2008 Manga Report Cards ~ Aurora Publishing

Another year another reason to dust off the publisher files and work on some report cards. 2008 was a difficult year for manga. It was a year of loss, with Broccoli Books leaving the scene, and ADV and DQ essentially on indefinite hiatus. While sales figures might say otherwise, but certain sectors of the market saw some growth as the market finally began to mature and diversify. Eromanga, josei, and alternative titles started to creep back into the market (I say back because pubs like Comics One and Eros Comix  and Viz’s Pulp tried before), and Yen Press and Aurora Publishing began to make an impact as publishers. 2008 had its controversies. OEL contract woes, layoffs/restructuring, subsidiary rumors, lawsuits, and more titles put on hiatus gave manga pundits plenty to talk about.

With this year’s set of report cards we’ll look back at each of the major publishers of manga using the following format:

• Content
• Production
• Communication
• Distribution
• Evaluation w/Projection

I am going to try to go through these in alphabetical order and if I have time, I’ll try to cover some of the boutique pubs.

With ADV on hiatus in 2008, I’ll start with Aurora Pub… All three imprints of it.

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After eighteen months of planning Ohzora Shuppan’s North American affiliate Aurora Publishing debuted at YaoiCon 2007. The fully-owned subsidiary of josei kings Ohzora, Aurora launched promising titles from a consortium of Japanese rights holders. With three imprints each focusing on a different sector of the women’s manga market Aurora looked poised to take manga to a new readership by providing high quality titles to what was thought to be a growing demographic - young women.

In their first full year Aurora quickly evolved from a publishing house that misunderstood their new market on almost every front (from production to marketing), to one that may soon take claim of the best publishers of licensed BL in North America. Aurora still has plenty of room to grow and many lessons to learn on the shoujo and josei fronts. But given their own Japanese catalog and their access to publishers like Libre, Futabasha, Asahi Shinbunsha, JIVE and Shodensha, I don’t doubt they can make a name for themselves as a leading provider of women’s manga content for all ages.

Aurora Publishing
3655 Torrance Blvd
Suite 430
Torrance, CA 90503
U.S.A.

www.aurora-publishing.com
Founded: March 15, 2006
President: Nobuo Kitawaki
Affiliate: Ohzora Publishing Co.
Imprints: Aurora (Shojo-Seinen-Josei); Deux (Boys Love); Luv Luv (Ladies-Teen Love)

I remember when Aurora first appeared on the scene back in 2006. The manga market was going through a period of growth and when the publisher set up shop in Southern California I was invited to a launch party. I didn’t make the trip, instead I waited anxiously to see what this division of josei publisher Ohzora was going to unleash on a market that was shoujo heavy.

For the longest time editors have waited for the shoujo readers from the bronze age of licensed manga to grow up and build a josei market. Almost a decade after shoujo started trickling into comic shops and bookstore chains, josei is still just a blip on the radar for manga readers. And despite the efforts made by publishers like Tokyopop, CPM Books and now Aurora, it is hard to tell if girls are giving up on manga upon entering their adulthood or if the current crop of josei titles are just not appealing to them like shoujo and mainstream shounen titles are.

Aurora Publishing tried to rectify that problem. Already a leader in manga for women in Japan, Ohzora’s catalog of josei titles is cannot be rivaled. Their titles dominate the josei/ladies sales charts on a weekly basis overseas. And they have literally developed new genres of women’s comics on their own (ladies, young love, teen love, wedding…) throughout their 19 year history. With a pedigree like that I thought Aurora was taking their time to select the best of the best to bring to the American reader. Instead, Aurora turned their focus on how to best reach the North American market. Instead of hitting the ground running with big titles, Aurora launched in the fall of 2007 with three imprints; each focusing on a different sector of the women’s manga audience. The idea itself was quite timely considering the success Viz Media has had with their Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat lines. However, content should be the true measure of success for any publisher let alone their various imprints.

I’ll break down 2008 by imprint starting with their flagship line Aurora. Aurora is their shoujo and josei line and in my opinion was their most disappointing line by a wide margin:

(key: Bold = completed series; italics = one-shot; strike-through = hiatus)

Aurora
Walkin’ Butterfly 2,3
Flock of Angels 2,3
Nightmares for Sale 2
Nephilim 1,2
HitoHira 1,2

9 Volumes from 5 series
3 completed (I have read that Nephilim is continuing but the last volume was published by Asahi Sonorama in 2005)
2 debuted
Licenses on hold: Small Miracles Company and Shokugyou Tenshi (mentioned by Aurora in Dec 2007)

Usually flagship imprints tend to be strong imprints. Strangely in the world of licensed manga that does not hold true on any level. DMP Books has been hobbling on one leg since its second year. Viz’s Viz Media line has its share of good titles but none of them outside of InuYasha and Ranma have ever given SJ or SB much competition. And Aurora had the least number of titles of the three imprints and was hit with some of the worst production values as well.

