@Kuri: 801 is the first one that came to my mind, too. I also think that as a smaller company on the whole (compared to, say, Blu/TOKYOPOP), they might be less susceptible to industry politics. The same could be said of Drama Queen, but…let’s wait until they finish up with their backlog, first! :)

@sunflower: I’d be happy to alter the post if you could provide me a link to that message board. :)

That said, I apologize– I’d assumed that, like many yaoi communities, it was locked for the purposes of preventing minors from accessing explicit materials.

Good guess, I think. DMP is big enough to handle CPM, and 801 has a Yamane title under its belt. It’d be a shame idf it’s indeed the VT series.

I’m among a few who consider the VF series overrated and rather shallow. It’s pretty much a soap opera with a lot of eye candy. Then again, that’s what makes many manga popular, I suppose! :)

Oh, so the answer to the guessing game isn’t Viewfinder if I forgot to mention that before. Keep guessing!

I’d actually guess a company outside of the ‘loop’ of most American yaoi companies. Maybe a Japanese publisher publishing over here like Deux?

Or Yen Press with their ‘we will publish anything that sells’ philosphy?

Though, I can image VF with a typical Deux shojo-tastic cover or Yen going that hardcore.

Ayano Yamane does seem to have a good relationship with Kitty Media, even letting her pick then change the romanization of a character name. KM did a good job on Crimson Spell, not their usual hack job.

But, if forced to place my bet on a single company … uhh… Kitty.

[...] has the hot news tip of the day: an editor from the Japanese publisher Libre says that plans are under way to release [...]

@Simon: Very good point…though until the Libre announcement, CPM was making moves towards getting back on track to releasing all of their titles, including a couple that were released in the month or two following the announcement. So, if what O’Donnell thinks is true, Libre intentionally sabotaged the capitalisation of those properties.

…Note that this isn’t my opinion, but I thought CPM’s viewpoint should be thrown out there.

[...] Yes, yes, roundup-tastic– I’m back working on more database stuff for the new site, so a bit less time for the lengthy posts (though there’s always time for more CPM/Libre speculation!). [...]

@Simon: The actual words of the editor (translated by me– and I’m not fluent, just a 3rd year, so take it with a grain of salt):

#481: “The truth is, almost all of Libre Shuppan’s comics are coming out in overseas editions. They’ve been translated into English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, and French. To buy these versions, you’ll have to get in touch with their respective publishers, not us. As for the English Finders series, however, we have a plan currently underway. For now, please wait.”

#484: “Thanks for the request. As for overseas editions, because an exact release date is difficult to have, our company doesn’t make announcements [implication being "until they have the date," I think]. Still, the Finders series’ English edition’s planning’s details are currently pending, but the release will likely be far in the future I think.”

So, no, it doesn’t say a different publisher, so it could be arranging a deal with CPM. Though given O’Donnell’s attitude when I last talked with him it didn’t seem like he’d be interested– but maybe things have simmered down a bit.

[...] [...]