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Kodansha License Requests


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chrisb
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Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 614
Location: USA
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 2:15 pm Reply with quote
I'd love to be able to finally buy the rest of LIFE by Keiko Suenobu. The series was just starting to go from cool to amazing. I think as shoujo fans age, we look for something a bit more intense and meaningful than "oh does that androgynous boy like me or not?" Vertical took a chance on Limit and they are doing a great job with it.
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Ensof



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 70
Location: Meifumadō
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 6:39 pm Reply with quote
I’d really like to see Kei Toume released in English again. There are two short, complete series of hers that I think would do well. The Hour of the Mice is a sinister high school mystery, a little reminiscent of (though much more low-key and down-to-earth than) the successful American comic Morning Glories. Acony is a quirky black comedy set in an apartment block full of weirdos, featuring a zombie girl as its title character. Toume has been shown to be popular to Anglophone readers before with Lament of the Lamb. I’m not sure how well Kurogane did for Del Rey back in 2006-07 though, and that might have a bearing on Kodansha’s willingness to license anything of hers again.

Mohiro Kitoh’s has a promising new series with Kodansha called Nanika Mochigattemasu ka. It features a high school student with a psychic power who comes under the influence of a fellow student who is basically a sociopath with an agenda. The dark tone and themes are similar to his other series Shadow Star and Bokurano. Admittedly Kitoh hasn’t sold well in English, but what the hell, there’s no harm in giving it a plug.

It doesn’t really fit the qualification criteria – 1990s, 19 volumes in length – but I’ll nominate Ice Blade anyway. It still rankles me that Mixx/Tokyopop released only three volumes, and butchered and bowdlerised them into the bargain. It’s as good a noir series as you’ll find in manga and Tsutomu Takahashi’s artwork is the match of anything doing the rounds even today. Ice Blade Diablo, a three volume sequel, was recently published in Japan too. It’s a shame that most of Takahashi’s work is under Shueisha’s umbrella, as Viz have shown no inclination of licensing even his short series.

Others have already brought the following titles up, so I’ll just add my vote: Historie, Cesare, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Space Brothers, Billy Bat, All-Rounder Meguru and the Blame! spin-offs. And add me as another who’d be overjoyed to see Life rescued, especially as Limit seems to be doing pretty well for Vertical.
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gsilver



Joined: 04 Nov 2007
Posts: 611
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:41 am Reply with quote
Yokohama Shopping Log is the title that I'd most like to see. At 10 volumes in the recent release, it isn't too long, and it ran through the mid-2000s, so hopefully it isn't too "classic" for consideration (vs Vertical's criteria of having started after 1999).

It's also a positively brilliant work, wonderfully drawn and plotted (subtly but clearly), and has affected me more deeply than any other manga that I have ever read.


I'd love to see Planetes back in print as well, and I've always wanted a nicely printed version in English. I'm eager to replace my Tokyopop books because the Japanese volumes (which I bought, prior to Tokyopop's licensing of it) were really pretty, while Tokyopop's printing was just bad. There's a much bigger market for seinen manga now, and the popularity of anime like Space Brothers shows that there's a market for realistic Sci-Fi. Maybe, if Vinland Saga does well, you guys could consider it.
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Mr Adventure



Joined: 14 Jul 2008
Posts: 1598
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 3:40 pm Reply with quote
Not really a new license request per say. But I'd like to see more done to get digital editions of Akira and Ghost in the Shell made available. (Not sure if its a rights issue, or Apple being dummies that makes them unavailable in these cases)

Also license rescue of Planetes wouldn't go amiss either. Especially if it includes a digital edition.

Edit: also since we're on the topic... Vinland Saga is going to get a digital release, yes? Cause now that I know it's from the same guy as did as Planetes I'm inclined to check it out.
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 6:13 pm Reply with quote
chrisb wrote:
I'd love to be able to finally buy the rest of LIFE by Keiko Suenobu. The series was just starting to go from cool to amazing. I think as shoujo fans age, we look for something a bit more intense and meaningful than "oh does that androgynous boy like me or not?" Vertical took a chance on Limit and they are doing a great job with it.

Too true. My theory on why Josei didn't do well is that Tokyopop (and Viz) brought over a most of the Josei licenses during the manga boom, before the market was ready for them and had trouble marketing them.

If you look at Comics Worth Reading Timeline of Josei Manga in the U.S. Most titles were brought over between 2003 and 2007. Many were short story collections, which, AFAIK, never sell well unless the author is extraordinarily popular.

So "Josei doesn't sell" became a rule prematurely. I'm not privy to sales stats, but shojo does seem to sell well, and there are josei titles that can be rated and marketed alongside shojo titles to garner a bigger audience (i.e. the amount of sexual content does not exceed that of an average shojo romance).

For example, both NANA and Paradise Kiss could be marketed as either shojo or josei. Viz marketed NANA as shojo (publishing it in Shojo Beat magazine) and it seems to have sold well. Paradise Kiss sold well enough for notoriously cautious Vertical to re-release it. I have a hunch Ai Yazawa's other manga would do just as well because she has a following in the U.S.

