princess Ninja Scroll Tenka Muso, because, well they are completed. In fact whilst I’m mentioning them the two Fumi Yoshinaga series and Cafe Kichijouji de could quite easily have slipped into the June Manga imprint. Though they are not BL titles as such that June Manga releases but they wouldn’t be out of place amongst them either; so I was genuinely curious if they were kept back for DMP knowing that they would prove to be quite popular. A quick flick through Diamond’s top 100 Graphic Novel Chart for Antique Bakery shows that all 4 volumes have made the chart and each successive volume has placed higher then its predecessor.

As it stands at the moment that just leaves seven series currently being released by DMP which is a little less then the 23 which I’ve only quickly counted up coming from June Manga in the future.

What about Dark Horse and Dark Horse Press. We know that their combined work is currently running on Berserk, Trigun, Hellsing and the Vampire Hunter D novel, of which only Hellsing has currently stopped, one can only guess that they’ll keep the production team the same when volume 08 arrives.
But no other new DH titles have seemed to follow suit, actually Sno Cone Studios seems to be the flavour of the month at the moment for all things lettering and retouching. Was the special relationship only meant for those few titles or did the two not want to continue on other titles?

I’ve always been curious about whether DMP is just hanging on with their other manga titles whilst the June Manga BL licenses go from strength to strength and now with the news that another title in Bambi has been put on hiatus I’m actually genuinely concerned about what’s happening to DMP. Add to that the announcement from Aka-san that he was leaving the company, the man behind much of the success of DMP’s titles, such as the excellent Robot and things don’t seem as rosy as their imprint.

This isn’t a death of DMP post, I personally don’t think they are going anywhere. But it is more out of curiosity. Can or should the June Manga imprint carry the DMP titles like Project X or the edumanga ones? Does it even need to?