When Aurora debuted the main line was to be a catch all for shoujo and josei. Their debut title Walkin’ Butterfly was a perfect example of the potential for this imprint. Tamaki Chihiro’s story about a tomboy with height issues looked like it should have set the right tone for the line. Main character Michiko may have started off delivering pizzas and working at a auto shop, but she ends up using her attitude and her hidden beauty to become a model. The series inspired a hit TV show in Japan, and is still considered a strong eManga release overseas (distributed by cell phones by Kadokawa). Michiko could have been the spokesperson for a new demographic, but Aurora followed her up with a trio of shoujo titles that while looking good did not show the range of Ohzora’s capabilities. Actually, Ohzora has not come back to their own catalog with Aurora since Walkin’ Butterfly.

Aurora would soon expand their line by moving even further away from josei by picking up the seinen bishojo title - Hitohira. On paper the license might appear to be out of left field, but this title has the cross-over appeal to attract shojo fans of the recently animated story about a high school drama club. But will the license attract male fans of the series if published by a women’s publisher? The same can be said about the Manzai Comics and Small Miracle Company, two shounen titles picked up from JIVE. Aurora hasn’t really reached out to guys with their marketing. Whether its their promotional material or their convention events, Aurora doesn’t really say “hey guys read our comics too.” But then again with their small catalog their books don’t say “experience the allure of manga” either.

New series for 2009: The Manzai Comics, Tengu-jin, Queen of Ragtonia, Beyond Twilight

2009 looks like another quiet year for Aurora. HitoHira will continue throughout the year and as it has earned the most press of any Aurora title, I would expect to see the release schedule to remain relatively quick (bi-monthly). In contrast, the four volume Walkin’ Butterfly is tentatively scheduled to come to a quiet close this month after an 18 month run… (though this volume is completely missing from Amazon as of Jan 8, 09). Two josei fantasy titles from fashionable josei pub Shodensha will debut this spring - Tengu-jin and Queen of Ragtonia. Both short titles neither one will come with much risk to Aurora and should help test out what exactly josei readers want (if they exist out there). Ima Ichiko’s seventeen volume series Beyond Twilight is set to start in May. The project is easily the most ambitious series Aurora has ever undertaken and might bring in shoujo and BL fans alike to this imprint for years to come.

Grade: C+ (3 out 5 titles are D-C level titles… Quality and quantity hurt this line)

Deux Press
I Shall Never Return 2,3,4,5
Tough Love Baby
Yakuza in Love 1,2,3
Kiss All the Boys 1,2,3
Seduce Me After the Show
Say Please
Tomcats 1
Oh My God! 1,2
Mister Mistress 1,2
Hevenly Body
Maid in Heaven
Ruff Love
Two of Hearts
Future Lovers 1
Freshmen
Hanky Panky
Lovers and Souls
Red Blinds the Foolish

27 volumes from 18 titles (7 series and 11 one-shots)
5 series completed
6 series debuted

By far the most ambitious of the imprints has been the boys love line Deux Press. Knowing that Aurora launched at a BL convention possibly was a good indicator for things to come from the publisher, but despite rumors of a weakening BL market in 2008 Deux has been growing strong from the get-go.

Releasing two to three volumes of BL from some of the industries biggest names have given Deux an image of quality. Their ability to experiment with a range of genres and art styles has shown an editorial approach that is not only refreshing but practically inspired in a world of conservative licensing. Titles like Yakuza in Love and Tough Love Baby present a softer side to thugs hardly seen in comics from the competiion. Dog guys have been a staple of licensed BL and Deux’s Ruff Love shows why dogs are man’s best friend. Deux didn’t neglect the cat fans out there either as their series Tomcats introduced the world to cat-boys… (I thought their limited habitat, anime con floors, limited the growth of the species. hmm).

