I believe it was Michael Gombos who told me that MPD Psycho v4 had the largest parental advisory sticker ever in the history of manga in the US. But my copy had a bigger sticker than this one shown on Amazon.

So, one of the things I love about Oregon (besides the fact that Portland has the highest number of strip clubs per capita of any city in the country, including Vegas) is the fact that we have some of the broadest interpretations of “freedom of speech” of any state in the union. (As a result, I’ve always wondered why so many anime and manga companies are situated in Texas instead of Oregon.)

However, I didn’t know that back in July, a law was passed that was supposed to forbid the sale of any sexually explicit material to a minor if the material was meant to “satisfy a sexual desire.” However, apparently local bookshops and publishers found the law to be too broad, however, and feel that it criminalizes titles that would otherwise be acceptable. For example, the law could be interpreted such that any book that contained information about sex, like a textbook, might be illegal to sell to minors.

The manga-related news is that Dark Horse has joined the group of stores and pubs suing the state over the law. A few other plaintiffs include Powell’s (remember them?), the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and interestingly, Planned Parenthood.

(P.S. Link via Journalist.)

(Protip: for video, don’t shoot sideways…)

Okay, I actually have eight minutes before the Dark Horse panel is supposed to start, and it sounds like there’s probably only going to be one manga-related announcement, but here I am anyway. So devoted am I! When the announcement is made you’ll hear it here first.

And now we’re finally starting– they had to line people up outside for this because of all the crowding problems down here. The panel is being run by Jeremy Atkins, director of publicity, plus editors Rick Remender, Eric Powell, and Scott Allie.

I have a video of a little pre-show ditty (or most of it) that we were treated to while waiting for the people in line outside to file in, by the way; I’m currently uploading it to YouTube so I’ll throw it here when it’s done.

Spontaneous cupcake giveaway! Good thing, too, I was hungry. Some girl didn’t get a cupcake, so she gets the cupcake box, signed by Mr. Powell (creator of Dark Horse’s Goon, for those not on the up-and-up with Dark Horse’s American comics).

Okay, not a manga thing, but a lot of you guys like Buffy– Dark Horse is going to release a Buffy the Vampire Slayer tarot deck. Also in the works, a Buffy “talking board” (NOT a “ouija board,” *cough*).

And finally, finally! We’re on to manga. Mostly the 20th anniversary of Dark Horse’s manga publishing career. They’ve just launched Blood+ and Gantz is this summer, and of course the CLAMP mangettes are coming up soon, but first…

CLAMP’s Clover, in a full 512-page omnibus (32 color pages), as previously rumored. Should be about $20.

Next up is the Q&A, I’ll just post anything new that’s manga-related that comes up. In the meantime, the aforementioned video’s up above.

They have noted that should a live-action Akira (or any other out-of-print manga title of Dark Horses’) get made, they’ll most likely rerelease the manga.

While I was waiting around for Bandai Entertainment’s big news, MangaBlog’s Brigid was chatting up VIZ folks– and learned that VIZ is going to be taking submissions for original graphic novels.

So, on today’s schedule: VIZ is having their regular panel at 11, Del Rey at 12, and Yen Press (I’ve been teased that there’ll be some more big news there) at 1. 3pm will be Digital Manga Publishing’s panel, which will feature lots of Speed Racer and some 801 Media as well. Then at 6pm Dark Horse is having a panel that I’m told is mostly comics news, but that there IS a significant manga announcement there as well. (I checked because Dark Horse is at the same time as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’s showing…)

And after Dark Horse comes CMX.

So, to sum up: if you have questions for VIZ, Del Rey, Yen, DMP, Dark Horse, and/or CMX, go ahead and leave ‘em here and I’ll see what I can do about getting them answered. (I’m also going to go back to Bandai if I can to get some of those questions answered.)

Just heard back from Dark Horse’s PR guy regarding the Clover omnibus and received a “no comment,” so I guess we’ll just have to sit tight and see what happens.

Bloggers/detectives Chloe Ferguson and Kuri have spotted a listing on Amazon for an omnibus edition of CLAMP’s manga Clover, which– if the Amazon listing is correct –will be published by Dark Horse in December.

The big news here? Clover, a 4-volume unfinished CLAMP work, has been published in individual volumes by TOKYOPOP. A license grab, perhaps, or a joint work? CLAMP is publishing their new mangettes project with Dark Horse.

I have an e-mail out to Dark Horse asking for comment. If I hear anything worth posting, you’ll all be first to know. :)

So it turns out that tomorrow’s Bandai Visual USA panel has been cancelled, which means I have no panels to cover, which means I’ll probably spend most of the day hanging around in the dealer’s room, acting as a booth babe for KumoriCon.

