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Libre Publishing Comments on Termination of Agreement With Digital Manga Inc.

Libre Publishing gave ANN a statement on Thursday regarding the termination of its publishing agreement with Digital Manga Inc. (DMI). Libre Publishing's statement reads:

First of all, we would like to thank all the fans of our manga for their loyal support.

We were surprised by the recent press release from DMI regarding the ending of their agreement with Libre, and dismayed that they decided to make a business matter public in such an abrupt manner. The agreement was terminated some time ago under just cause due to a breach of contract, with DMI granted a sell-off period for any remaining stock.

Moving forward, we would like to reassure our English-language readers that we are actively working on plans so that they will be able to continue reading their favorite Libre series, including ongoing ones.

We will continue to make all efforts with our partners in good faith to ensure that the works of our creators are cared for and able to reach fans all over the world.

DMI had revealed the termination via a press release on Saturday. In the press release, DMI had called Libre's termination of the agreement "unjust," and said that the termination of the agreement meant that readers "will not be able to support the artists or publishers and may have to resort to scanlations." DMI had said that the termination of the agreement affected Ayano Yamane's Finder series and Kazuma Kodaka's Kizuna series. DMI published the seventh volume of Finder in November 2014, and will not publish the eighth volume. The company published all of the Kizuna series in six omnibus volumes in 2010-2012.

Libre Publishing granted rights to DMI for almost 70 manga titles, including: Hinako Takanaga's The Devil's Secret, Naduki Koujima's Our Kingdom, and volumes of Makoto Tateno's Yellow series.