MangaScope ~ December 21, 2008

Online net manga distributor MangaNovel will be shutting down next February. In an email sent out last week MangaNovel states they have stopped taking new registrations, their user translation program has come to an end and point sales have been discontinued. MangaNovel will be contacting users with points left to use by Jan 15th and all services will be shut down on February 27th.

I got to interview one of the chief officers of MangaNovel last year for PW’s Comics Week and while the project was intriguing I never thought it was going to take off unless it got the support of Japanese publishers. MangaNovel launched in late 2007 with comics that previously failed for Mainichi Shinbun’s English website. They also had a number of old random josei, cycling and pet manga from yanki and sci-fi manga publisher Shonen Gahosha (publishers of Excel Saga, Trigun, and Hellsing). Along with a lone Media Factory title, MangaNovel began to distribute a number of full color projects of their own for free. Promises to reach out to other pubs apparently failed as none of them bit on the idea. Plans to extend their software to Macs and to the iPhone/iTouch also never transpired.

Not coming through with plans is always going to doom a start-up. It’s one thing to lure readers with free manga no-one has ever heard of but if those readers are to stick around  there must be some real incentive for them. Proven content and the ability to reach out to a wide range of readers would have helped, but as is the case with many internet projects time to flesh those things out is at a premium.

MangaNovel’s overall failure to lure in titles manga readers would care about was their ultimate demise. The titles that MN provided may have been cute and in color but they generally did not have the pull or prestige to bring in readers. The idea that readers had to provide their own translations was a novel idea, but seriously how many people who are not translators/scanlators would want to not only read a comic but go through the hassle of providing a translation for it.

-As MN shuts down another net manga distributor steps up. But before I get people’s hopes up eBookJapan is still only available in Japanese… Anywho, eBJ has launched their services for the iPhone/iTouch and it is beautiful. I have had the eBookReader service for more than a week now and books look great. Zoom in and out just like you do with photos by some quick finger work and books can be transferred from your PC account to the iPod relatively easily via wifi. Color and BW looks very sharp on the iTouch’s screen and readers can should be able to cram a good number of volumes into a 16 or 32GB iPod Touch.

Now I am sure there will be some who will disappointed with the lack of Mac support for eBook. But to be honest, given who is involved in the eBook project (a number of hardware and software companies few of them who possibly wouldn’t work with Apple if not for iTunes and their apps program) and the fact that Macs only make up around 10% of the computer market, I’d definitely start with Windows and work my way out to Mac and Linux (BTW I own a Mac and a PC). The next hiccup is how users have to have a Japanese iTunes account to download the app to their iPod. But if you can get through those little issues you’ll have access to thousands of volumes of untranslated manga from:

Shogakukan, Kodansha, Akita Shoten, Futabasha, Harlequin, Take Shobo, Houbunsha, Coamix, TOKYOPOP, Nichbungeisha, Shinshokan, Asahi Shinbun, Ohta Shuppan, JigyonoNipponsha, Bandai, Media Factory…

Hopefully this will help the group finally expand their business outside of East Asia, as was rumored a few years back when they launched eBookJapan Asia (which I believe is no longer running either).

-ANN has word on the latest magazine from Shuiesha - JC.COM. Now despite the title this is not an online magazine (at least not yet). The magazine is spin-off special edition of Young Jump magazine so titles will lean towards seinen with a slight sex and action tinge to it.

An ad in the latest Young Jump lists the following artists to be featured in volume 1.

・Murata Range (ROBOT)
・Satou George (High School of the Dead)
・Ueyama Tetsuro (Sekiganjuu Mitsuyoshi)
・Takeuchi Sakura (Chokotto Sister)
・Jean David Morvan＆ Terada Toru (Le petit monde)
・Fujiwara Kamui (Seirei no Moribito)

What fascinates me about this is how this is yet another new magazine from a major publisher at a time when magazine sales are falling like oil prices. Shueisha launched SQ last year and that magazine saw record sales initially. Kodansha’s Shonen RIVAL has not seen the same success despite its decent line-up of artists. Also Kodansha’s Morning 2 magazine may have its share of critically acclaimed titles, but the mag has limited distribution and has turned to the web to help expand its audience. Kodansha launched its Afternoon spin-off good! Afternoon last month with major artists - Fujishima Kosuke (Oh My Goddess!), Ishikawa Masayuki (Moyashimon), Nonaka Eiji (Cromartie High School), Takahashi Tsutomu (Ice Blade) and Samura Hiroaki (Blade of the Immortal). MediaWorks dropped one mag (gao!) when they merged with ASCII but over the last two years they have started a pair of magazines - SYLPH (their first shojo mag) and Kuro「Ma)Oh (focusing on bishojo media-mix titles with a fantasy tinge). And finally enterbrain! debuted their second magazine fellows! featuring the newest series from Mori Kaoru (EMMA).