In the meantime, here are the primary highlights from the panels I covered:

• TOKYOPOP has put Kino no Tabi on hold indefinitely and they blame themselves, but didn’t detail the reasons.
• TOKYOPOP.com v2.5 is due in the next few weeks.
• Bandai Entertainment DOES have the rights to season 2 of Code Geass (not surprising, but nice to know). The DVDs of season 1 will also feature many of the bonus stuff that came with the Japanese discs, including sketch booklets and stuff.
• This was sorta already known, but TWO versions of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time/Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo are going to be sent to theaters: a digital dubbed version to theaters that can handle those, and a subbed 35mm version. So what appears in your city (if anything) will vary depending on what your theater takes. The dub will premiere at NYCC in April.
• Dark Horse’s CLAMP project may be a candidate for a movie, although it’s still unclear whether that’s a possibility for one of the seven movies that Universal makes on its own or whether they might try to self-finance, but it’s still an exciting possibility, to use Carl Horn’s words.
• DH’s Domo-kun doll is also coming available soon, including exclusive colors at San Diego Comic Con (yellow) and for Newberry (green).
• FUNimation is still pushing Operation Anime, their anime club connection program.
• Info on Ouran High School Host Club should hit this summer and will be released uncut.
• Koge Donbo is too busy working on Kamichama Karin Chu! to do a second volume of Broccoli’s Kon Kon Kokon. Sad charats!
• VIZ Media and Antarctic Press both mysteriously no-showed. (I have an e-mail out to VIZ asking what’s up and who I might ask some questions.)

I’ll be dropping by the dot anime booth to see if any BVU folks are around to chat with for a bit, since they didn’t have a panel, so I’ll let you know if I glean anything interesting from that– and I’ll check in with Sheehan regarding One Piece on Cartoon Network. Now, the swagpost…

Closeups (but not of the doujinshi ♥) and a couple of cosplay shots (including another L-in-disguise) after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, Antarctic was a no-show but Dark Horse is up next, and I have faith that they will appear, although I hardly are hope that they’ll be on time. I’m secretly hoping that they have news about the CLAMP mangettes, but on the other hand, I suspect that they’d be more likely to announce stuff at a bigger con if they can. (Realistic me!)

Oop, there’s our favorite translator, Carl Horn, who apparently just got in from Portland (literally; he’s got his suitcase with him). He’s worried his presentation will be pretty dull. And they ARE starting up with their release list. But it’s Carl Horn, so I’m okay. And they plan to show some previews.

Apparently they’re releasing a series of Japanese children’s books about a cat in April– didn’t catch the name. I don’t remember that but I’m guessing it was announced before. We’re going to see Dark Horse’s Domo doll, which sounds fun.

Gantz volume 1 is out in June, by the way. Blood+ novel volume 2 will be out as well, I’m in the middle of volume 1 and I like it. ♥

There’s Domo-kun, who will come in multiple colors, including those shown. Special-edition yellow Domo-kun will also be available at San Diego Comic Con, and a green one is being made for Newberry. (Now, who is faster than this? Enjoy Domo!)

Previews of Gantz and Color of Rage, which both look fantastic, are being handed around, along with hardbound copies of the childrens novels, which are by Akiko Ikeda and feature really cute, goofy cat drawings. They look pretty nice. Great way to indoctrinate the kids! ♥

Ghost Talkers Daydream, about an exorcist-by-day, dominatrix-by-night (or was it dominatrix-by-day, exorcist-by-night?)– you might remember the anime, which Geneon put out –is also getting passed around, Japanese copies though.

Moving on to the Q&A session…I’m gonna ask about CLAMP but I don’t expect anything. Oh wait! He brought it up. Looks like he actually DOES know something about the story but still can’t share it. Rrrrahhhh! I will ask about the movie thing.

Okay, on the CLAMP movie thing it’s an “exciting possibility,” so I get the sense it’s definitely something they’d like to do if they can wing it– and CLAMP is a big enough name worldwide that I think it’s actually feasible. But only time will tell.

I know I just posted some cosplay, but I’m still going here– I’d forgotten I still had that waiting in the background. ♥;;

Nothing much new in the q&as that I didn’t already cover previously or or previously-er, but apparently Berserk is selling well– but some of their manga are struggling (*cough cough EDEN cough*).

