Aaaalrighty, it’s about time for TOKYOPOP to start. I see Lillian Diaz-Przybyl here, and a few other familiar faces who I’m sure I’ll put names to as soon as they introduce themselves. I just heard her mention that they have some new announcements, so looks like this time we’ll have some actual licenses. Yay!

Last chance for T-pop questions, btw.

Kasha(?) is the Gakuen Alice cosplayer; Michelle Nguyen is dressed in Gothic Lolita fashion to go with her job, editing the Gothic & Lolita Bible. And while waiting on technical dificulties they are handing out some free swag, starting with a Gakuen Alice bag and volume 1. Next up is a Princess Ai notecard box thingie. And a giant hardcover copy of Battle Royale (the Ultimate Edition).

Taking some questions now: starting with the Slayers novels. They want to, but the sales have been incredibly low. So BUY THE DAMN NOVELS.

Kino no Tabi volume 2 is officially on hiatus indefinitely due to trouble with their licensor. No details on the problems but they’re working to get it resolved. Someone asked about TOKYOPOP’s occasional anime licenses and DVD stuff, and it’s been noted that FUNimation handles that stuff for them.

Okay, now the real panel begins, starting with an OEL title: Hellgate London, by Arvin Nelson. It’s actually something they’re working with Flagship Studios on. It looks gorey and violent and not manga-ripoff-y. Awesome!

More general notes: Sgt. Frog is being repackaged for when the anime comes out; volume 15 is out in May and 16 in the summer and which apparently has a lot of fun stuff on TOKYOPOP.com. At NYCC they’ll have a Sgt. Frog giant costume and prize wheel, so I’ll be sure to check that out when I’m there.

And then, of course, Fruits Basket, which will come to an end this year I think? (Maybe ‘09?) Stickers, temporary tattoos, etc in a $14.99 book. TONS of stickers, dang. Makes me wish I liked Furuba. A Furuba planner is coming out this summer too. It’ll be an exclusive at Barnes & Noble, interestingly, until October– which may tie into my question later about what they think about the Borders issue (if I get around to asking it– I’m going to ask them about the state of the yaoi industry as well).

On the G&L Bible, they note that 50% of the content will be original, including an interview with Sakura guest ALI Project and photos of gosurori from the con. They’ll also have a big fashion show at New York Comic Con, and then something REALLY big, a famous designer, is coming to New York Anime Fest– but they can’t announce who yet. (Hmm!)

OEL title Bizhenghast is getting a novelization, and Diaz-Przybyl notes that it is one of many novel spinoffs T-pop has planned. A new Princess Ai trilogy is in the works, starting probably in the winter. Drawn by the original artist, Misaho Kujiradou, and it takes place a year after the original series finishes. In July there will also be a Princess Ai comic strip collection…they’re really working to push Ai, have you noticed? The iManga video is also on the way. Wonder if they’re working on putting Ai out in Japanese?

Vassalord, which will feature sexy vampires, is up next. Hey, I’m sold. Now Silver Diamond, a BL title that is being published by T-pop and NOT its BLU line due to the mangaka’s wishes. It’s purdy though. First volume in July.

Now Daemonium, a manga by Kosen, a Spanish duo who has made a bunch of BL manga for Yaoi Press (though Daemonium isn’t BL). Jyu-Oh-Sei, which made a shitty anime, but I’m hoping that the manga isn’t quite so bad. (The anime just suffered from really terrible pacing.) T-pop says they’ll also present more by Natsumi Itsuki, Jyu-Oh-Sei’s creator, so there’s a hint I guess.

TOKYOPOP will be bringing Jrock bands MUCC, the Underneath, and D’espairsRay (the Taste of Chaos tour) to Dallas on April 1st, Long Beach on the 10th, and San Jose on the 12th, meaning I will miss aaaaall of them. Meh! T-pop is also supporting ketchup mania, and there will be a raffle at 3pm, and the winner will get a VIP pass to the concert.

New project: the Bishonen explosion 18-month calendar, with Vassalord on the (tentative) cover. Yowza. It’s purdy-lookin’.

TOKYOPOP.com version 2.5 is coming up in a few weeks. Hopefully it’ll suck less than 2.0, which was about equally sucky as 1.0 (just in different ways). More on TOKYOPOP iManga…and now Rave Master, which will be released on TOKYOPOP.com– all 100 episodes, sometime in the late spring or early summer. She THINKS it’s going to be free but don’t quote her on it. Oops! So we’ll see what happens on that.

So I guess no new licenses, actually. But now we’ll get back to Q&A…asked my question about yaoi and whether it’s hit a plateau, which she thinks has more to do with DMP putting out a million books a month whereas BLU focuses more on quality. She also mentioned new deal with a Japanese publisher that she can’t talk about yet, but will allow them to pick up some really cool stuff. Woot.

More questions on OEL…blah blah, it takes ages to put out a book! etc. Previews have been greasing the wheels for sales, as proven by Fruits Basket. One fan asked how they decide about things like dust jackets and other printing decisions. Diaz-Przybyl says dust jackets aren’t really doable in the US because people thumb through the books so much and damage the jackets…which doesn’t seem to hurt DMP, but then, a lot of their books need to be shrinkwrapped anyway.

A Canadian has just asked what’s up with the difference in US and Canada prices given that the two dollars are worth about the same amount now. They ARE lowering the Canadian price with new books, but they can’t go back and do it retroactively to older books. They do it based on their distributor’s advice.

Someone asked if they’ll ever bring over drama CDs, which is always a great idea until you realize, how do you do it? I mean, sitting there with a book of translations reading and listening doesn’t sound fun; redubbing would defeat the purpose. So, unlikely, but they might do it for some of their original titles.

Scrapped Princess novels aren’t selling too well, so whether or not it will continue remains to be seen, and it’s on hold-ish for the time being. Talking a bit more about Jyu Oh Sei, which was apparently originally serialized in LaLa in ‘98-’03 (current LaLa titles include Ouran High School Host Club and Vampire Knight.

DNAngel just reappeared after several years of hiatus, with something like 120 pages. Not quite a full volume, so we’ll see when TOKYOPOP manages to release it, but they say they’ll push it as fast as they can.

Legal Drug 4 is allegedly being worked on finally, but since xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa Chronicle, leaving a lot of speculation on what CLAMP is doing, it’s possible. But we’ll just have to wait and see.

We’re technically over time now, but no one’s yelling so we’re all kinda hangin’ around asking more questions. I think it’s winding down a little bit. Okay, it’s done. Bye!

View blog authority

Stumble it!

Share