Know your Publishers: Japan and North America

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This is another one of those general posts, where I ramble on about the industry in general rather than a specific title. In this post, I talk about the various companies that put out manga in Japan, and what, if any, relationship they have with North American publishers. This might help people who ask publishers “Why don’t you get title X”, not realizing that title X is owned by a Japanese publisher who is exclusive to someone else. I’ve written this post before on my Livejournal, but am revising it to post here, even though I know I risk various industry people commenting on how wrong I am. They are welcome to do so, of course. I freely admit I have no ‘inside information’. Also, few Japanese publishers are actually ‘exclusive’; most merely have strong working relationships, a phrase you’ll find me using constantly below.

I tend to define Japanese publishers into three categories: The Big Four, The Mid-Majors, and other. Technically speaking in Japan I think it would just be The Big Three, but Hakusensha is enough of a powerhouse over here that I think it deserves a place with the big boys.

Let’s start with Shueisha, which puts out, among other things, everything with ‘Jump’ in the title (shonen and seinen comics) and everything with ‘Ribon’ and ‘Margaret’ in the title (shoujo comics). They are part-owners of Viz, and for the most part they license exclusively to Viz, with one or two exceptions (Gantz, a Shueisha title, was licensed to Dark Horse, most likely as DH could do a much better job pushing it over here; also, in the old days, Viz let Tokyopop license two popular Shueisha shoujo titles, Marmalade Boy and Kodocha).

The other co-owner of Viz is Shogakukan, who have the ‘Sunday’ titles and everything with ‘Big Comic’ in it (shonen and seinen), and the shoujo and josei with ‘Comic’ in it (aka Shocomi and Betsucomi). They too are mostly exclusive to Viz; the one or two exceptions I’ve seen have been where the author owned his own rights and could choose the publisher (Darren Shan/Cirque Du Freak, a Sunday title being published by Yen Press; Moto Hagio just licensed her work to Fantagraphics; and I think that the Fanfare/Ponent Mon Taniguchi titles were also Shogakukan titles.)

Kodansha is the other Japanese heavy hitter, having the boy’s and men’s titles with ‘Magazine’ in them, the men’s titles based around times of the day (Morning, Afternoon, Evening), and the women’s titles that don’t fit a pattern, Betsufure/Nakayoshi/Be Love. They are trying to start their own imprint in North America, but so far have not really done much. In the meantime, they have a strong relationship with Del Rey, which puts out the majority of Kodansha titles today. They still work with Dark Horse, both with the old Oh My Goddess and Gunsmith Cats licenses, and via the newer agreement with CLAMP. They have also started to license a few titles to Vertical. They used to have a strong relationship with Tokyopop as well, but Kodansha pulled the rights to those titles a few years back. Again, note the exceptions are ‘author controls where his or her work goes’ – Vagabond, a Kodansha title, is published by Viz.

Hakusensha is the largest Japanese publisher that does not have a strong relationship with any one publisher over here, preferring to sell its shoujo (and occasional seinen) titles to whoever wants to license them the most. As a result, three NA publishers have good relationships with the company; Viz, Tokyopop and CMX. And all three, in fact, have had titles that have made their company wildly successful; Viz with Vampire Knight, Tokyopop with Fruits Basket, and CMX, while not receiving much financial success, has quietly gotten praise for much of its entire line of small Hakusensha titles.

That’s the big four, but that still leaves a lot of publishers. Let’s look at some of them:

Akita Shoten has its Champion titles for boys and men, and its Princess titles for girls. It too does not limit itself to one publisher, licensing many titles to Go! Comi, DMP, Tokyopop, Yen Press, and CMX. Akita Shoten also has bought the license to reprint many old Shueisha and Hakusensha titles, putting them back in print in Japan after a long period – and also, coincidentally, licensing them over here. CMX’s Swan, which was originally a Shueisha title in Margaret, was bought by Akita Shoten. They also have the cult ‘license request’ title Sukeban Deka, originally a Hakusensha title.

