Kodansha USA to Take Over Del Rey Manga Titles

Today, Kodansha USA, the American subsidiary of Japanese publisher Kodansha, announced that, as of December 1, 2010, it will be taking over licenses held by Del Rey Manga, the division of Random House that formerly published a large number of Kodansha titles. Random House Publisher Services will now be directly interfacing with Kodansha to bring its manga titles to the American market.

According to Kodansha USA's press release, "Del Rey's ongoing manga titles which were licensed by Kodansha will be gradually taken over by Kodansha USA Publishing on a per-title basis." As such, fans of ongoing series like Moyashimon and Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE will probably be able to get their hands on new Kodansha versions of these series in short order. Unfortunately, the release says nothing about completed Del Rey licenses, which may result in some (though likely not all) of Del Rey's former series going out of print.

As big a change as this is, it's admittedly not very surprising, since Kodansha USA began releasing republications of Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo) and Ghost in the Shell (Masamune Shirow) — both former Dark Horse titles — last fall, while Del Rey Manga has been facing a number of problems since then. Notably, their number of licenses have dropped, they've significantly reduced their number of convention showings, and Marketing Manager/"Awesome Bow-tie Dude" Ali Kokmen was laid off this past July.

On the bright side, Associate Publisher Dallas Middaugh will remain with Random House as he coordinates the new partnership between the publisher and Kodansha, though it would seem that he will be the only person left over from Del Rey Manga.

[via Anime News Network]

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Review: Chi's Sweet Home, vol. 1 (Manga)

Medium: Manga (7+ volumes in JP, 1+ in US/UK)
Author: Konami Kanata
Genre: Comedy, Pet, Slice-of-life
Publishers: Weekly Morning – Kodansha (JPN), Vertical, Inc. (NA/UK)
Release Dates: November 22, 2004-present (JP), June 29, 2010 (US/UK)
Age Rating: Appropriate for all ages

I know, I know: The last thing you'd expect me to be reviewing is a manga about a kitten, but here I am, talking about the brand-new Vertical, Inc. release of Chi's Sweet Home by Konami Kanata. What may surprise you even more is that I actually like it!

The entire plot of Chi's Sweet Home can probably be summed up by simply reading down its table of contents, which contains chapters like "A cat is lost," "A cat is found," "A cat forgets," and "A cat understands." In fact, the comically straightforward nature of the titles underscores simplicity as the fundamental attribute of this manga story of a stray cat named Chi and the Japanese family that takes her in.

It's actually rather surprising to see such simplicity in a manga serialized in a seinen (men's) magazine, Weekly Morning, but as with many cutesy seinen titles such as Yotsuba&!, the manga is actually much more attractive to American children than it is to American men. Pursuant to this, Vertical's translation keeps the dialogue brief and easily comprehensible, while the intentional lack of detail in the art breaks with seinen's American reputation as being (sometimes indecipherably) detail-heavy. What's more, the book has only full-color pages, painted in beautiful, subdued pastel colors, which are sure to entice young readers looking for something more flashy than the typical black-and-white manga aesthetic.

On that note, Chi's design is easily the most important piece of art in the entire book, and it certainly gets the job done — and then some. Her saucer plate eyes and giant triangular mouth express a childlike excitement over even the simplest of everyday delights, and it can be hard to not imagine her screaming at the top of her lungs and smiling every time she gets excited. (By the way, this is coming from someone who has never seen the anime and thus doesn't have a preconceived voice for Chi.) Believe me, I didn't think that I would enjoy it, but I really took to Chi and the rest of the family after a few chapters.

Still, I feel like the comedy — if you can even call it comedy per se — might wear a little thin if the later volumes don't introduce any major new developments. After all, I don't really think that a picture of a cute kitten getting excited can remain very interesting for very long.

The chapters range in length, though they are typically much shorter than the average manga chapter, and some even come in at around five or six pages. Given such brevity of storytelling, it would almost seem like the story is built for the 4-koma (four-panel) format, but Kanata manages to tell a short, charming story in every chapter while maintaining the flow of a full-page manga layout.

As I mentioned before, Chi's Sweet Home doesn't really feel like a men's title in an American context, but it's actually a genuinely fun little book for children or cat lovers of all ages. Of course, I wasn't satisfied with simply guessing at the right audience for the book, so I let my 12-year-old sister read it to get a feel for what she thought of it. Within an hour she had read the entire thing, and claimed that she would actually buy the second volume if she saw it in a store (even after I informed her of the slightly high $13.95 price point).

To be clear, Chi's Sweet Home is not for everyone, but when put in front of the right eyes, it's an absolute joy. Kanata has crafted a simple yet charming mix of visual comedy, cute animal shenanigans, and great art that can manage to evoke quite a few chuckles, even from this jaded manga reader.

[Recommended]

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This review is based on a promotional copy of the graphic novel, kindly provided by the publisher, Vertical, Inc.

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Digital manga to be released via WiiWare

As reported in the New York Times yesterday, four of Japan’s major manga publishing houses have come together to form Librica, which will distribute manga via the Nintendo Wii’s WiiWare channel. The four houses that make up Librica are Kadokawa (Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion), Kodansha (Akira, Sailor Moon), Shueisha (Death Note, Dr. Slump), and Shogakukan (Monster, Mobile Police Patlabor).

Very few details are available about the service; however, Librica has stated that it’s open to adding more publishing houses after the service has launched. There is also talk internally of expanding the service to including distribution on the DS as well. As for information on the pricing structure or release date of the service, no details are yet available. And if you’re wondering whether the service will be coming state side, just keep in mind that all four of these publishing houses have seen their works released in North America.

[via Kotaku]

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