Most manga publishers are afraid to release manga drawn before 2005; often claiming the art looks too old for current tastes. Deux is not afraid to release the “classics” of boys love. In 2008 they shared a number of titles originally drawn in the 90’s (long before most BL readers were old enough to buy “yaoi”). I Shall Never Return (1992), Spring Fever (1995), Kiss All the Boys (1997) and the two Kano Shiuko titles (1995) help reveal a different style of BL, where attitudes and relationship dynamics are just as important as aesthetics and moe kinks.

Over at the Manga.about, Deb Aoki projects avant garde manga to make in-roads in 2009. Well, Deux has a head start with titles from Est Em and Kano Miyamoto. Kano’s designs and pacing have won the respect of at least a couple MangaCast writers. Est Em’s ability to take the intimacy of BL and drop that into settings in Spain, France and England has converted yaoi into fine art. Est Em’s manga may be BL, but those stories don’t rely on sex to drive the story. Relationships, the build-up and the tension, are at the core of Est Em’s titles and I hope manga fans can learn from that because character development is really what sets manga apart from other forms of media.

New series: Takagi Ryo’s KirePapa, Noodle Shop Affair by CJ Michalski and one-shots from Hoshino Lily, Koujima Naduki, Takanaga Hinako and others including the Boysenberry transfer Cigarette Kisses by Nase Yamato.

Expect two to three titles a month from Deux in 2009. I don’t know much about KirePapa but Noodle Shop Affair, a romance between a ramen shop boy and a yakuza, looks like a winner on so many levels. I have to commend Deux and Boysenberry Books for their quick work on the license transfer for Cigarette Kisses. And fans of Koujima Naduki will have an opportunity to check out four of her titles in the next 9 months.

Grade: A- (right now my favorite provider of BL. I just wish they had more series and less one-shots)

Luv Luv Press
Voices of Love
Real Love
Love for Dessert
Pretty Poison
Make Love and Peace 1
Object of Desire
Sounds of Love 1

7 volumes from 7 titles (2 series and 5 one-shots)
2 series debuted

With Aurora handling the “shoujo”, Luv Luv got the honor of taking care of the ladies comics. Ladies comics and teen love comics are genres this market have rarely experienced through published means. These are also titles that are not often seen even in manga specialty stores in Japan. To be honest, I don’t know why Ohzora decided to test out this genre. I don’t think the market was asking for it, and I don’t think Ohzora did a good job educating the public about ladies comics. But I still have to applaud them for taking this chance.

Any way you look at it, ladies comics is a niche that is not on people’s radars. Similar to the harlequin titles that Dark Horse releases a few years back, these titles exagerated the fantasy elements of romance with hopes to entice female readers with hot flings and unthinkable pairings. Many of these titles took things a step further into the realm of smut by adding an element of eros that somehow found an audience with adult males.

Luv Luv has taken a very paitent approach with this line. Releasing a book every odd month might put Luv Luv among the better standing boutique pubs, but as a division of Aurora, this division showed consistency and resilience at a time when the market was contracting. My experiences with Luv Luv have been limited. “Steamy sex” works for me, but I’d rather have strong characters and meaningful relationships. None of the titles promise what I wanted (they all promise sex), but there were a few gems in the small 2008 sample. Object of Desire may have been a little scandalous, but it had some of the cooler female characters I have seen in manga for a while. Voices of Love presented some forbidden relationships in a perspective I have not seen often in comics (this manga also helped me understand why would enjoy Luv Luv, also).

It’s hard to say where Luv Luv is going in the new year. As of posting, Luv Luv only has one new title scheduled for 2009 and that is the anthology release of Love Drops featuring the works from Yonetani Takane, Natsuo Kou, and Oda Mitsuki. January’s release of Make MORE Love and Peace (easily an early candidate for worst comic of 2009) and Sound of Love 2 will round out the catalog through May.

Grade: C (Object of Desire was a surprise, but the rest of the catalog was not very good)

-Production

Aurora debuted with some of the worst releases since the Infinity briefly moved to super-white recycled paper for Fighting Guidance, NanaNana and PopoCan. Aurora’s books were super stiff. Their translations were good but the adaptations were atrocious. And their policy to sub aside text as well as SFX made for some of the most messy looking panels I have seen in localized manga anywhere.

Bring in some new translators then give the editorial and production staff a greater role with the adaptation duties, and readers will enjoy the content a lot more. Fix quality control issues and readers will keep coming back even with books priced $10.95 and up.