Well, I think that’s about the most that we’re going to get, and I’m running low on battery, so I’ll shut down. Seeya later for Bandai Entertainment! (Well, I’m checking out Ocean, but I’d be surprised if they have anything to post about…though it’ll be interesting to see what they’ve been up to since the Geneon thing.)

So I dropped Dark Horse an e-mail on the heels of its deal with Universal to make movies of its works. I asked them whether the new CLAMP “mangettes” project falls under the “original Dark Horse” works category (which means it could be eligible for their new deal with Universal) or whether it operates more like a licensed work, which would make it ineligible for the Universal side of the deal but still a possibility for Dark Horse to self-fund.

Naturally I didn’t get any kind of easy answer back. Here’s what I was told:

As far as Dark Horse licensing Japanese material through Universal . . . well . . . we’ll just have to see. The reason we’re all so excited over here about the new CLAMP deal is because it’s totally original material. I can’t really say what projects Dark Horse and Universal are working on, but trust me, they’re big. Really big.

But is it CLAMP big? We’ll just have to see. In the meantime, he mentioned that they plan to do a “big release” in a month or so, in the context of discussing the CLAMP project, so hopefully we’ll hear more at least about the manga project then. Like, you know, a title, and maybe the genre. Maybe they’ll even go crazy and share some character names! ♥

Now, this may or may not turn out to be manga-related at all (in fact, I’m leaning towards not), but Dark Horse publishes manga (not to mention being local to me), so damnit, I’m going to report it.

Dark Horse has, according to AICN, established a contract with Universal to make seven films based on Dark Horse properties, starting with R.I.P.D. over the next three years. (Congrats, guys!)

I’m pretty sure that this deal doesn’t extend to Dark Horse’s licensed manga, whose movie rights would have to be acquired through their Japanese owners (unless DH’s contracts include those rights, which would be unusual, I should think). But I wonder: could it extend to Dark Horse’s upcoming and untitled original work from CLAMP?

Thinking about it, even that’s a stretch. I don’t know how the rights for the series are working but I bet CLAMP owns them in the end; I do know that the “mangettes” will be released simultaneously in Japan and the US, and that it will be serialized in a mangabon in Japan (but we don’t yet know which one). On the other hand, maybe they did negotiate some rights to help work a movie deal– it’s hard to imagine CLAMP wouldn’t be interested in seeing one of their series get turned into a mainstream Hollywood flick, assuming that they got a deal they liked.

That is all, of course, pure speculation on my part: the only thing we know for sure is that Universal is going to make seven films based on Dark Horse properties*, and that if Dark Horse manages to self-finance any films, they will have access to Universal’s resources. (Hey, that means they COULD be in a place to work up films based on licensed properties, if they can get the support of Japanese companies…)

…Right, I’ll stop fantasizing now. Sorry. ♥ I AM dropping an e-mail to their marketing coordinator to see if he can offer me any insight on the possibilities.

* At a further glance, I’m not entirely sure where AICN gets the number 7, since it’s not in the Variety article they cite, so make up your own minds on that.

So last night I attended a Dark Horse manga presentation hosted by the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University (where I’ve been taking Japanese). The event’s speaker was long-time translator Carl Horn, who mostly talked about the same things he mentioned at another recent Dark Horse event, such as all the recent movie adaptations and Dark Horse’s new “mangettes” project with CLAMP.

But this time he did mention a few things I thought were potentially significant, the first being that Dark Horse wants to expand its manga offerings. This came up in response to a question from Professor Kominz, one of the teachers in PSU’s Japanese program, who wanted to know who to send students who want to translate to. Carl also expressed dismay once again that people tend to write Dark Horse off as only publishing dark, violent, “manly” manga (when, in fact, their longest-running manga series is Ah! My Goddess).

There were a few interesting questions during the Q&A, including several about China– from whether Dark Horse is looking at licensing any Chinese man hua to whether China imports Dark Horse titles illicitly. Carl mentioned that a lot of their stuff is printed in China, but probably couldn’t legally be sold there, which I thought was kind of interesting.

I also enjoyed him answering the question about his favorite manga: he brought up Kohta Hirano’s Hellsing, pointing out that if you’re going to deal in clichés like vampires, Nazis, and the Vatican’s secret organizations, you really ought to “put the petal to the medal.” He notes that everyone in the series is nuts– just like Hirano.

Good times had by all! After the speech and Q&A there was a mini-cosplay competition (by which I mean four cosplayers got up and introduced themselves and got prizes), then food and hang-outs. Some Dark Horse people were also selling books, so I (finally) picked up Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service #2 (but they didn’t bring MPD Psycho, wah!).

Hit the jump for more photos.
Read the rest of this entry »