Oh and mind you sales for SQ and Morning 2 tankobon have ranged from solid to very good, supporting studies that have said that tankobon sales are still going up even with a shirking (more like maxed out) Japanese manga market.

-According to the Peach-Pit website, sudden health issues have put the duo’s three manga series on hiatus. So far I have not heard or read which one of the two members of Peach-Pit was hospitalized. I sure hope they weren’t both in an accident. The two work closely on all of their titles sharing the art responsibilities by character (ie in ShugoCHARA! Brandon does Ikuto, Kuukai, Tadase and Utau, while Dylan does Yaya, Nadeshiko, and others). According to their site the emergency will effect the following series in their respective magazines - Zombie Loan (SquareEnix - GFantasy #1), ShugoCHARA! (Kodansha - NakaYoshi #2) and Rosen Maiden (Shueisha - Young Jump #4/5). Peach-Pit note they want quick recovery to get back to work soon.

-Kuriosity picked up the scoop on CLAMP/Dark Horse’s Mangettes. The project which was originally announced at San Diego Comic Con 2007 appears to finally be close to ready to be rolled out as Amazon.ca has their first floppy is scheduled for an August 2009 release.

Here’s a summary blurb…

“Between our conscious, waking world and the subconscious state of slumber, there is a thinly veiled plane of lucid dreaming. While the conscious state belongs to individuals, the hidden plane of dreams is one shared by all human minds, past, present, and future. Yet only a few have ever possessed the power to enter this secret realm at will - where a war is being waged to control the waking world. For our earthly wishes and desires are not our own, but under the manipulation of these unseen masters of dreams. The heroine of Gate 7 is Hana, a high-school girl hailing from Kyoto, the daughter of a temple caretaker. Her peaceful ways give her the self-control to act in the hidden realm. But Hana can only reach it through the strange beast that acts as her totem in the world of dreams - and her companion on a journey to confront the puppeteers of our reality!”

So yeah, new CLAMP next year… 80pgs for $8 (or 8.62 CN$)… I’ll be passing. And sorry kids preorders are not open at Amazon.com yet.

-If you are a Hojo Tsukasa fan like me (and I think Gerald from AWO) you will be rushing to your local manga import shop to get the latest issue of Comic Bunch. Inside will be another chapter of Angel Heart (the City Hunter sequel-ish series) and a limited edition Angel Heart bookcover. The two-sided full-color cover some gorgeous images of main character Ying LiXiang. On the back there are the other two heroes - Saeba Ryo and his partner in love/crime fighting the deceased Makimura Kaori. No mokkori action but it still made my heart stop for a second to see Kaori in Ryo’s arms again. Someone drop a 100ton hammer one more time for old time’s sake!! PLEASE!! (Muhyojo)

In-coming:

-Yet another Fist of the North Star manga spin-off from Coamix that is not being drawn by Hara. Mori Hiromoto will take direction from Buronson and Hara Tetsuo on Jagi Gaiden ~GokuAku no Hana~ starting on the Boxing Day (Dec 26th) issue of Weekly Comic Bunch. (Muhyojo)

-Take Shobo’s MangaLife magazine is best known for their 4-koma comics generally for josei readers. Well women like to laugh and I know Japanese women like to watch 24 (heck I know more people there than Americans that watch 24, the OC and Prison Break. Maybe FOX should consider moving to Japan??). What happens when you combine 4-panel gag strips and Jack Bauer? You get BakuShou 24 (Explosive Laughs 24). Apparently the manga will be a series of photographs in 4-koma format done in “real-time.” I don’t understand how this manga will be in “REAL TIME”, but I sure hope the photographers involved make fun of how porous the Department of Homeland Security is in that TV series.

Expect to see things blow up starting issue #3 (Jan 17th) (Muhyojo)

-New series from the creator of Salaryman Kintaro Miyamoto Hiroshi - Mada, Ikiteru... (Still alive…) Maybe Jason Thompson will become a fan of this manga about a man who throws away his company job and his family to be homeless. (Muhyodo)