My first book from them, Walkin’ Butterfly had every problem imaginable (and it was supplied to me by the Aurora staff at a convention). The binding was stiff. A number of pages were not cut properly. Alignment was a little wierd since the book was print without much of a center gutter, forcing me to literally break the spine to see all the art. The translation just did not flow properly either. But with time almost all of those issues were corrected and production began to quickly improve.

Going into Q4 for 2008, Aurora had some of the cleanest prints in the business. I would recommend HitoHira with its heavy use of screen tone to anyone looking to see how clean a manga print can be. There is tone everywhere from the girls’ hair and clothing to the settings and even the SFX’s occassionally are made of tone instead of ink… Aurora’s print job handles them all prefectly without a hint of moire anywhere through the first two volumes. Contrast HitoHira with Est Em’s Seduce Me after the Show which is almost exclusively made up of thinkly inked character art, and the print looks just as good. Inks are sharp and strong, showing off Estu’s delicate line work.

The only thing I wish Aurora would reconsider is their re-touch policy. While I still think their translations, particularly from HC Language Solutions, are clunky, especially in regard to SFX, the retouch really needs help. Subbing SFX isn’t a bad idea, but I am opposed to subbing them with large translations because they compromise the integrity of the panels that hold them. Subbing aside text is just foolish. Asides work with Japanese because they are vertical and kanji/kana are very efficient in getting a message across. Adding even more text to small panels often means covering up background art or character art. Sometimes the additional subs are completely lost amongst all the other stuff on the page. If there is anything I have learned from my editor friends in Japan, clarity is important to maintaining readibility.

Grade: B-

-Distribution

All three of Aurora’s lines are distributed through Diamond. Ordering their books through previews is simple enough and the publisher has been pretty good about hitting street dates (surprising given how new they are to this market). Because of the large number of 18+ titles Aurora Pub releases I have noticed some of their “shoujo” titles in 18+ stacks at comic shops (something that has haunted DMP for years also). Aurora books can be found at Borders and B&N (but lately I have only seen HitoHira). Deux titles have been seen in my local Borders, but good luck finding BL from any publisher at B&N.

Online sources are the best place to purchase titles from Aurora Pub. Aurora doesn’t have their own online shop but release detail pages often have links to Amazon.com, allowing the publisher to earn a small return on the sales that are made through Amazon afflilates links. Amazon is also a good place for deals, with most 18+ titles on sale at 20% off SRP and all other titles around 15% off.

Luv Luv titles are now available at NetComics.com. Chapters can be downloaded for 48 hour periods for a minimal fee. I would like to see their Aurora titles on there as well, but I am assuming it is easier to get Ohzora titles on there than titles they licensed from other members of the consortium.

Grade: B- (Diamond is a start, but as the manga industry understands its a difficult relationship. No shop hurts certain titles, but eManga through NetComics might bring in some revenue for titles still searching for an audience.)

-Communication

As a publisher Aurora has actively made a strong effort to reach out to readers since their debut. Deux Press seems to get most of the attention and for good reason as they have the most extensive catalog. Deux titles have been reviewed by many manga bloggers online and have been featured on large comic sites like Journalista in the last year. Est Em titles in particular have earned quite a following despite coming from a little known Japanese publisher (Tokyo Magazine Co). HitoHira has possibly been the second biggest title for Aurora. The series was well promoted by the publisher from the start. In what has been one of the more comprehensive promotions I have seen for a title from a new publisher, Aurora provided online press releases (on their site and through email) as well as literature in the form of fliers since the license was announced in 2007. Press info and review material is easily attained by contacting their staff through email. And I have found the group to be quite honest and candid about responding to questions asked whether through email or on this blog.

The publisher has been active on the internet with all three of their imprints. Each imprint has their own FaceBook page and MySpace. None of the publishers have forums or official blogs so fans are encouraged to follow their favorite imprint on social networks. Each imprints’ website is relatively easy to navigate; providing release information, cover art, event info, and news on new and up-coming titles. I wish the publisher would make banners or something to help promote their series though. The HitoHira banner on the Aurora homepage and the Voice of Love banner at Luv Luv might look really nice if shrunk down and used as freelink banners.

Deux has been a regular part of events like Anime Expo and YaoiCon since their debut. And their staff have been seen researching the American manga scene since 2006 (showing up at industry events long before any of their books were announced). Events for Luv Luv and Aurora are less frequent and not as well attended but all three divisions were present at AX 2008.