ASCII Media Works is where you get all the Dengeki titles, including the most well-known, Dengeki Daioh. They’ve worked with Viz, Tokyopop, Seven Seas, Dr Master, Bandai, ADV Manga, and Yen Press, so they’re fairly widespread.

(A quick note that when I say someone ‘works with’ Bandai North America, that usually means that Bandai Japan had the license to the title in the first place, and the manga rights never rested with the magazine. Some of the Gundam titles, Lucky Star, and Gurren Lagann apply here.)

Enterbrain is a new up-and-comer on the mid-major circuit, and have recently made waves over here with titles from their men’s manga Comic Beam. They don’t have much out over here, but when they do, they tend to work with CMX (Emma is theirs, as is King of Thorn). They also just licensed a title to Fantagraphics.

Gentosha is a small publisher who has a seinen magazine, Comic Birz, which has seen some titles over here, as well as two yaoi magazines that have seen even more. They seem to have a strong working relationship with Tokyopop.

Houbunsha has recently found a great deal of success in the 4-koma market; many of their successful titles are based around that, and have spun off into equally cute if pointless anime series. They have a good working relationship here with Yen Press.

Ichijinsha has a boy’s comic, Zero-Sum, from which it usually licenses titles to Tokyopop. Their yuri magazine Yuri Hime had a relationship with Seven Seas at one point, but it seems to have ended.

Jive is a small publisher with only one major magazine to speak of, the otaku-oriented Comic Rush, but it’s also notable as the biggest publisher to license to Broccoli back when Broccoli was in the North American market. Their Jive magazine also licensed the adult Maka-Maka to Media Blasters.

Kadokawa Shoten has a strong working relationship with Tokyopop, but has also used a number of different publishers to put out its titles (usually with Ace in them for men, and Asuka for women). They’ve also licensed to Viz, Dark Horse, and Bandai. There’s also Fujimi Shobo, which is a Kadokawa offshoot (The magazines have ‘Dragon’ it the title); they’ve licensed those to ADV, Viz, Tokyopop and CPM (the Slayers line).

Libre Publishing, which arose out of the remains of Biblos. Probably the biggest licensor of yaoi to North America, and the publishers they work with are many and varied. They’ve worked with Aurora, DMP, and Tokyopop; Biblos used to work with CPM.

Mag Garden has its various Comic Blade titles, both for boys and girls. After a brief relationship with ADV died when ADV’s manga division did, they’ve since formed a strong working relationship with Tokyopop, which I believe is almost exclusive; I haven’t seen Mag Garden titles going anywhere else these days.

Media Factory is a publisher with two small but cult-popular men’s magazines. They also have a large number of titles for the gaming and ‘moe’ market. They’ve worked with Dark Horse, CMX, Vertical, and Tokyopop.

Shinshokan has the magazine Wings, which is not-quite-shoujo, not-quite-yaoi, not-quite-fantasy, but very… whatever Wings is. It’s licensed to Go! Comi, DMP and Tokyopop.

Shodensha has the women’s magazine Feel Young, but that’s quite a powerhouse in women’s magazines in Japan. It’s licensed here to Tokyopop, and recently to Yen Press.

Shonen Gahosha is known here for the magazine Young King OURS (Young King, its parent magazine, is more popular in Japan but its titles tend to be a bit too ‘manly’ for North America). It has a strong working relationship with Dark Horse, and has also licensed to Viz, Dr. Master, and CPM.

Square Enix is one of the larger mid-majors, up there with Akita and Kadokawa. Their Gangan line has pretty much exploded since beginning in the early 90s, and they now have several spin-off magazines. They used to work primarily with Viz, but when Yen Press started, they began a strong working relationship with Square Enix, via their Yen Plus magazine. The majority of the Square Enix titles I see these days are via Yen.

In addition to these, CMX has an agreement with a Japanese publisher called Flex to co-develop titles; I believe that Flex’s market in Japan is for the portable iPhone manga crowd.

