Anime Expo, North America’s largest anime convention, is upon us once again this weekend! The internet’s been buzzing with excitement from industry folk, bloggers, guests and attendees alike in the weeks leading up to it – and though I can only speak as a spectator to the spectators – it certainly feels like the excitement has reached a level greater than the decline of last year, which saw less industry-presence and fewer announcements.
The big manga news to start goes to Digital Manga who had their panel on Thursday evening. AnimeNewsNetwork is covering all the major events of the convention and thanks to them I’m able to offer the abridged version here for your curious eyes:
New licenses:
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Countdown 7 Days |
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Houou Gakuen Misoragumi |
Kiba Ichizoku no Garyuudo |
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Replica |
Boku no Shiru Anata no Hanashi |
Border |
Gochisosama |
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Kusatta Kyo Shino Houteishiki |
Sabaku no Oujisama |
Digital Manga Imprint Legend
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Demon City Shinjuku (Complete Edition Novels)
A thanks to Digital Manga’s @michellemauk for some cover and info corrections
Neat Factoids:
– Digital Manga announced joint project with Viz Media to sell Naruto anime cels
– eManga.com (Digital Manga’s manga rental website) has increased rental times from 3-7 days, is preparing to offer gift cards for the point system and will be adding lots of new Harlequin titles in the near future
– Manga-ka Nao Yazawa (Wedding Peach) will be creating a new manga exclusively for digital publication on eManga.com. It will be a shoujo/fasntasy/comedy series titled Mizuki and another titled Moon and Blood(via Mania.com)
– Yamane Ayano’s Finder Series (edit: title corrected) will be available in bookstores (most notably to Americans, Borders)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
So what do you guys think?
Looks like a pretty rounded collection of news from Digital Manga – some new Hideyuki Kikuchi titles and a collection of boys’ love titles by some well-known creators. I’ll admit I’m pretty giddy to see new titles from CJ Michalski and Kazuma Kodaka, having enjoyed their work already released here. And a new series from Tsuta Suzuki? If it’s half as enjoyable as A Strange and Mystifying Story then consider me first in line!
News-wise, word that they’re offering gift cards for eManga.com really piqued my interest. I’m not a big fan of reading manga/comics digitally but I really want to see it succeed to the benefit of readers, creators and publishers alike. My biggest issue with selling anything online though has always been the difficultly the target audience has with paying via online – so my hope for these gift cards is that they’re actual physical cards you can purchase at conventions and not just digital gift cards. Digital money to buy digital points to read digital books sounds like one too many steps to me.
For a breakdown of their panel, including brief status confirmations of previously announced titles, I recommend the panel coverage at ANN and Mania.com, as well as this neat live-transcription.
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Very exciting slate of books from DMP overall. They have some great stuff coming up at the end of summer and in the fall when Yaoi Con comes around, too.
My experience of reading free previews at eManga.com has been quite good (it's a lot like the VIZ Ikki/Shonen Sunday reader) and although I've never paid for anything with points, I have received some as freebies as codes printed on physical cards. I assume that once you set up an account at eManga you can enter codes that will show up as points in your account.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Asami's Girl. Asami's Girl said: RT @kuriousity: New Blog Post – Anime Expo 2010: Digital Manga http://www.kuri-ousity.com/2010/07/anime-expo-2010-digital-manga/ […]
[…] the online site emanga drawn by Nao Yazawa, the creator of Wedding Peach. Lissa at Kuriousity has more information, color-coded by imprint and with covers of DMP’s licenses. I like the expansion of the […]
The thing that interests me the most is that most of the DMP titles are from Mag Garden, and I thought that MG already partnered up with Tokyopop?
It's nice to see Digital Manga is able to reach a new pool of titles – may be the reason why half of their titles are not boys' love in this case, which is a different trend for them.
Tokyopop confirmed a number of their own recent licenses at their panel at Anime Expo this weekend as well, several of which were Mag Garden again. If that's any indication, it seems like they still have a good relationship with the Japanese company.
[…] o site Boys-luv.com , as novas licenças em Yaoi/BL que devem chegar futuramente às prateleiras americanas pelos selos […]
I remember when they were rolling out the DokiDoki line and the eManga website, they were sending out free eManga points cards with the early DokiDoki books (along with other promos). That's how I got my first points for eManga, so they already have the system in place to offer eManga points through physical cards. Hopefully that means they'll be selling such a thing at cons, but my best guess is these cards will primarily be offered online, the way you can buy Akadot gift cards currently.
I primarily like the trend DMP is taking toward more high quality BL releases. To finally see someone like Shushushu Sakurai make it to english is a positive upward motion. I thought DramaQueen was going to release her first. Also, Maiden Rose and Finder are certainly top-tier titles, so there are finally titles worth my money.
The Maiden Rose book is fantastic – good translation, good quality release and the large cut size is a super bonus. I highly recommend it :)