Here you will find a run down of today's anime and manga news! If anything sent waves through the anime and manga world today, you'll find it in this post! By the way, I'm saladesu, one of the translator-moderators of MH, and I'll be posting a post like this every day (as much as possible, anyway). Look forward to them ;)
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Kodansha, Dai Nippon Printing Buy Vertical
Publishing giant, printer buy U.S. startup of English-translated books from Japan.
The Japanese publishing giant Kodansha announced on Wednesday that it and Dai Nippon Printing are buying the American publishing startup Vertical. The price of the acquisition has not been made public. Vertical's headquarters is in Tokyo, although it has an office in New York City. It has 77 million yen (about US$930,000) in capital. Vertical translates and publishes Japanese books in English, including but not limited to manga. Kodansha bought 46.7% of Vertical, and Dai Nippon Printing bought 46.0%.
Kodansha also announced on Wednesday that its 42-year-old chief operating officer, Yoshinobu Noma, will replace 67-year-old Sawako Noma as the company's president in the middle of April. This is the company's first presidential transition in 24 years, and the younger Noma will be the seventh-generation head from the family that founded the company. The younger Noma declared at Kodansha's press conference on Wednesday that the company will strengthen its digital and overseas ventures during the ongoing publishing slump.
Hiroki Sakai founded Vertical in 2001 after working as an editor and reporter at the business news company Nikkei. Vertical Marketing Director Ed Chavez once worked for Kodansha, among other publishers, before joining the company. Among the manga titles that Vertical publishes in North America are Black Jack, Ayako, To Terra, Andromeda Stories, Twin Spica, Chi's Sweet Home, and Peepo Choo.
Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan represent the three biggest publishers in Japan. Shogakukan, Shueisha, and another publisher named Hakusensha are all owned by the same publishing group, Hitotsubashi Group. Shogakukan and Shueisha, in turn, co-own the North American manga and anime distributor Viz Media.
Kodansha once licensed its manga to a variety of North American publishers, including Viz, Dark Horse Comics, and Tokyopop. Kodansha then entered into an agreement with Random House's Del Rey imprint to publish several manga. Kodansha announced its intent to publish manga directly in the American market through a new Kodansha USA holding company in July of 2008. A year later, Tokyopop confirmed that all of its Kodansha licenses had ended. Last October, Kodansha announced that Kodansha USA would gradually take over publishing duties for manga published by Del Rey.
Kodansha also has a separate company, Kodansha International, that publishes a few manga-related works among its many other titles. Kodansha licensed the live-action film adaptation rights for the Akira and Ghost in the Shell manga to Leonardo DiCaprio's team at Warner Brothers/Appian Way and Steven Spielberg's team at DreamWorks, respectively, in 2008.
original source~~~~~~~~~~
Oricon Comic Ranking, February 14-20
New volumes of Fairy Tail, Detective Conan, Ahiru no Sora, Mahou Sensei Negima! land in top 5. One Piece, Skip Beat!, Kekkaishi, GTO: Shonan 14 Days, Hayate no Gotoku and Area no Kishi fill out the rest of the top 10.
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Fairy Tail #25 (275,593) (Shonen Magazine)
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Detective Conan #71 (262,116) (Shonen Sunday)
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Ahiru no Sora #30 (184,587) (Shonen Magazine)
- One Piece #61 (152,538/2,724,241) (Shonen Jump)
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Mahou Sensei Negima! #33 (129,019) (Shonen Magazine)
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Skip Beat! #27 (126,442) (Hana to Yume)
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Kekkaishi #33 (114,542) (Shonen Sunday)
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GTO: Shonan 14 Days #6 (101,288) (Shonen Magazine)
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Hayate no Gotoku! #27 (73,240) (Shonen Sunday)
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Area no Kishi #24 (71,312) (Shonen Magazine)
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Dear Boys Act 3 #6 (67,972) (Bessatsu Shounen Magazine)
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Hayate no Gotoku! #27 School Calendar-Bundled Limited Edition (64,078) (Shonen Sunday)
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Kingdom #21 (53,119) (Young Jump)
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Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei #24 (49,160) (Shonen Magazine)
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Otomen #12 (41,382) (Bessatsu Hana to Yume)
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Pumpkin Scissors #14 (40,133) (Magazine Great)
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Eden no Ori #11 (38,880) (Shonen Magazine)
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Zettai Karen Children #25 (37,161) (Shonen Sunday)
- Gintama #38 (36,773/362,481) (Shonen Jump)
- 7SEEDS #19 (33,308/95,073) (Flowers)
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Q.E.D. #38 (32,687) (Magazine Great)
- Kin Kyori Renai #9 (29,861/76,349) (Bessatsu Friend)
- One Piece #60 (27,372/2,900,722) (Shonen Jump)
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Monochrome Factor #10 (25,408) (Comic Avarus)
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C.M.B. Shinra Hakubutsukan no Jiken Mokuroku #16 (24,540) (Bessatsu Shonen Magazine)
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Issho ni Neyō yo #4 (24,192) (Hana to Yume)
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Shinyaku [Kyojin no Hoshi] Hanagata #22 (23,963) (Shonen Magazine)
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Zettai Karen Children #25 School Calendar-Bundled Limited Edition (23,759) (Shonen Sunday)
- Kaichou wa Maid-sama! #12 (23,579/194,269) (LaLa)
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Crash! #9 (23,415) (Ribon)
original source
I hope they continue licensing small publisher and alternative comics. And keep Ed Chavez in charge. Vertical has great taste in manga, I hope that does not change.