This is the same strategy that publishers use when making a title originally published in a seinen magazine in Japan to a completely different audience here. Yotsuba&! and Emma are prime examples of titles that make people do a double take when they learn that they are seinen.

Princess Jellyfish is smack dab in that "Shojo or Josei?" category. I don't think it has any content that would rate it "MA", so it can be marketed to a 15+ audience., which is why I think it's a treasue waiting for the right publisher to pick it up! Wink
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 9:18 pm Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
I have a hunch Ai Yazawa's other manga would do just as well because she has a following in the U.S.


Yeah, it still baffles me that more of her work hasn't been licensed. Especially since I assume NANA sells decently, given the amount of promotion Viz put into it and the fact that they did pick the anime up as well.

Of course, she's out of the running as far as Kodansha goes, unfortunately. I suppose for now we'll just have to be happy with the news that she's drawing again (which is super exciting!).
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kyokun703



Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 2505
Location: Orgrimmar
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:13 am Reply with quote
marie-antoinette wrote:
Agent355 wrote:
I have a hunch Ai Yazawa's other manga would do just as well because she has a following in the U.S.


Yeah, it still baffles me that more of her work hasn't been licensed. Especially since I assume NANA sells decently, given the amount of promotion Viz put into it and the fact that they did pick the anime up as well.

Of course, she's out of the running as far as Kodansha goes, unfortunately. I suppose for now we'll just have to be happy with the news that she's drawing again (which is super exciting!).


Vertical's tumblr said that they hope ParaKiss does well so they can try for more Yazawa.
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st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:55 am Reply with quote
Even though I already have the TP release of ParaKiss I'm going to buy the Vertical one to support them.
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ZepysGirl



Joined: 14 Jun 2010
Posts: 470
Location: NY, NY
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 10:34 am Reply with quote
...not to be a downer or anything, but they also posted on tumblr
Vertical Inc. wrote:
[...]Please do not get discouraged. We appreciate the suggestions, especially if the titles are really mainstream titles.

Why? Well, if you give us mainstream suggestions it is clear that you want us to stick around. Cause for every Sakuran (makes money) or Lychee (loses money), we publish a ParaKiss (breaks even) or HeroMan (makes money).

So at least it's not... losing money? ._.


@Mr Adventure: As for digital: we would like to do digital releases for all of our titles. However, sometimes there are issues that prevent us from doing so. That's about all I can say!
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:30 am Reply with quote
I would hope that as far as ParaKiss goes the TP numbers from the original run would be taken into consideration. I assume they were decent, since I can't see them picking up the title otherwise. I do own those versions and so will not be buying the Vertical ones.
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OniTasku



Joined: 07 Jun 2011
Posts: 78
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:39 pm Reply with quote
Sorry to be slightly off-topic here.

st_owly wrote:
Even though I already have the TP release of ParaKiss I'm going to buy the Vertical one to support them.


The Vertical ParaKiss releases are absolutely gorgeous. Color pages, larger trim size, new translation, far better page/image quality. Not to mention they're collected into 3 omnibus volumes. This new release easily kicks the TP version to the curb.

A problem that I've started having with much of my older collection (mainly Tokyopop and CMX) is that the pages have grown very brittle or rigid, so I've ended up replacing a number of them or putting them into closed storage. These Vertical releases will definitely have a better longevity.
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 10:02 pm Reply with quote
I have too many titles I want and too little money to buy them with the ever justify picking the same series up twice.

And honestly, the TP version was just fine, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. The only thing that bothers me about it is the fact that two TP editions were made with different covers so my set doesn't match.
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 10:29 pm Reply with quote
Lets face it, it was never gonna be hard to outdo tokyopop quality wise. Not that their stuff was all too bad but all it would take is some extra effort to outdo em (and a proof read before stuff went to print).

Lucky for me I've not yet got paradise kiss so I can get the new version when i get around to buying it, what irks me is when you bust your arse getting a title and then someone else comes and reprints that same title and throws in extra content such as Battle angel last order, i dont have the finances to re buy it especially after having slogged to get volumes 5-7 so i wont get the extra content.

all that being said i think its good of kodansha to go back and re-release all the series so that people wont have to do what i did now that they are putting it out.
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Jaymie



Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 10:33 pm Reply with quote
Devil Survivor. It's a manga based off of the popular video game (so it's not terribly obscure). Devil Survivor's story was perfectly suited to become a manga, so the adaption actually stands up well on its own. There are also a lot of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona fans that would eat this right up.

The game is spread across seven days (eight in the 3DS port), so the manga will probably be less than twelve volumes altogether (<twelve volumes is my sweet spot when buying a new series - anything over that is a long-term commitment and has to be really good to justify the time and money spent).

Devil Survivor 2 is getting an Anime in April so this is the perfect time to capitalize on the DeSu hype.
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誤称



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 549
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:52 am Reply with quote
Seriously, I'd love it if you did kissxsis just cause I'd love to see this place explode. It would be awesome. And the manga is amusing as hell.

And Bow Ditama is apparently in right now.

Controversial titles sell and nothing is quite as controversial as kissxsis, omorashi and teacher-student relationships. Oh, and incest. Very Happy
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