New York Anime Festival and ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga

Tokyopop Entertainment

Tokyopop's New York Anime Festival session was hosted by Jeremy Ross, who spoke on several other panels throughout the weekend. With little news to announce, he devoted most of the hour to Q&A, but did talk about two projects Tokyopop had previously unveiled. Each issue of the Gothic & Lolita Bible will contain approximately 50% original content covering the EGL scene in North America. Translations of articles and features from the Japanese edition will take up the other half. Distributed through Diamond, it will be stocked in bookstores' fashion sections, rather than with other manga.

Another of Tokyopop's major forthcoming projects is Manga Sutra (Futari Ecchi). 33 volumes of this adult slice-of-life have been published in Japan so far, and Tokyopop plans to bring the first ten out across five two-volume "bind-ups." Each of these will be priced at US$19.99. Several major bookstore chains have already stated that they will not carry the title, but Manga Sutra should be available via specialty retailers, as well as online.

Tokyopop's manga-style adaptations of American young adult novels have been selling extremely well. In addition to adapting more books in the Warriors series, plans are now underway for a graphic novel take on Michelle Jaffe's Bad Kitty and several other titles from Harper Collins.

The two new licenses Ross announced are both related to anime that are already familiar to American audiences. In September or October, Tokyopop will publish the first volume of the Kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyou! manga. These manga are inspired by the same lights novels that inspired the Kyo Kara Maoh! anime series. In the same timeframe, it will also start bringing out the manga version of Fate/stay night.