As far as advertising is concerned, I really haven’t seen Aurora attempt that route. I haven’t picked up every issue of Shojo Beat, so I might have missed something. But I still haven’t seen them advertising at CBR, Journalista, ANN, AoD or PW. No doubt that it would be expensive, but there has to be some way to promote titles from their Aurora line to a wider audience.

Previews are available for most titles on their respective product description page. Each 10-page preview is huge and clean, and can be viewed on both PC and Mac operating systems as well as some cell phone web browsers.

Grade: C+ (every pub’s communication grade are low so a C+ is actually good. Aurora gets a + for trying but they really need to step things up to promote those other lines.)

-Evaluation

For their first full year in business Aurora Publishing is off to a good start. 2009 might be a real test for their two smaller lines though, as they need to find a balance between being conservative and being irrelevant. Book stores are cutting back on titles, and Aurora needs to find a way to keep their titles in stores. Knowing that Aurora titles are generally short may lower risk if a title doesn’t become a hit, but for titles like HitoHira or the seventeen plus volume Beyond Twilight finding new and more readers should be a priority as longer series tend to lose readers with each new volume.

My biggest gripe with Aurora has always been how they have refused to really show off the potential of josei. I might not have supported ladies comics and teen love titles initially, but now that they are here I’d like to see what that genres are capable of (especially if there are more titles like Object of Desire). But ladies, TL, and harlequin are some of the smaller genres of josei. They are not available in many comic shops in Japan the and the majority of western readers who are looking for  josei titles are probably longing for properties more in the vein of content from Shodensha’s FEEL, Shueisha’s Chorus and YOU, Shinshokan’s Wings, and Kodansha’s Be Love. Why hasn’t Aurora tried to experiment with more josei titles like Walkin’ Butterfly, Suppli or Paradise Kiss? Ohzora’s best sellers come from the harlequin genre. These titles are short fantasy romances filled with shieks, princes and noblemen. But Ohzora must have other titles. I know they have other titles, so why not experiment with those properties?

I am not opposed to a publisher taking command of a market sector. In this case Aurora Pub have made a name for themselves as a strong provider for BL. I cannot say the same for their other two lines. There are plenty of better options for “shoujo.” Even with their josei releases, Viz, Tokyopop and even Del Rey have better options for young women. It disappoints me that they never made an effort to properly promote josei or ladies comics. The genres are just being tossed out there. There is no education plan. I have not seen interviews with PW, ANN or ICv2 about ladies comics or teen love. Even at events instead of celebrating josei I have seen video game consoles raffled off to patrons. Developing a niche market takes work. It takes content and communication, and outside of the fujoshi side of Aurora, Deux, I don’t see that coming anytime soon from this pub.

Grade for 2008: B- (established themselves as a strong option in the BL market. struggling to capture the same results with their niches - ladies and josei. despite having crossover titles has not attempted to lure in male readers.)

-Projection

Deux seems to be in good shape for the future. With new titles announced through Sept 2009 and a release schedule that should not compromise quality nor significantly hurt budgets, Deux should lead the way for this mid-size pub for years to come. I hope they continue to experiment with innovative artists classic titles. Manga can sometimes look a little to homogeneous, and BL even more so. Having a pub that is willing to share new perspectives is necessary at a time when they are all competing for less shelf space and more critical eyes.

As I don’t know anything about what sells in BL I won’t go there. If it were up to me everything would look like the Man of Tango but what do I know. Ohzora publishes fujoshi bible Tonari no 801-chan. What’s been the hold up on that title? Toda Seiji’s titles STORY, Shi-A-Wa-Se and Persuasion Game would be intriguing indie like comics similar to the “sophisticated” manga many pundits are saying are the future of manga. Maybe the pet manga of Ohzora’s Emerald Comic line might be too far out of reach for this market, but maybe the OL and young wife stories of Misty Comics might work. The heroine in Maki Shouko’s two volume series Pansy Pansy might be in her mid-30’s but she might appeal to more women than the characters of Nightmares for Sale ever could.

Wish list: Tonari no 801-chan; STORY; Shi-A-Wa-Se; Persuasion Game; Pansy Pansy, Orin-chan (Kawashima Yoshio-Futabasha)

Outlook: B (Total projected output should stay around 2008 levels. Deux should remain solid and Aurora should continue to diversify. Luv Luv’s future is not so certain.)

Wrap-up:

• Content: B
• Production: B-
• Communication: C+
• Distribution: B-
• Overall Grade:  B-