Kodansha Entry Into US Manga Market Confirmed

[chrono]

Kodansha Entry Into US Manga Market Confirmed

ICV2 reports that the Nikkei financial carried the new that Kodansha has set up a U.S. subsidiary “to publish and sell translations of its Japanese manga” in the U.S. starting in September. The reason for the move, according to Nikkei, is “to boost its earnings in America, where its income has been limited to royalties received from U.S. firms.

Kodansha has historically licensed their manga to Dark Horse, Del Rey and TOKYOPOP.

Del Rey's Dallas Middaugh has stated


Well, it’s business as usual at Del Rey Manga. We’re continuing to license manga from Kodansha, and as has been stated elsewhere, we’ve just about wrapped up our licenses for 2009 and are now starting to work on 2010. In a few weeks at the San Diego Comic-Con we’ll be announcing some of those new licenses, and we’ve got some really exciting new manga series planned. Then we’ll have a few more announcements at the New York Anime Festival in September… pretty much like we’ve always done. Also, we will continue to publish all of our manga. Kodansha has not pulled any licenses back from us.

2009 is a big year for us, since it will mark our fifth anniversary. More on that later, but suffice it to say that we plan to keep publishing manga for the foreseeable future.

Mecha Mecha Media translated the Nikkei Net article that confirmed the initative

Christopher Butcher at Comics212 posted the insight


So I was able to actually confirm this a little while back, but in such a way that I couldn’t blog about it without getting a few people in some trouble.
I can also confirm that Dark Horse no longer has the license for AKIRA (licensed from Kodansha) and that Tokyopop has canceled Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad volumes 13 and 14, and this is a Kodansha-licensed title as well, so it looks like they might have lost that license.

There’s more coming too, but I’ll let it go until an official statement is made somewhere.

–

Also, just a quick guess here, but I would find it surprising if Kodansha pulled any licenses back from Del Rey, as they’ll likely be relying on Del Rey parent company Random House for distribution in America (under the auspices of the Kodansha/Random House “deal”), and that would likely sour the working relationship. Which isn’t to say that it won’t happen of course, but is far less likely and has not, to the best of my knowledge, happened yet.

Heidi MacDonald register what's apparent from her vantage point here

Anime News Network runs down the possible impact here

gia spoke to Kodansha and heard "there are going to be no immediate or direct changes to Kodansha’s deal with Del Rey Manga."

Mecha Mecha Media (who does translation work for Kodansha licensor Dark Horse) weights in

Simon Jones gives his always insightful view

Rob Bricken feeds the panic

Here's the link: AICN Anime-Batman: Gotham Knight, More Manga Market Shake-Ups, Figures and More -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

I found this baby while browsing AICN, and all I gotta say is:

"Hello Localized Manga & Anime Company's?!?! Prepare for chapter 11 or potential buy outs, because you've just lost about 70% of your lines and any future titles!"

&

"Hello Fansubbers & Scanlators!?!? Prepare for the removal orders! For your day has come!"

Personally I've glad that the company has gotten off their tradition weighted down arses! Because now they don't have ANY excuse not to release the SAME DAY as they release in Japan.