That’s all the ones I can think of; if you have a Japanese publisher that puts out a number of titles here, let me know (I admit I’m not as familiar with the yaoi market). To sum up, you can’t just ask a North American publisher to license title X without knowing a) which Japanese company put it out; b) which Japanese company owns it now; c) whether an author controls their own rights; and d) which publishers work with which companies. I hope this list helps you with d, if nothing else.

Bunny Drop Volume 1

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By Yumi Unita. Released in Japan as “Usagi Drop” by Shodensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Feel Young. Released in North America by Yen Press.

The manga and comic artform, in general, relies a lot on character exaggeration to prove a point. Unless you want completely photorealistic art, your characters are going to look like, well, cartoon characters. And act like it as well. Hey, a lot of manga/anime/comics are drawn around the ability to do things you could not get away with in real life. Stretchy limbs, magical healing from being beaten up, turning into a giant head of rage. Both people’s looks and personalities are exaggerated, either for comic effect or for action fighting or just because it’s what the artist does.

This can lead to trouble when drawing a series where the characters are meant to be in a realistic situation. In a medium where everyone is used to conveying things in an overblown fashion, sometimes it’s hard to hit the middle of the scale. The person is a bit TOO flawed, or the heroine a bit TOO perky. How do you find a happy medium?

Well, if you need examples of what to do right, you could do worse than Bunny Drop, the excellent new josei manga from Yen Press. As I read it, I kept thinking that the characters were particularly well-handed. The lead is not so much of a loser that he makes you want to smack him, but is not a selfless and wonderful new dad, either. Likewise, the little girl does not, despite what the first chapter might hint, turn into the stoic emotionless girl that Japanese fandom always falls for, she’s merely a little girl struggling with unfamiliar feelings and forced to grow up a little too fast.

The premise of this story is that a young single man, Daikichi, goes to the funeral of his grandfather and finds that the old man had a young lover… and a little girl, who is now abandoned as the mother has disappeared. After listening to the rest of the family bitch about how they can’t possibly take her in with all their problems, he gets fed up that one one seems to care about what Rin, the girl, thinks and takes her into his home.

Again, this is just a really well-balanced story, showing the difficulties involved with a single guy (who has not really had much experience with women) suddenly dealing with a little girl’s problems… and not just ‘what school/day care should she go to?’, but things like ‘will everyone around her die just like her father did, the moment she turns her back?’. Daikichi handles these situations pretty well, being awkward but sensible, and proves to be much more adept at fatherhood than he imagined… even while he spends the volume panicking and worrying. (It’s shown he’s apparently the same at work, where he’s proven to be an awesome manager, but doesn’t quite get how everyone can look up to him like they do.) Even his relatives, who we really dislike in the first chapter, prove to be merely human and show better qualities when we see them again.

This is a title for young women (it was in the highly underrated magazine Feel Young, home of Happy Mania), and as such has, I suspect, been marketed accordingly. It emphasizes the father/daughter relationship, and is apparently coming out just twice a year, indicating that Yen likely knows it’s never going to be a hot seller. There’s no romance to speak of yet, although I already wonder if Daikichi will end up courting the divorced mom of one of Rin’s daycare friends. It’s a title where you read it because you enjoy watching people grow up, and live their life, and want to see how they do. Most of all, it’s balanced almost perfectly between father and daughter, work and school, and the character’s personalities. It’s a ‘feel good’ title, and I’d recommend it for those who want to break in a non-manga friend with a more relaxed title.

I Hate You More Than Anyone! Volume 6

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By Banri Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Sekai De Ichiban Daikirai!” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by CMX.

First off, I’m not certain if it’s my copy of just a general thing, but the early pages of this volume have some bad original pages, with some of them looking blurry. Luckily, it seems to go away after a chapter or so. I’m not sure what original art CMX uses for their books, I usually assume it’s the Hakusensha tankobons.

In any case, this volume – Six Hate, as the author abbreviates it – begins where the last one left off, with Arata confessing to Kazuha. After realizing that he’s serious, she starts to slide into self-hatred, feeling that her aggressive cluelessness was ‘leading Arata on’. It’s slightly wearing, and one of the joys of seeing IHYMTA advance the plot is we see this from her less and less. (It does lead to some wonderful expressions, though. Hidaka-san’s facial expressions are one of the top 5 reasons to read her books, as she can convey so much in a single piece of art. Especially the comedy expressions. Check out Senko on Page 106.)

