Kodansha Rumors Not So Rumor-licious Anymore
Remember those pesky rumors that Kodansha had a new US manga publisher in the works– leading to the panic of fans of Del Rey Manga, whose deal with Kodansha gets them a significant chunk of their licenses?
Well, they’re back, and this time with more driving force than a mere anonymous comment: ICv2 reports that the Japanese business news outlet Nikkei had reported on a new US manga publisher from Kodansha. I tracked down the article in question, whose headline is (roughly) “Kodansha: Publishing Popular Japanese Manga in the US Starting in September.”
The article mentions that until now, Kodansha had been licensing the rights to a local publisher (Del Rey Manga), but that Kodansha wants to intensify their overseas operations. The article also notes that since selling manga and magazines in Japan is becoming such a tough game, companies are focusing more attention on the foreign market.
I’ve got an e-mail out to Kodansha International (I called them, but they’re all on lunch break atm). If I don’t hear back I’ll call the Tokyo office when it’s late enough in the day (it’s 2am there). I’ll try and track down what’s going to happen to the deal with Del Rey, as well as the plans for the new publisher (demograhpic, output, etc).
There’s also a bit more to read at the Beat.
Interesting piece of news. I’m really curious to see how Kodansha goes about starting this English distribution. With long ago rumours of Tokyopop putting out a second edition of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon completely dead, I’d say it’d a strong surprise title of Kodansha to come out with… or maybe that’s more wishful thinking. ;)
As long as nothing changes with Del Rey I see this as only good news. Hopefully Kodansha will be able to push different kinds of manga into the american market.
[...] Middaugh has posted to the Del Rey Manga blog regarding Kodansha’s new manga publisher: to keep it short, Kodansha has not pulled any licenses back, and they have new licenses to [...]
I don’t want Del Rey to lose their current titles or not have anything to publish after those, but I’m sure there’s enough manga out there. Plus they could end up partnering, splitting the responsibilities or translating, marketing and distribution.
@Niko: At this point, just about anything’s possible. @_o
[...] 2: Christopher Butcher has more, but it’s on double secret background. And Gia links to the original [...]