Eventually she lets him down, noting that while he’s her ‘best guy friend’, she can’t see him that way. (This is not only an extremely common trope in shoujo manga, but in Hidaka-san’s own works – readers of V.B. Rose will be seeing the same thing happening right now with Ageha and Nagare.) Luckily, he has his emergency backup girl, who realizes, after he drops by to confess he’s been rejected and try to make up with her, that she loves Arata despite his faults. She confesses to him at their graduation, and all seems well. (The author’s note says we’ll see more of them after this, but for the most part we don’t. Much of the latter half of IHYMTA suffers from compression, and Hidaka freely admits the editors told her to compress and leave out plots to hurry the story along.)

Meanwhile, Kazuha wants to buy Maki a present, and goes out shopping with Chizuru (who is still having issues with his ‘sister complex’). She buys Chizuru some earrings, showing that she’s forgiven that particular ‘rebellious’ streak of his, and then decides to get Maki some as well. Blue ones, since Maki already wears red. Chizuru, annoyed and jealous of Maki, runs off with them and crashes into another guy, who helps Kazuha catch him. The guy looks smug, blond… and slightly familiar. He also seems to know who Kazuha is. I note that we also see briefly another guy in this chapter, Nijo, who sees Chizuru at the store and remarks how he admires Chizuru’s rebellious spirit. We had seen Nijo in an earlier Akiyoshi story, pre-IHYMTA, as Chizuru’s friend in high school, so thins is another great example of Hidaka doing some retroactive filling-in continuity in her work. I do hope one day someone might pick up the 4 volumes worth of Akiyoshi stories still out there.

Meanwhile, Senko and Honjo meet again, and things go as they’ve tended to go with these two – he mocks and teases her, and she rages. There’s a wonderful section on page 84 where, to stop her stomping off, he yanks on her long hair – and then briefly pulls it up to his mouth, kissing it with a smile. Honjo has genuine smiles so rarely in this series that it’s almost startling, and confirms to the reader that he is attracted to her. Senko, meanwhile, is startled by the expression as well, and tries to insult him to death – something that is next to impossible with Honjo. This is counterbalanced by Kazuha getting an old photo of Maki and friends from middle school, which shows Maki with a grumpy, serious face, and Mizushima looking smirking and evil. She finds this younger Maki intriguing.

After a brief Akiyoshi family scene (Hidaka really does write a large family scene very well), we’re now into Kazuha’s senior year of high school. And oh my goodness, they have a new mystery teacher! Who could he be! If you said it’s the blond guy she ran into earlier in the volume, you clearly know your shoujo manga. His name is Saki. Saki Sugimoto. Yes, that’s right, he’s an estranged brother. Well, half-brother. He grows close to Kazuha very fast, and admits that he doesn’t want Maki to let him know he’s there, as Maki hates him. Aw, poor guy! I’m sure Kazuha won’t worry about that at all! She’s not the type to – oh wait, she so is the type to do that.

This is complicated by her giving Maki the earrings. He loves them, but for some reason, when he sees the blue earrings, and she talks about thinking of his old red ones, he begins to silently cry. Why, we don’t find out – much of this volume is Hidaka-san laying seeds of plots that will grow over the next several volumes. Especially in the last page, which shows – to no one’s surprise, and to be fair it wasn’t really meant to be a surprise – that Saki is playing with Maki, and has an evil smirk (TM) and ulterior motive.

Cartoon violence of the volume – Senko shooting a bullet into a teacher’s head.

Again, much of the joy of reading this series is of seeing the improvements that Hidaka-san is making. Her art is still cluttered, but nowhere near as bad as it was in the first couple of volumes, and she’s grown more relaxed about throwing in nonsensical comedy and metatext into the middle of her serious school romance. And we’re still not even halfway done with the series!